11

Tuning

Tuning Your Instrument

Pressing the tuner button plays a tone that can be used for tuning your instrument.  The instrument that is played back for tuning can be chosen from a wide variety of instruments in the Preferences panel.  The note that is played can also be set in the Preferences panel as well.  See Chapter 16 for details on setting the preferences.  The default tuning note is A 440Hz.

To stop the tuner, simply press the tuner button a second time.  Note that the volume of some instruments decay over a period of time, while others continually play.  To restart an instrument that has a decaying playback, press the tuner button to stop the tuner play mode, and then press it again to start it going again.

Tuning the Play List Audio

Once your instrument is in tune with the tuner, the tuning of the play list audio must be set.  The tuning level can be set as described in the previous chapter, however, to assist in tuning, a tuning loop can be set up.  A tuning loop is a section of the audio file that will be repeated continuously so that proper tuning can be obtained.

To set up a tuning loop, follow these steps:

1.  First identify a clean note in the audio file that you wish to have repeated indefinitely.

2.  Move the playback position to just before the note.

3.  Press the Set Tuning Loop Left button.  This will change the tuning loop left position readout to the current position.

4.  Move the playback position so that it is just after the note.

5.  Press the Set Tuning Loop Right button.  This will change the tuning loop right position readout to the current position.

6.  Press the Play Tuning Loop button to loop play the audio contained between the two positions that have been set.

7.  Press the Play Tuning Loop button again to stop the loop playback.

8.  If you find that the tuning loop was not set accurately and that the playback starts too soon or too late, simply move the playback position to a better spot, then press the Set Tuning Loop Left button again.  This will update the starting location of the loop.  Similarly, the ending position may be updated by moving the playback position and pressing the Set Tuning Loop Right button again.

The two buttons under the tuning loop set buttons snap the current playing position to the left of the tuning loop or to the right, respectively.

With a well-chosen tuning loop, the playback of the loop may be compared to the playback of your instrument.  Since it has already been established that your instrument is in tune with the tuner, the proper thing to do is to adjust the tuning of the audio file by moving the tuning slider until the tuning loop is in tune with your instrument.

Adjusting the Global Tuning

A slider is available to provide "global tuning".  When this slider is moved, all play list audio will be tuned up or down an equivalent amount.