TonalEnergy Tuner User Guide

TE Tuner and Metronome User Guide (Android)

Table of Contents

TE Target Tuner

Target Display

The TonalEnergy Tuner display is a multi-colored target with concentric circles. When your note falls within the designated pitch range as determined by the choices made in the Mode and Range pop-up screen, a green smiley face appears in the center of the Target Tuner. When an in tune pitch is held for an extended period, the user is rewarded with a green smiley face that grows larger and larger. The mode and range selections will influence how quickly the smiley face appears and grows. If the note moves away from the target pitch, bands will appear around the center of the target. The bands above the target indicate the note is sharp while the bands below indicate that the note is flat. For exact measurement (within 1/10 of1/100 of a cent), a cent meter is shown. In addition, the intonation is shown by the flat and sharp symbols inside the Target Tuner.

Tapping the target tuner once will display the chromatic tuner wheel. To produce a reference note, tap the note desired. Long pressing the note will produce a sustained reference tone. The octave button, found inside the chromatic tuner wheel, has plus and minus signs. Tap the plus sign for the tone generator to play an octave higher and the minus sign to play lower octave.

Note: The TonalEnergy Tuner operates both in portrait and landscape mode on your device. You can decide which mode best suits your needs.

Cent Display

A cent is defined as 1/100 of a semitone/chromatic half step. For instance, the space between C and C# contains 100 parts, each of these being equal to one cent. TonalEnergy Tuner goes one step further by dividing each cent into 10 parts. If the screen reads-1.1, the negative sign indicates the pitch is flat. The whole number 1 indicates the note is one cent off. The 0.1 demonstrates the pitch is an addition one-tenth flat. So the pitch is one and one-tenth cents flat. The Cent Display is always found in the center of the Target Tuner and either the side or bottom of the screen depending on screen orientation.

Pitch Display

As you play, the name of the note will appear with a number indicating which octave you are playing. For example, C4 is middle C on the piano and/or the first ledger line below the treble clef or the first ledger line above the bass clef in C transposition.

Instant Pitch reference

Instant pitch reference will occur when you tap the pitch display. To be able to sustain the instant pitch reference note, long press the note and release. To end the playing of the note, tap once.

Temperament

Your chosen temperament, equal or just, is shown on the top right of the screen. Additional information concerning temperaments can be found in the Chromatic Tone Generator section.

Note: Always be aware of what temperament you are using, as it will greatly affect the Target Tuner screens.

The custom temperament controller is located on the Preference page.

Any time you tap the temperament controller, it will change between equal and just or another alternate temperament that has been selected.

Equal temperament means that each chromatic pitch is 100 cents from the adjacent notes. All chromatic, half step/minor 2nd, intervals are equal distance from each other.

Just temperament is used for tuning notes in the same overtone/harmonic series. This is most commonly used when tuning major and minor chords. More about this can be found in the Tone Generator section, especially how to change the tonal anchor or root note for the temperament.

Pitch Tracker

At the top of the screen a bar graph will appear illustrating the percent of time the music performed fell into each of the three pitch zones: red, yellow, green. The colors and percentage are determined by the amount of time the tones were performed within the tuning parameters set in the Mode and Range pop-up.

Note: After two or more seconds of silence, this feature automatically resets.

Mode and Range

Tap on the MODE/RANGE icon in the lower right corner. The Mode Range pop-up will appear.

  • MODE: options include wind, strings or voice.
  • RANGE: options include wide, medium, fine and ultra-fine. Each mode-range combination has unique tuning parameters. See the pop-up for the specific tuning ranges for the mode selected. The finer the range, the more exact the pitch must be to be rewarded with the smiley face . The exact cent display is always visible for you to reference.
  • DAMPING: Slow, normal, and fast refer to the length of time the sound sample is measured. Slow would be the longest sample time during which the pitch would be averaged. Each damping setting is specific to the selected MODE.

Transposition, Concert A Reference (Hertz) and Notation

  • TRANSPOSITION: An indicator of the transposition for which the tuner is set. To change, tap Transpose in the lower right hand corner and a pop-up will appear. To select the correct transposition, scroll to choose the key of transposition or the instrument.
  • CONCERT A REFERENCE: You can change the Concert A Reference from A4, 440 Hz to the reference frequency number you prefer. In order to change the number, tap the number. A keyboard will appear. Type in the new reference frequency number and touch return. Tap done. This calibration number will remain unless you change it again. There is no default.
  • NOTATION: The desired notation of the displayed note names can be selected from the Notation scroll bar. Several variants of English notation, Solfège, Northern European, and Indian options are available.

More information can be found on Preference screen

Auto Reference Notes

After selecting your instrument, the tone generator can play a reference note. Tap the microphone icon in the lower left corner to engage this feature. Once engaged the tone generator will immediately recognize the pitch being played and produce the same unison pitch as the player. The tone generator will follow the player’s notes as he continues to play.

Note: The Auto-Reference notes will ONLY match the range of the Tone Generator sound you have selected. If you attempt a note out of the range, it will not work.

If the user wants to hear additional reference tones other than the note he is performing, long press and the Select Guide Interval pop-up appears. Use the scroll bar to select the intervals desired. Tap Done. Tap interval icon to activate up to three intervals. The interval icon will turn orange when activated.

Depending on your purpose there are multiple suggested setups to use this feature that ensure proper function.

  1. Use the device’s built in microphone and a set of headphones or earbuds. This setup enables the player to hear the reference note while still allowing the tuner to evaluate the player’s intonation.

Note: You may want to experiment with using only one earbud in order to discover the best environment for hearing yourself play.

  1. Use the device’s built in microphone and an external speaker connected in the headphone jack. For this setup the device needs to be within close proximity (within 24 inches) to the player.

  2. Use an external microphone connected in the headphone jack and an external speaker compatible. This also enables the player to hear the reference tone through speakers.

Note: Using an external speaker (#2 and 3) will cause the auto reference notes feature and the tuner to be less effective because the tone playing on the speaker becomes an additional ambient sound.

Note: On the Chromatic Pitch Wheel and keyboard pages, the microphone and sustained button will not work in conjunction. If the microphone button is on, the sustain button does not work.

TE Metronome

The metronome can be used in conjunction with any of the features available on any page of the application.

To engage the metronome just tap the metronome button in upper right corner of any screen.

To access the metronome control panel, swipe down from the Metronome switch in the upper right corner.

To establish beats per minutes (bpm), you have three options:

  1. Repeatedly tap the TAP TEMPO button at the bpm until you reach your desired tempo.
  2. Use the + and/or — signs to raise or lower the number of bpm shown the display. Press and hold the buttons to move faster through the range.
  3. Tap on the tempo number and type in the desired bpm with the numeric keypad.

To change the meter, tap the meter toggle button. A scroll screen will appear. Select the meter. The item at the bottom of the popup allows you to enable/disable auto-hiding of the menu after a selection.

To change the subdivision, tap the subdivision toggle button. A scroll screen will appear. Select your subdivision. To dismiss the scroll bar, tap anywhere on the screen. The item at the bottom of the popup allows you to enable/disable auto-hiding of the menu after a selection.

To increase or decrease volume, hold down the volume button and slide your finger up or down until you reach the desired volume.

On the Main Metronome page, you will find a visual metronome that shows beats. Each number represents a beat in the selected meter. Once the metronome is engaged, the beat the metronome is playing will have a green background. By tapping on various blocks, you can create different combinations of clicks and silence.

Touching the Metronome Accent (>) button toggles the use of an accented sound on the first beat of each measure. When the Visual Metronome is engaged and the accent toggle is turned on, the first beat of each measure will be flashing purple.

The Visual Metronome button enables a flashing beat indicator in the metronome control area. If you want a silent visual metronome, simply reduce the metronome’s volume all the way using the control in the metronome panels.

The 8th = 8th button toggles a feature that will automatically adjust the tempo when you switch back and forth between a X/4 or X/2 meter and an X/8 meter in order to keep the duration of an 8th note identical. Note that in order for this feature to work in Preset sequence mode, the presets to be switched to need to have Use Tempo disabled so that the tempo can be automatically adjusted depending on what came before.

The list button in lower left corner allows the user to build Groups (Set lists).

The Preset Sequence button is in the lower left corner and allows the user to advance or sequence through two or more presets.

The Preset Sequence (◼︎➟◻) button is in the lower left corner and allows the user to advance or sequence through two or more presets. This is also called Advanced mode. If you select a preset that has been configured with a gradual tempo change or with more than 1 bar of duration this mode will be turned on automatically.

You can set the beginning or ending preset to use (or loop over) by swiping up or down on a preset button. Swiping another button will set the edge of the range as appropriate. In sequence mode, when the end of the sequence range is reached, the metronome will either stop, or if the Loop option is enabled repeat from the beginning of the range. If you swipe on a single preset, only that preset will be looped, which is particularly useful when it is configured to have a Relative tempo change, so that you can set it up to continuously speed up or slow down the metronome over time for practice purposes.

When in Preset Sequence (or Advanced) mode, the main meter, subdivision, and beat controls cannot be used to change the settings of the metronome (as they are controlled by the presets themselves). A popup warning you of this will appear if you attempt to, allowing you to either bring up the preset editor for the current preset, or turn off the Advanced mode.

Another very useful feature of the Sequence (Advanced) mode is being able to change the relative tempo of the metronome as a whole, which is especially useful when the presets contain specific tempos and tempo changes within them. If you tap the tempo text of the metronome when Sequence mode is enabled a Tempo Adjustment popup will appear letting you make % adjustment to the tempo, and showing you the original and adjusted tempos in BPM. You can select if the adjustment will apply to the entire group (the default), or only the selected range or selected preset. These adjustments will be retained until you come back here and press the Turn Off Tempo Adjustment, which resets it to no adjustment. If you shoose the Make Adjustment Permanent it will confirm, then actually make changes to the tempos in the preset(s) so that they will have the adjusted values permanently.

The Tempo Adjustment feature is useful when temporarily rehearsing a sequence of metronome presets slower or faster than they were programmed.

Metronome Presets

To load a preset, tap on one of the existing preset buttos. If you select a preset that has been configured with a gradual tempo change or with more than 1 bar of duration the Preset Sequence (or Advanced) mode will be turned on automatically.

To quickly change meter, touch a different time signature preset button.

Note If you change the meter before the current measure has ended, the change will take place immediately, even in the middle of a measure. If you want the time signature change to occur at the end of a measure, you must go to the metronome options icon on the Main Metronome page. Tap on options and select Change on Next Measure. Meter changes can be accomplished in a musically relevant manner, especially useful when recording the metronome.

To change the settings of a specific preset, you can access editing from two different locations: the metronome control panel or list icon. Double-tapping a preset button will bring up the preset editor for that preset. Once there the tempo, subdivision, meter, number of bars, beat pattern, and name can be edited. Or if you tap the List icon on the left side just below the preset buttons and choose Edit Current Group, it will bring up all the presets in the current group in list form, then you can select (or double-tap on iPhones) to edit a specific preset.

To create your own new preset, tap the List icon and choose Edit Current Group, then press the + button in the lower right corner to add a new preset. It will add a new preset just after the currently selected one. Make any changes necessary and then either hit the X button, or continue creating new presets by either returning to the group with back button, or pressing the + button in the lower right corner if you had been adding at the end of the list. All changes are saved automatically.

  • Name – custom name for the preset.
  • Meter – Tap on Meter, scrolling list appears, select the meter to be used.
  • Subdivision – Scrolling list appears, select the subdivision to be used.
  • Bars – Use +/— buttons or type in the number to set the length in bars that this preset should run when in sequence mode.
  • Tempo – There are several ways tempo can be specified in a metronome preset. The options are:
    • Use Tempo switch, when if is OFF, means that the current tempo will not be affected when this preset is selected, either directly or when reached in sequence mode.
    • When the Use Tempo switch is ON the following options appear:
      • Fixed, which will set the tempo of the metronome to this value when selected or reached in sequence mode.
      • Gradual, which allows you to specify an accelerando or ritardando, by selecting a specific starting and ending tempo, and how the tempo changes within the duration of the preset. The tempo will adjust slightly on every beat, for the duration specified in the Transition Beats control, either from the beginning or before the end of the entire preset duration. This feature only works when the metronome is in the sequence modes.
      • Relative, is similar to Gradual except that instead of specifying a specific start and end tempo, you specify the BPM adjustment (positive or negative) that is desired across the selected duration.
  • The beats heard along with any accents can be customized on a per-preset basis.
  • The Delete Preset item lets you delete the preset (after confirmation).

The arrows at the bottom left and right of the preset editor will change which preset is being edited quickly, without having to go back to another screen. If you are on the last preset in the group, pressing the + button in the lower right corner will quickly create a new preset at the end of the list and begin editing it.

Note If the Presets Change Tempo options in the metronome options is disabled, then the tempos will not be changed regardless of how they are configured in the preset.

Preset Groups

To create a new preset group, tap the list icon and choose All Preset Groups. Tap the + sign in the lower left corner. Name your group. Create your presets in the desired order (as described in the previous section) by tapping the + sign at the bottom right and selecting your meter, number of bars, subdivision, and tempo. Created presets also can be named individually. Repeat until all presets are created.

To insert a preset into a group, highlight the preset bar and tap + sign at the bottom of the screen. If you want to make changes, you can at this time. The bar you created will be inserted beneath the highlighted preset bar.

To rearrange the order of presets, press the Edit button in the lower left corner of the presets area, then use the drag handles on the right edge of the preset items to rearrange them.

Once all your presets are created and in the order you want, when you tap the Preset Sequence icon and engage the metronome, the metronome will move from one preset to the next in sequential order.

Note: On a phone, to create, edit and name the preset, you will need to tap the information icon (circle i), then make your changes on the screen and return to the previous screen.

You can set the beginning or ending preset to use (or loop over) by left or right on a preset row. Swiping another row will set the edge of the range as appropriate. In sequence mode, when the end of the sequence range is reached, the metronome will either stop, or if the Loop option is enabled repeat from the beginning of the range. If you swipe on a single preset, only that preset will be looped, which is particularly useful when it is configured to have a Relative tempo change, so that you can set it up to continuously speed up or slow down the metronome over time for practice purposes.

To delete a group, go to the Preset Group list and tap Select in the upper left corner. Select one or more preset groups, then press the Delete button, a confimration popup will appear which you have to select to confirm deletion.

To copy a preset group, tap the name of the group you want to copy. Tap Copy in the lower left corner of the Preset Group page.

To export your preset group(s), initiate the process by tapping select in the top left corner of the Preset Group page. Select one or more groups then press the Share button. This will bring up a choice of ways to share the group(s), including email, etc. When more than one group is selected a ZIP archive will be created containing the preset groups, which can be imported into the application on another device using Open In, etc.

Metronome Options

Tap the Metronome Options gear icon found on the Main Metronome page, or the quick swipe down metronome panel.

  • Tap Metronome Sound, then scroll and select the sound you want. Voice counting can be used in conjunction with a normal metronome sound if desired.
  • The Subdivision Uses Beat Sound option can be used to override the default subdivision sound, and use the normal beat sound instead.
  • The Uses Single Accent Sound if enabled will make any secondary accents (not on the first beat) sound identical to the primary accent sound.

Metronome Sound

  1. Tap on Metronome Sound. Scroll and select the sound you want.
  2. Switch the Subdivision Uses Beat Sound on in order to override the default subdivision sound.

Count-Ins

A voice count-in for the metronome is available, which can be enabed by pressing the “1–2–3–4” button just above the metronome start button. Several options can affect it.

Count-In Type – Choose when the count-in should occur:

  • Start – only once when the metronome is initially turned on
  • Range Start – at the beginning of the currently selected preset range (useful in Sequence mode, especially when looping is enabled)
  • Each Preset – the beginning of each Preset (when in Sequence mode)
  • Each Bar – between each Bar of the preset.
  • Count Only – only the count-in is heard when starting the metronome, then the metronome is automatically stopped

Count-In Settings

The full count-in settings can be accessed by long-pressing the Count-In button on the metronome page, or by tapping the Info button on the right side of the count-in item in the Preset Group editor, or the Metronome Options.

  • Duration Unit – Choose the time unit: 1) Bars, 2) Beats or 3) 8ths.
  • Duration – Once the duration unit is selected, determine the number of 1) Bars, 2) Beats or 3) 8ths.
  • Counting Voice – Select between male and female.
  • Allow Subdivision Sounds –Turn the switch on if you want to hear subdivision sounds.
  • Allow Voice Accents – When enabled and when using bar counts is enabled, it will use an emphasized voice for the bar counts.
  • Use Bar Counts – Turn switch on if you want to hear the bar number on the first beat of each measure.
  • Voice Count Beats and Metronome Beats – Tap the blocks of the number of the beats you want to hear. You can use either voice or metronome or combine them as you see fit.

** Show Visual Count-In** –Turn Show Visual Count-In switch on to see the Count-In countdown box in the middle of the screen.

Presets Change Tempo – If the Presets Change Tempo switch is on, tempos for each preset will be played. If the switch is off, the first tempo setting will be played throughout the sequence. Tempo Adjuster – choose what kind of pop-up control is used when long-pressing on the tempo +/- buttons, either a Slider or a Wheel, or Auto (which adjusts automatically by 10s while the button is pressed) .

Change on Next Measure – Turning this switch on will result in the metronome changing the meter and/or tempo once the last beat of the previous measure is complete.

TE Tone Generator

The tone generator screens can be displayed as a chromatic wheel, a piano keyboard and a string bar. The String Tuner has separate boxes for tuning each open string of a variety of selectable tunings.

Note: Selected instruments or sounds will be played on all Sound pages until changed.

Chromatic Wheel

To activate the Chromatic Wheel , tap the Sound icon in the page selection bar at the bottom of the page and select Pitch Wheel.

Tap a note to play a particular pitch. The note will sustain until you release it.

Note: The practical instrument range has been predetermined. Depending on the instrument, extended higher and lower ranges have been added. The instruments will not make a tone beyond their extended ranges.

As you tap notes around the wheel, the tone generator will stay within the same octave indicated on the screen. As you tap and drag around the wheel clockwise the octave ascends whereas moving counterclockwise the octave descends. The octave change occurs at C.

Note: Tap a pitch. The next pitch you play will go to the shortest intervalic relationship, ascending or descending, thus allowing you to change octaves without having to slide over C.

After tapping and setting to just temperament, if you double tap the root of the chord/key, TonalEnergy Tuner locks the key of your choice so that you may now tune all other pitches in that key. Then any pitch that is played will be in that tonality. There will be no sustained tone unless you also then tap the sustain button. To go back to equal temperament, tap the temperament button.

The target tuner is found in the center of the chromatic wheel. It displays the pitch and a cent meter. The tuner on this screen can be used as a stand alone feature or can be used with the other features available on the tone generator screen. When tuning with the chromatic wheel tone generator, you can use any one of the various temperaments.

The tone generator can sustain a note by tapping the sustain button in the center of the wheel. This button can simultaneously sustain multiple pitches, thus allowing you to create many types of chords.

  1. Tap the sustain button and then select the notes you want sustained.
  2. Tap sustain button or pitch button to release the notes.

Note: For instant pitch reference, tap anywhere on the center bar inside the Chromatic Wheel.

The octave button has plus and minus signs. Tap the plus sign for the tone generator to play an octave higher and the minus sign to play a lower octave. You can sustain the same note in different octaves by first tapping sustain, then tapping the desired pitch. Next chose the plus sign or minus sign to change the octave, and tap the new note. If you have multiple octaves playing and desire to remove one octave, tap the pitch to release the last octave added. To delete other octaves, you must tap the + or — sign, then the pitch. To shift currently sustained notes by an octave in either direction, press and hold the octave button

Note: MIDI-keyboard controllers interface with the TonalEnergy Tuner. They will do anything the chromatic Wheel will do.

Piano Keyboard

To activate the keyboard screen, tap the Sound icon in the page selection bar at the bottom of the page and select Keyboard.

The keyboard functions as any standard piano.

Note: The keyboard will only play the practical range of selected instrument.

The range of the keyboard may be changed two ways.

  1. Touch and slide the keyboard to the right or left. If you do not want sound, touch and drag in the shaded area at the top of the keyboard when sliding.
  2. The octave switches (+ on the right, — on the left) may be touched to more quickly alter the keyboard range.

To change the size of the keys, use a two-finger pinch and slide movement. If you do not want sound, go to the shaded area at the top of the keyboard to pinch or slide.

Once the keyboard range is selected, tap the keyboard lock icon to prevent the keyboard from moving.

The keyboard changes to reflect the transposed instrument note name. For example, Eb transposing instruments will show their C in brown on the keyboard’s C key. The corresponding concert pitch name is displayed as a gray letter on the piano’s C key. In this example, concert Eb would appear on the keyboard’s C key. When a transposing instrument has been chosen, the user is reminded by the word Transposed displayed on the screen in orange.

Press the Sustain toggle to sustain up to 14 pitches anywhere on the keyboard.

Like a MIDI keyboard, the Chord Hold function can also be used with the built-in keyboard. First press the Sustain button and then press the Chord Hold button, which will appears directly to the right of the Sustain toggle. In equal, just or custom temperaments, three different pitches may be played.

Note: The Sustain Hold is most helpful using Just intonation while playing major or minor triads, as the tuner will recognize what chord is being played regardless of the inversion. The tonality or key center for major and minor triads will be a highlighted purple piano key.

Double tapping a key will set the tonal center of the scale if you are in one of the custom temperaments (like Just).

For instant pitch reference, tap the tuning bar at the top of the keyboard page. To sustain the pitch reference note, long press. To release, tap on the tuning bar.

String Tuning

To activate the string/guitar screen, tap the Sound icon in the page selection bar at the bottom of the page and select String Tuning.

There are multiple tunings for each string instrument. The most commonly used tuning is always the first one displayed. Equal temperament is the default and only temperament that can be chosen for the fretted string tunings. The Orchestral String Family custom temperament will be notated as Orchestral All Strings and the player can also toggle to Equal Temperament.

All Strings: The TonalEnergy Tuner temperament default is set to tune the Orchestral Strings using a “special” Just intonation feature called Perfect 5ths. The player starts tuning their instrument beginning on the instrument’s open “A” string to create all perfect fifths to the adjacent string. All pitches that are not an open string on the four orchestral string instruments are equal temperament on the Target Tuner. Orchestral strings may choose the separate instruments or All Strings.

When the String screen is activated, the default sound will be the Plucked String. Other instruments may be chosen to tune the string instruments, as long as the instrument range allows for the correct octave to be played.

Note: The Plucked String, Saw Wave, Square Wave and Organ are the most commonly used tones for tuning string instruments.

When tuning the open strings, once a note is played, the area around a string will light up. If the color is green, the pitch of the open string is in tune. If the colored dome is either orange or red, the pitch is either sharp or flat. The domes appearing at the top or bottom of the string indicates the user is either playing a note that is not an open string or is still slightly out of tune. Like the Target tuner, orange indicates the tone is closer to the desired pitch than does red.

To hear open string sounds, touch one or more strings.

Long press a string or strings to continue to play the tones indefinitely. The Plucked String instrument will re-trigger after decaying to silence once you have long pressed the tone. To turn off a pitch touch the string while the tone is sustaining. All tones will stop.

When turned on, the microphone button to the left of the pitch boxes will reference the pitch the performer is playing. Refer to section Auto Reference Notes under the Target Tuner for more information.

The Damp button in the lower right corner allows you to adjust length of time the sound sample is measured with the choices being Slow, Medium and Long. Slow would be the longest sample time during which the pitch would be averaged.

Note: Consult the Mode and Range pop-up box to determine which damping setting will be best.

For instant pitch reference, tap the tuning bar at the top of the String Tuning page. To sustain the pitch reference note, long press. To release, tap anywhere on the tuning bar.

At the top of the screen a bar graph, the Pitch Tracker, will appear illustrating the percent of time the music performed fell into each of the three pitch zones: red, yellow, green. The colors and percentage are determined by the amount of time the tones were performed within the tuning parameters set in the Mode and Range pop-up.

Temperament

The temperament button is located in the upper left corner of the screen. By tapping this button you can select equal or a custom temperament (default to Just/Pure). The just temperament tonality (key center) is dependent upon the pitch you selected. In order to choose an alternative temperament, you can long-press the temperament button, or go to the Preferences page. You can also create your own custom temperaments.

Most often used for tuning major and minor chords, just temperament is used for tuning notes in the same overtone/harmonic series. For a major chord to be in tune with just temperament, the perfect 5th (3.5 whole steps) should be raised by 2 cents and the major 3rd (2 whole steps) should be lowered by 14 cents (raised and lowered from the equal temperament scale). Minor chords require the minor third (1.5 steps) to be approximately 16 cents sharp. Tuning using just major and minor temperament will eliminate any sound waves you hear between the root (pitch the chord is built on), the third, and the fifth, resulting in a more pleasant sound. TonalEnergy will auto-detect in root, first or second inversion any just major or minor chord. The feature works when using the Chromatic Wheel or a midi-keyboard. While sustaining a major or minor chord, double tap any pitch on the Chromatic wheel for the tonal center (key signature) to change.

Transposition

The transposition pop-up is on the Main Target Tuner screen, the Chromatic Pitch Wheel, the keyboard and the Analysis pages. This feature allows you to select the desired transposition.

To select your instrument, tap the instrument selection bar. This allows you to scroll to the desired instrument. Once the instrument is selected, the transposition is automatically selected. For example, the alto saxophone is an Eb transposing instrument. When you select alto saxophone, the transposition will automatically move to Eb. The tuners, chromatic wheel and keyboard will also adjust so that the alto saxophone C natural will be recognized as a concert Eb. The TonalEnergy Tuner also gives you the choice to not use concert pitch as the default. Once engaged this function allows the TonalEnergy Tuner to transpose to the instrument key automatically for commonly used wind instruments. You may manually change the transposition for less common instruments to better suit your needs (a C, D, or Eb trumpet, or Bb French Horn). The most commonly used instruments are listed in music conductor’s score order. They are grouped in instrument families and from high woodwinds to low brass.

Note: The term “concert pitch” is used to indicate the difference between your “written/notated” pitch for your instrument in your music and the “sounding” pitches in music scores.

When one of the Indian Notations is selected in the preferences, the transposition is labeled as the Shruti number.

Recording

You can record and playback using the chromatic tone wheel, keyboard or strings page. You can also study the recorded sounds in both the Spectral Analyzer and the Wave Form Window. See more in other sections.

TE Analysis

To choose an Analysis page, tap the graph icon in the middle of the page on the far left. Choices include Waveform, Spectral and Harmonic energy screens. You can also swipe left or right from either screen edge of the plot area to switch plot types.

Waveform/Pitch Window

The blue waveform is an image that represents an audio signal, in this case the tone being played either on your instrument or on the internal sound. Like the spectral analyzer, it is a visual representation of the quality of your tone. Blue sound shapes will vary depending on what you are practicing. For example, when practicing decrescendos, the sound should resemble a blue triangle. The goal is to have relatively straight sides on whatever shape your sound makes. Wavy lines indicate some aspect of your sound is not as controlled as it could be. Every aspect of the quality of your tone, including but not limited to volume, start, release, duration, and steadiness, will be reflected on the wave form window. The wave form window has a double-tap feature that allows the user to freeze the window while performing live or while listening to a recorded file so they may study their tone.

A two-finger tap will expand the plot to fill the screen. Two-finger tapping again will return it to normal size.

The vertical scale of the waveform can be changed with the Amp scale control in the upper right corner of the plot.

Note: Due to the parameters of built-in microphones, best practice is for players to be two to three feet away from the device. We also suggest bells not be pointed directly at the device, especially in small, enclosed areas (like a practice room). High volume and/or high frequency tones will have best results in a quiet, large space.

Waveform Timespan

This control lets you adjust the span of time shown in the waveform. Press and hold the button and a vertical slider appears. Drag up to increase the time span or down to lower it. The maximum time is about 60 seconds, and the minimum time is about 20 milliseconds. This allows you to actually see the detailed waveform like an oscilloscope.

Plot Pitch

Intonation can be plotted in the Wave Form Window. To turn this function on, tap the orange Show Pitch button. When a tone is playing, the accuracy of the pitch is represented by a line which will be red, orange or green. While the goal is for the green line to run straight through the center of the blue wave form, an orange line is still considered to be within the tuning range parameters. If the pitch is out of the tuning range parameters, a red line will appear.

Note: Best practice requires you to use Plot Pitch in a quiet environment with little or no ambient sound.

To identify what pitch the tuner is recognizing, consult the bottom of the wave form screen or the pitch name beside the Target Tuner or in the middle of the Vertical Tuner Bar on the right side of the screen.

Note: Just as the smiley face grows when an in tune pitch is held, the shaded area of the Vertical Tuner Bar expands when an in tune pitch is held for an extended period of time.

White dotted lines represents the silence between pitches. When slurring or playing in a legato style, the goal is to minimize the number of white dotted lines.

Spectral Frequency Analyzer/Harmonic Energy Series

The spectral frequency analyzer has a range from 0 - 10,000 hertz. The vertical orange line identifies your fundamental tone or first partial. As you play, the window allows you to see whether or not your fundamental tone/first partial is your highest peak. You may choose to use a line or filled in spectral plot in the Preferences page under options. On both the Spectral Frequency and the Harmonic Energy windows, you may double tap the screen to freeze a tone. The “frozen” tone will be blue. The user may then continue playing so he can use the “frozen” pitch as a means to compare the energy and frequencies of his tone. One useful feature of this window is the screen may be frozen while performing or listening to a recorded file.

In a characteristic symphonic wind sound, the fundamental tone/first partial should be the highest peak (orange line) while the second partial should be the second highest peak, etc. The difference between the height of the peaks is directly related to the quality of your tone. There should be less harmonics/partials on the highest pitches of your instrument. On your very lowest pitches you will see several harmonics/partials.

A two-finger tap on the plot will expand the plot to fill the screen. Two-finger tapping again will return it to normal size.

At the top of the screen a pitch tracker or bar graph will appear illustrating the percent of time the music performed fell into each of the three pitch zones: red, yellow, green. The colors and percentage are determined by the amount of time the tones were performed within the tuning parameters set in the Mode and Range pop-up.

Instant pitch reference will occur when you tap the pitch display. To be able to sustain the instant pitch reference note, long press the note and release.

The transposition choice pop-up is available on this page.

Note: There are some features unique to the Harmonic Energy Series screen.

  1. Use the two-finger pinch to reduce the number of partials.
  2. The names of the first eight harmonic partials are listed under the partial numbers at the top of the bars on the Harmonic Energy Screen.
  3. The cent off-sets for each partial, as they relate to equal temperament, are shown under the harmonic partial note names.

Note Staff

There is a special plot mode Note Staff that shows the pitches played over time in a notation similar to musical staff. Colored bars are shown in their positions on the choice of staff (Treble, Bass, Tenor, Alto, or Treble+Bass), along with accidentals indicated. The colors of the bars coincide with the in-tune state of the note analyzed, with green for in-tune, orange for out-of-tune, and red for very-out-of-tune. The shading indicates whether the note is sharp or flat (when the lighter color is at the top of the bar, the note is sharp, if at the bottom, the note is flat). The clef is selectable by pressing the clef button at the top of the plot repeatedly until the desired clef is shown. The background color theme is selectable between light or dark with the other button. If the Show Wave button is selected, small versions of the waveform are visible within the note bars. This is more useful with the plot is maximized full screen with the two finger tap feature.

TE File Recording and Playback

Files can be recorded or loaded for playback on every screen of TonalEnergy Tuner. In addition, audio recordings can be imported or exported.

To access audio and video recording sidebar, swipe right from the upper left edge of any screen.

Audio Recording

Tap the microphone icon. Tap the red button to begin or to stop a recording. After stopping the recording, it will be automatically named according to the current date and time. To save a recording, rename it and save it. When the file needs to be played, tap on the file folder, select your file, and tap Play.

On the Sound pages an additional recording option for recording internal sounds is available. When the record button with the speaker icon is tapped, only internal sounds will begin recording. To stop recording, tap once. Basic exercises can be recorded in this way for later playback while you are rehearsing.

Record duration and total number of files is limited only by the device’s available storage space.

Playback

Any previously recorded or imported audio files can be loaded for playback in the TonalEnergy Tuner app. Press the file icon to bring up the file browser. Select an audio file (which can be nested in a folder) and press Play to begin playback. A file will immediately be auditioned if already playing when you select a new one so you can easily find the one you need. Tapping it again or pressing pause will stop the file auditioning. You can also select the Export button at the bottom to export the selected item in several ways. See the section later for more information about exporting (and importing) audio files. Press done or tap elsewhere (on iPad) to dismiss the file browser.

The position slider can be used to move to different locations within the file before and during playback, or dragging on the top half of the waveform display for audio recordings.

By default the file playback will loop back to the beginning automatically when it reaches the end and continue playing. You can toggle this behavior off by selecting the loop button. You can also change the loop start and end points. To adjust the start or end of your recorded file, go to the bottom of the page and move the left end Loop Range slider to your desired playback starting point. To change the location of the end of the recording, do the same with the right end Loop Range slider. For audio recordings you can also drag near the bottom of the waveform display to set the loop points These can be set while the file is playing back, or when stopped. The loop points and the preference to loop, or not, is stored along with the file itself.

By default, when playing back a file the tuner is actually displaying the tuning results from the file itself and not the live microphone. If you want to instead be able to tune live input during playback, you can press the button at the bottom of the sidebar with a magnifying glass so that a microphone shows inside it. With the analyze setting set to microphone the built-in tuner is still actively listening to the microphone input so you can tune yourself even as you listen to audio playback. Using headphone/earbuds can prevent the tuner from unintentionally picking up the sound of the file playback. However, when playing back out of the internal or external speaker, if your instrument is close enough or loud enough, the tuner will likely be able to recognize you instead.

Stretch Tempo

You can also change the effective playback tempo or speed of any file using the Stretch Tempo control. A value of 100% is no change, while a value of 50% is half-speed, and a value of 200% is double speed. This feature is useful when learning an exercise or rehearsing a musical passage. Tap the Stretch Tempo button and slide your finger up if you want to increase the speed of the recording. Slide down if you want to slow the recording. Double tap the stretch control to reset it to standard (100%).

File Browsing/Selection

After pressing the folder icon to bring up the file browser, there are additional actions you can do besides selecting a file for playback.

Trimming a file

Once a file is selected, and the loop points have been adjusted away from the beginning and end of the file you have the option of Trimming the file to span only the selected range. Pressing the Trim button brings up a menu letting you select if you want to save the trimmed version to a new file (preserving the original) or replacing the original file.

Renaming

To rename a file, first press the Select button on the left side of the toolbar at the bottom of the page, then select the file you want to rename, and press Rename in the toolbar. Press Done in the lower left to return to normal.

Moving

To move one or more files to a new folder, first press the Select button on the left side of the toolbar at the bottom of the page, then select the file(s) you want to move, and press Move in the toolbar. Now you must either select a folder to move the files to or navigate to the folder (by double-tapping folder items). The press the Move button again to move the previously selected files to the new location.

Deleting

To delete one or more files, press the Select button on the left side of the toolbar at the bottom of the page, then select all the files you want to delete, then press the delete button (trashcan), then confirm deletion of the items.

Exporting

To export a file or multiple files together press the Select button on the left side of the toolbar at the bottom of the page. Select the items you want to export, then press the “Share” button. A system menu will appear allowing you to chose how to export the media, including options for Email, Drive, etc. If you have selected multiple files they will be stored together in a ZIP file archive for export.

Importing

You can also import audio into the app from email attachments or clicking URL links from attachments. TonalEnergy tuner will show up as one of the apps you can Open In for WAV audio files or ZIP archives (which can contain multiple audio files).

Folders

You can organize your files within the app. Press the new folder button to create a new folder and give it a name. Selecting the folder in the list will take you there. When you are doing this from the file browser on one of the main pages of the app, the current folder you are browsing in will also be used to store any new recorded files. Press the Back to previous folder item at the top to return to the folder above. You can create folders within folders.

TE Preferences

Calibrations

Concert A Reference

You can change the Concert A Reference from 440 Hz to the reference frequency number you prefer. In order to change the number, tap the number. A keyboard will appear. Type in the new reference frequency number and tap Done. This calibration number will remain unless you change it again. There is no default.

Alternate Temperament

To use the alternate temperament (which is toggled via the temperament button on the Tuner and Tone Generator pages), select the Alternate Temperament item in the Preferences. There are many built-in options, including various historical temperaments. You can also add your own custom temperaments by hitting the + button, supplying a name, and entering the offset in cents from equal temperament for each of the 12 chromatic intervals.

Note: Perfect 5ths The TonalEnergy Tuner is set to tune the violin family using a just intonation feature when the player starts tuning his instrument beginning on the instrument’s open A string.

Auto Key Detect

This option enables recognition of the root key of any triads played together in the tone generator page. The three notes can either be pressed at the same time, or constructed one at a time with the Sustain feature on. The root key is used by alternate temperaments such as Just/Pure as the basis for the interval relationships between the notes.

Notation

The desired notation of the displayed note names can be selected from the Notation menu. Several variants of English notation, Solfège, Northern European, and Indian options are available.

General Options

Show Visual Tuner enables the visual tuner on all the pages that have one. Show Cents Display enables the cents text display on all the pages that have it. Show Note Name enables the note name display on all the pages that have it.

Show Tuner Wheel enables the chromatic note wheel to be overlaid on the target tuner page.

Auto Transpose allows the tuner to transpose to the instrument key automatically as you switch instruments sounds.

Show % In-Tune Bar enables the Pitch Tracker to be shown on the Target Tuner, Sound and Analysis pages.

Show Smiling Face enables showing the smiling face when holding a tone in very good tune.

Show Out-of-Tune Face enables showing the purple “question” face when the pitch is very out of tune.

Analysis Options

The Analyze File Playback option, when enabled will do realtime analysis of any file currently being played back, and will not use the microphone input at that time. If you want to play back a file, but still be able to use the tuner with live microphone input, disable this option.

The Filled Spectral Plot option draws the spectral plot with a solid filled-in style, instead of the default line style.

Show 1/10 Cents toggles off the use of the decimal tenths of a cent on those labels within the app. This is particularly helpful with all voice students and beginning wind and string players.

Audio Options

Input Source: For most effective microphone pick-up response, the user has the choice of using the front, back or right microphone. It will also allow you to choose between an internal or attached headset mic, or any other audio devices attached via Lightning, dock connector or USB.

Input Channel: If you have a stereo input connected you can choose what channel you want the tuner to listen to, or select All (by selecting a number less than 1) to have it listen to both channels.

Instrument Level Slider: Slide to your desired instrument volume. This is especially helpful when balancing the volume of the instrument with the volume of the metronome sounds.

The Reverb switch toggles the use of the reverb effect. Room Size adjusts the apparent largeness of the reverberating space, from small and subtle to large and cavernous. The Level setting controls the amount of reverb mixed with the direct instrument sound.

Note: All of the TonalEnergy Instruments are preset to the following specifications: Room size 50% Level 20%

The user may want to change the settings to enhance the internal sounds. The size of the room, the outdoor environment, and the quality of headphones or speakers will greatly affect the quality of the instrument sounds.

The Auto vibrato feature on the tone generation page (Wheel mode) uses the following settings to guide how the vibrato sounds. You can set a Start Delay to delay the onset of the vibrato after first tapping the note by a given number of (fractional) seconds. The Depth control will adjust how strong the vibrato is, and the Rate adjusts how quick it is. The Auto-adjust with pitch option is recommended because it will automatically scale the depth and rate of the vibrato naturally as the pitch of the instrument varies. Using the Auto Vibrato feature can demonstrate how different vibrato styles can sound on the varying instruments. The vibrato options can be restored to their factory defaults with the Reset to Default item.

Allow Bluetooth Input: Setting this parameter ON will allow microphone input from bluetooth headsets or speakers to be used. In general you will probably want to keep this setting OFF because the built-in mic works better and has higher fidelity and responsiveness. Also, bluetooth speakers for audio output will work and sound better with this OFF.

Note: Bluetooth speakers generally work best with direct line of sight and within 25 feet of your device

Browse Recordings

This feature allow access to all audio and video files, identical the interface found in the recording sidebar.

USB MIDI

Enables support for using OTG USB adapter connected to a USB MIDI device for playing the internal instrument sounds.

Language

Allows you to choose a specific language translation from the available list. By default it will show the system default language if it is available, but you can override that choice here if you want to see the app in a different language.

Reset to Factory Default Options

This resets all options to their original default values.