While the tuning apps for an Android are useful, you may be better using your PC.
There are a number of applications out there. For example:
Thanks for the suggestion which I will follow up if the Android app solution doesn't do the trick. The piano I want to check doesn't belong to me, and it's much easier to take a phone to it rather than a computer. Since I'm not actually *tuning* anything, but simply trying to find out how much "stretch" is applied when I turn on the digital piano's "tuning" feature, I'm hoping the the app will be sufficient.
Quote from Roland RD-150 owners's manual: "Stretch tuning is a tuning method specific to pianos. The pitch of a piano is generally tuned lower in the bass, and higher in the treble compared with equal temperament. This is done because low notes, when tuned right, sound a little sharp, while treble notes sound flat. By changing the tuning curve, the chords will sound subtly different."
By "tuned right", they mean the fundamental of each note being some power-of-two ratio to the other octaves. However the harmonics in the note all contribute to the perception of pitch, and in the piano, the relationship of the harmonics to the fundamental differ between the bass and treble strings owing to their physical construction. Also I gather that when notes many octaves apart are played together, the higher ones get compared with upper harmonics of the lower ones, and stretching reduces the effect of discordant beats between them.
I doubt whether a guitar-tuner designed for a narrow range of frequencies, not having many harmonics like a piano, is good enough to quantify stretching at the extremes of a keyboard. Especially if you can't tell if the feature is working just by listening.
The Android apps I mentioned earlier give the frequency. They also allow the selection from 43 around temperaments. I'm sure the OP will find that they will do what's needed.
Looking at various on-line sources about piano tuning, it appears that it usual to tune the top end sharp and the bottom end flat (relative to exact powers of 2 for each octave) by 30 or 40 cents or more - approaching a quarter of a tone. I haven't yet taken my phone to the piano in question [Technics sx-PX66(M)] but, from what I've seen of the apps, they should be able to detect that amount of difference in the fundamental from the theoretically "correct" frequency.
The piano manual says: "PIANO TUNING: When this button is on, the sound is a little lower for high notes and a little higher for high notes, as on a regular piano. When it is off, the tuning is even."
But there isn't a dedicated button as such - there are various combinations of buttons which have to be pressed to set various modes, and you can't easily see just by looking whether a particular feature is set. It also says that mode settings are only retained for about a week with the power off so - although we will almost certainly have set this feature ON when the piano was new in about 1991, it's very likely to have forgotten it in the meantime!
The piano belongs to the male voice choir in which I sing - and I was instrumental (sorry!) in acquiring it at the time. I've noticed of late that one or two low bass notes in the accompaniment of some of the items we sing have been sounding distinctly "off" so I want to: a) detect whether "Piano Tuning" is turned on b) turn it on if it isn't c) see whether that makes any difference
If it doesn't, we need to look elsewhere - but it's difficult to see how individual notes can go out of tune on a digital piano.
I agree with Bob. If you cannot access electronic points and have only the sound from the speakers then, use the mic of the pc and a software spectrum analyser.
Here is one link..
I did a quick search solely for this thread. I know nothing of this software.
...Ray.
Ah, you should have said! I imagine you sing to an organ style accompaniment, but the "Piano Tuning" options may only apply if the device is configured as a piano. Still, you do need to find out why the notes sound wrong. Is the player playing the right notes?
The instrument does have a number of "voices", including organ, harpsichord, strings, and several flavours of piano - but we use the "grand piano" setting 99% of the time.
The pianist is definitely playing the right keys. This is a case of the bass notes sounding a bit out of tune rather than the wrong notes being played!
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