Guitar Tuning Software

I found that tuners were being discussed in some other thread so I thought it's best to give this all importanct topic a separate thread of its own...

The hardest and the most inaccurate way to tune your guitar is to do it 'by ear', that is by just trying to tune to the tone you 'remember'. Now, there is just one particular frequency that represents, lets say, a C and no other, not a single Hertz more nor less. So can you back up your memory to remember exactly that pitch? This is hardly recommended for the beginner. To give you an idea, probably some very experienced smiths are able to hit the nail pretty close on the head...

A much better way is to tune to a live reference - the piano, the synth, a tuning fork or a tuning whistle. If you have none of these, your computer's MIDI interface can do this for you. Alternatively, you can use the attached file at the bottom which is a very simple tool to set the guitar to the standard tuning.

This is a lot more accurate than the previous method, yet it relies on your ear - it's you who hear the note on the synth and try to reproduce the same on your strings. And although several studies on the imprecision of the human auditory system have been carried out, with just even a little experience you'll know yourself that even this method leaves you well off what the exact frequency should be. That is, if you're always hankering for absolute perfection like me.

Especially, when you're playing in noisy places or performing in concerts, the reference tuning method will obviously not work well. So the best way is to use - well - guitar tuners! These are dedicated equipment that will help you tune perfectly to just any tuning that you want. And this is also the easiest. The only drawback is that your guitar ought to be able to produce electric signals which these measure and compare to the reference. So they ideally allow you to work with electric or electrified-acoustic guitars only, or otherwise a microphone in front of your acoustic (which again introduces imperfection).

If you don't happen to have the guitar tuner hardware, then use what I do: a guitar tuner software. Here are some guitar tuners I've used and liked:

AP Guitar Tuner (Unlimited Shareware): https://www.cerlsoundgroup.org/cgi-bin/aptuner/ftp/apmain/APTunerInstall207.exe

GuitarFX Box (The tuner is unlimited): https://www.guitar-fxbox.com/fxbox26.zip

There are surely many more, but I like them for their simplicity and also because they are free to use. Use the computer mic if your guitar hasn't an output of its own.

:beer:

 

Excellent post! Made it sticky...

 

Hey, I forgot to tell you one cool thing...

As if helping you tune wasn't enough already, the AP Guitar Tuner also displays the note currently played on the guitar. With a little innovation, using this feature you can even figure out the chords of just any song without having to actually play it!

This is how you do it: instead of selecting your guitar as the input device, choose the microphone. Now point the mic to the speakers and turn the APGT on.

Amplify somewhat the bass portions of the song using the equaliser on your player. These notes APGT will intelligently identify and display as what the bassist's playing. And since, as you probably know, that most often than not, the bass guitarist plays the same notes as the singer and in effect plays out the key notes of all the chords being played, translate that key into the equivalent chord and this way you'll have the chords of the entire song!

Try this out with your fav song and see how well it works. But be sure to turn the bass up as much high as possible for best results. If you're using Winamp, try the 'Enhancer' plugin that can fully turn down all other instruments in the song so that only the bass remains.

:beer:

 

i just wanted to know any pointers for me
i am a beginner at guitar
i have not taken any classes and it will be hard for me to take classes to learn guitar
i have tried playing chords, but i am unable to get a smooth sound
i have surfed a few sites to learn how to play chords but its hard, they dont tell what the basics are and they start explaing how to play chords using really hard terms that i have never heard of
could i get some help on how to play chords
???
Thanx

 

try this: www.guitarprinciples.com

 

or just start off with playin some easy songs like lobo or something.

 

ahan
thanx i'll try that

 

@imaan.....www.cyberfret.com

 

excellent post man...i really needed that

 

thank you for this wonderful post
i have been using ap tuner for a long time. it's a wonderful tool for tuning for newbies like me. but what i want is that how can i connect my acoustic with the computer? i have a signature acoustic and it has point to insert cable (i dont know what it is called) but how can i directly connect it to computer line in?

 

well needed a new tuner coz today my guitar pro tuner stopped working or dont know what prob it had kept making E string tighter n tighter till bang it broke DAMN IT

 

Use Digital Guitar tuner, it's freeware. Available on www.download.com

 

i had posted the link for an excellent tuner some time back...couldnt find it so here it is again...really really easy to use...and cool interface...
https://vacworld.bzlogi.hu/

 

@drsaurabh n dist thnx dude really needed one

 

Pleasure

 

I'll try it

 

anytime om...

 

@all.....i have had loads of problem in tuning. my acoustic guitar has a port where i can connect it to amps etc...i have downloaded almost all the software tuning programs on the net. the thing is dat i dunno wat is the name of the cable which can be attached to my guitar and the other end to my computer and go ahead to tune it and where will i find the cables?

plz help.

 

why r u using cables?... i have a small tuner which gives accurate notes for normal, half/one step down/up and drop D.
I just tune the strings to that...isn't that a lot easier?..
If u want the name of the cable..it's called pin to pin connector.
and if my guess is right, ur acoustic guitar port has a large (compared to normal pins) socket...cause i have the same...it's designed for amp based pickups.

well here's what i did... cut the other end of the pick up (cause it's too large to go into line-in of PC) and solder a standard mono pin to it ...then use this mono pin as input to line-in...simple..

it's no big deal.. takes 2 minutes ...hardly.

 

Go to your local electrician and tell him you need a cable with a quarter inch pin on one side and a one-eighth inch pin on the other side. Its a very simple thing and any electrician should be able to make one for you (if you can't make one urself). I had got one made long time back.
Another option is you get a one-eight inch to quarter inch adapter. This is a small quarter inch pin into which you can plug in a regular "headphone" kinda pin (one-eighth inch pin). You also get adapters that adapt the other way round (from quarter inch to one-eighth). Just go to some electrical shop and ask about it.