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I recently traded my air miles for a Ipad touch and am really enjoying it. There are a lot of great apps available for guitar and even several FFT waveform apps. Has anyone on the OLF tried any of these and if so are they useful in tuning tops etc.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Not from a guitar building perspective (I am just into my very first kit guitar) but from my other hobby, sound reinforcement, the stuff from Studio Six Digital has gotten great reviews from the professionals in the sound system design and installation world. I have the RTA Lite on my iPhone and it is very good, the full version is something I am probably going to invest in.

Gary

Hi Fred

Good post. I am also researching this area.

Up until now I have tried Strobosoft, by Peterson Tuners. It has
a mode for measuring tap tuning, but I have to say that the results
from repeated "tappings" are somewhat erratic and therefore hard to interpret.
Of course, as a newbie, it certainly could be something I'm missing.

I bought my wife an iPad for Xmas, so I was thinking of trying some apps on
it as well.

I checked the website linked to RTA that Gary mentioned, and watched these
vids http://www.studiosixdigital.com/fft-demo-videos/
on another of their apps, "FFT". As a stand alone app, it's only available
on the IPhone, but it is included in the Ipad app "Audio Tools". Might be worth
a look!
It also has a tone generator function. Whether this could be used as a signal source
for free plate tuning I've yet to determine.

Cheers
Bob Hames

PS
On reading further, to run on the iPad, you must buy Audio Tools $19.99
then FFT another $19.99.
Ouch!

Last fall when I was a student with Todd Lunneborg, we used his iPhone and a tuner app called ProTune, to tune my top relative to the back. It must have worked because the finished guitar sounds great.
And I now have an iPad and ProTune works on that. For my next builds!

Dan, does Pro-tune work really solid...tap and it registers?
Wonder how it compares to the Peterson...

Hans
Yes. No problem reading the note of the top when I thumped it with the mallet. I brought the note down more than a whole tone by shaving the braces.
I could bring my iPad over to your shop and you can try it out.
Dan

That would be great Dan, but I'm sick this week and I have the MBOTMA festival this weekend with a booth, so I have to get better fast. Maybe next week?

Just give me a call when you're ready. You may still have my number.
I'll bring my student guitar along as well. It's all in one piece and playable and I like it.
Dan

ProTune isn't an FFT app yet. Just a strobe giving the note and the +/- cents. So you have to do some math if you want to figure the hertz.

The Peterson iStroboSoft is great but can sometimes give 4th or 5th errors. Give you the harmonics rather then the primary. So far there isn't a great app for FFT, seeing the full spectrum and checking the range of peaks which can show the resonance of the top, back, and to a certain extent the specific braces yet. But it's being worked on.

For now I use the protune, the software they use is better and the reader isn't as distracting with all the octave bars flashing. However the +/- cents is s little small and scrolls in real time so that's a little harder to read. The Protune app does have a Buzz Feiten in app addition for $20 that's a great add to.

Full disclosure, I do tech work for the company that developed the app and I'm working on the next step with them.

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Thanks for the info Todd. I about to become one of the oldest "pod" boys around. Should arrive today and I'll likely load Pro-Tune and compare...

Haans, from another old guy with a Ipod, they are a great tool and kind of fun also.

Fred

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Fred, although I've never tried tunning a top to a certain pitch, I have this great iPhone app called GuitarToolkit. It was 9.99$. It tunes incredibly well, but furthermore, it has a chord library up to like, the 8th position, it has a chord finder. So if you finger a fancy chord and you wonder what it is, just punch in the fingering and the app tells you exactly what it is. You can also make a library of alternate custom tunnings (asides from the already very vast array of 'open' tunings). Not only that, but you can have this for 6th string, 7 string guitars, 4,5 and 6 string bass, mandolin, ukelele and banjo... Pretty slick and a lot of bang for your buck... But I digress...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Ohhh! Pod people...run away!!
I would have bought the phone, but I don't call people and it's another 40 bucks/month we can't afford. Seems like it makes more sense to buy the Pod than buying a strobe tuner for $$$. I hate new learning curves though...takes away from my free time from retirement.
Alain, I think the Pro-tune is part of the Guitar Tool Kit, isn't it? Isn't that some Planet Waves or 'addario
unit?

D'addario and Planet waves "are the same guy" and the protune is included.

_________________
Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Isn't guitar tool kit from Agile Partners?

Yes you are correct- Agile Partners. A most useful application!!

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

The Planet Waves app is "Guitar Tools", and includes their Chordmaster and Scale Wizard apps, in addition to "core features of ProTune and ProTempo". Cost is $1.99 (the ProTune app is .99)

http://www.planetwaves.com/PWGuitarTools.Page

I haven't used either Guitar Tools or Guitar Tool Kit, so can't comment on how they compare.

Wahoo!!!!
iAnalyzerLite! Free!
Seems to be exactly what I need. Now if someone who knew what they were talking about could have a boo and confirm/deny...

Yeah, sorry to not make the distinction between the "Guitar Tool Kit" and "Guitar Tools." It's like their trying to steal business from each other by having really similar names!?! I think I've seen that used in forum names too...

Or my 3rd cousins website is TLGuitar, and mine is TLGuitars. We're related so it's ok, .

Thanks for IAnalyzer there also one called FFT by Andrew Smith, Buying them both and both I'll review later.

There's so much cool stuff to nerd out on.

Haans, I need to come over and introduce myself at some point.

_________________
Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Sweet, I'd love a review. I've never seen one before so I don't know if it's doing a good job of what it's supposed to be doing or not. From what I can tell it seems to be quite accurate in finding freqs though, testing against known pitches. I like that it gives note names with +\- cents. Now, who'll give a tut on how to put these things to practical use...

Couldn't get the iAnalyzer freebee to work for more than a sec and then it locked up the pod. Had to ditch it. Don't have 4 fins to drop on it without a better freebee...
Yea, Todd, come on over. I'm around most of the time...'cept for this weekend. I'm at MBOTMA.

It works fine on the iPhone 4...

Ianalizer lite works great on my Ipod which is I think 4th generation, I am contemplating getting the paid app. after I do a little more testing. I got the same readings within a couple Hz as Audacity and Strobosoft, though not quite as easy to see and use, my old eyes don't do small so great anymore.

Fred

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Good that it tests well against other references. If you already have a shop computer or convenient to/fro access it may be superfluous. Myself, I'd love to avoid buying a second digibox since my gadget phone is so nifty.