Posted by skeptic on August 28, 2002 at 11:25:36:
In Reply to: conductor foibles - tuning posted by Kenneth Sloan on August 28, 2002 at 10:03:53:
I think that there's a little more to this than simple incompetence or bad hearing. I've hooked two differend compact digital tuners up to the same horn at the same time and have gotten two different readings for the pitch. I checked the calibration on both tuners first, and tried it with plug-in contact mikes, then switched the positions of the mikes, and then tried each mike on the opposite tuner. Last, I then tried using the built-in microphones with the tuners in various positions relative to the bell.
I was surprised to see than one tuner was consistently reading below the other. Spot checks that I have done since then have shown me that compact digital tuners, for all their vaunted electronic prowess and innovation, are not the perfectly standardized solution for tuning dilemmas that we would like to think that they are. The final judge of proper tuning still must be the ear.
By the way, the Korg CA-30 has given me the most consistent match to the big Conn and Peterson strobe tuners.