There is a lot of info on the internet about tuning a D chanter. Note that by B chanter is just a practice set so no drones. i have a few tuners on my iphone. On the settings i use standard just intonation and a temperment key of D for the D chanter. There is also a A4 calibration freq. that i leave at 440. And a Transposition I leave at C. not sure what that is.
So for the B chanter… Same? Change the temperment key to B? I am just playing for myself but i want something other than my ear to tell me whether i am in tune. For instance right now with new reed i made my chanter sounds in tune. The bottom D (B) is right but the tuner says my back D (B) is very sharp… Almost a C. But i cannot hear it and when i play a tune it sounds good to me. So i am wondering if I have my tuner set up correctly?
Either your ear or your tuner is out of whack… I would be more inclined to believe your tuner but then I have no idea of what your iPhone tuners will do. I have several tuner’ tuners and if I doubt one I can test it against another… they never have been wrong yet…!
I am not sure that Just Intonation is the complete picture with regard to a natural scale for the Pipes. Although I have tuners that can be set to several tempéraments ,including Just, I still use my old Korg ‘AT 12’ as a back up to my ears ( and the drones) because I can read how my tuning is progressing in relation to Equal Temp, and that is what I am used to doing. It gives me more ‘feel’ and I do not have to question the technology.
totaly agree with you geoff.there is too much store set on tuners and people get crazy ideas from using them.the best way to tune a chanter reed is to get the fifth in over the drones and then tune by ear,its the way the old boys did it and still the best but you need to have ears and if you do not then you can train them by experience.you can tune a reed on a meter and then play it over a drone and it is out,best to tune it over the drone as that is what you will be using to get the true intonation,simple really when you think about it.allan.
Great idea! I forgot i had that. I used to have my iphone hooked up to speakers and when I only had the D practice set I would use the iphone drones in the background… More sound less pumping. Since i got the full d set i fogot about the program. but it does have a B set of drones on it!
I presume the transposition option is for transposing instruments, meaning an instrument where when you play a C you actually get a Bb (or Eb, or something else). You could set it to A, and you should then read everything out as if it were D which might make it easier to reason about. In that case, though, you might want to find out whether your temperament key should be in D or B, though I’d suspect D.
Sometimes the simplest thing to do in these cases is to find a reliable source of pitch, like an electronic keyboard, and compare the chanter to that. It can be difficult sometimesd to listen to the pitch of notes on a chanter in a different key - I know I have a hellish time when I have to play a GHB chanter in true Bb as I lose any reference for what’s right and wrong. If I’m switching back and forth I rely heavily on a meter, though the ear does acclimatise eventually.
