I had to tune my upright yesterday and noticed there's a new pianoscope available!
As some of you may know, pianoscope is one of the essential tools that first empowered me to tune my own pianos. Frank has a nice overview here. You can imagine my excitement at a new release!
These are the full release notes for 3.0.
There's lots of goodness here, but for me, these are the two features I'm most interested in:
- Improved Tuning Curve algorithm v3, now enhanced with artificial intelligence. For many instruments, it achieves a better stretch in the bass and, when required by the tuning style, purer twelfths in the treble.
- Multi-Channel Audio Processing, pianoscope 3 can now process signals from multiple audio channels and seamlessly combine the results into its pitch display. The signals can come from external audio interfaces or from built-in microphones. Newer iPhones, such as the iPhone 15 Pro, feature four built-in microphones, while newer iPad Pro models have five. By enabling the new Use Multiple Mics switch, pianoscope utilizes multiple built-in microphones, analyzing their signals independently and merging the results. This enhances tuning consistency, particularly when dealing with false beats in the high treble.
I look at anything involving AI with heaps of skepticism, to put it mildly, but I immediately upgraded my algorithms to V3.
All in all, while my piano sounds nice after tuning it with V3 (despite using the wrong tuning style), it always did, and I'm very much neutral to cold on this change. I sway a bit negative because I have no idea what AI means exactly in this context or how it's implemented. Is it deterministic or non-deterministic? Is it farmed out to the cloud? Will the results be repeatable?
I was super excited about the multi-mic support, especially because it can be tricky to tune in the high treble section of the piano.
Currently, I use a Korg CM-300 contact mic that I'm very happy with. It's fantastic, but it does require me to install and hook up the mic, so there's a touch more effort involved.
My iPad has 4 microphones onboard, so would this feature be an improvement and free me from the contact mic?
I had no trouble tuning the piano while the TV was playing using the multi-mic feature. The app correctly prioritized the piano sound most of the time. However, my son's singing still throws it off. My son sounds nothing like a piano, but he's always been able to throw off pianoscope since day one... and the multi-mic feature didn't help at all with that.
I didn't really have any struggles with unstable note detection, at least not as bad as it used to be, so that may be an improvement from multi-mic support. I didn't have to move the iPad around or any of that to get a stable reading. That may be a win.
Sadly, overall, this is a huge regression from my contact mic. I don't have the heart to ask my son to stop singing just so that I can tune my piano. I'm already grateful that my family tolerates my piano shenanigans as it is. 😃
I do have the option of getting multiple contact mics and seeing if the multi-mic feature can take better take advantage of that setup.
I'm extremely grateful and happy that Frank is investing so much time and energy into evolving and improving pianoscope. pianoscope already does everything I want, and without it, I'd never be in a position to successfully tune my own pianos and have them sound so good!