WARNING: very easy to run out of trial notes on badly out of tune pianos, due to confusing/bad UI
This seems like a pretty featureful and effective app. Unfortunately I never got my piano through even a complete first pass tuning before it disabled due to the trial note limitation—500 notes would seem totally adequate except due to it constantly changing notes from auto-detection, I blew through 300 notes in ~2 octaves of tuning alone (upper registers are extra flaky)….
I don’t know if the instructions are badly written or I’m dumb, but even setting to “manual” pitch changing did not stop it from jumping to adjacent pitches (most strings in this piano were over 50 cents off, so it was constantly swapping pitches). In the end, I never completed a single full pass before the app disabled itself….
Note that it’s possible you can avoid eating up your trial notes by going into “Pitch Check” mode first *before* beginning a tuning session, so that you can get every string within 50c before fine tuning/measuring inharmonicity/etc—I only discovered this by wandering through the help screens later on (but annoying each one is only on its related screen, and the “tutorial” is extremely brief and confusing). But since even that function is disabled now, I’m not certain how/if it works or if it really avoids burning trial notes….
So sadly right now I have a still badly out-of-tune piano (90% of it within 20c maybe, after settling, but it sounds horrible) and a now-useless app… so I can’t verify whether the tuning it (will) produced is quality or not. It’d have been *extremely* helpful if there was a lock feature on the pitch change control (no auto-detection) OR if the startup screens emphasized not to jump straight into the tuning session and guided the user to a more useful/less frustrating pathway. Anyway, just a warning to others thinking about taking this app for a spin.
I don’t know if the instructions are badly written or I’m dumb, but even setting to “manual” pitch changing did not stop it from jumping to adjacent pitches (most strings in this piano were over 50 cents off, so it was constantly swapping pitches). In the end, I never completed a single full pass before the app disabled itself….
Note that it’s possible you can avoid eating up your trial notes by going into “Pitch Check” mode first *before* beginning a tuning session, so that you can get every string within 50c before fine tuning/measuring inharmonicity/etc—I only discovered this by wandering through the help screens later on (but annoying each one is only on its related screen, and the “tutorial” is extremely brief and confusing). But since even that function is disabled now, I’m not certain how/if it works or if it really avoids burning trial notes….
So sadly right now I have a still badly out-of-tune piano (90% of it within 20c maybe, after settling, but it sounds horrible) and a now-useless app… so I can’t verify whether the tuning it (will) produced is quality or not. It’d have been *extremely* helpful if there was a lock feature on the pitch change control (no auto-detection) OR if the startup screens emphasized not to jump straight into the tuning session and guided the user to a more useful/less frustrating pathway. Anyway, just a warning to others thinking about taking this app for a spin.
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Response from developer
Please contact through support e-mail. Regards,
Erstklassig
Um meinen Konzertflügel kümmert sich einer der besten Klavierstimmer, die es so gibt. Ich bin also wirklich verwöhnt. Meine Ohren wissen, wie eine gute Stimmung sein soll. Nun habe ich noch eine Replika eines historischen Hammerflügels. Der muß leider viel häufiger gestimmt werden. Den muß ich selbst stimmen. Mit PiaTune und Wiener Temperament erreiche ich ein sensationelles Ergebnis. Da guckt der Steinway traurig und fragt, wann der Profi mal wieder kommt. Den soll ich wegen der Stabilität nicht selbst stimmen. ;-)
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PiaTune - best app for the price!
Most of the professional apps for piano tuning can do just fine on excellent pianos. The real challenges for apps are often the smaller pianos, and PiaTune outshines the rest due to both the measuring and graphing functions that allow the user to customize the tuning calculation. The developer has added specific enhancements that work well even with spinets. Combined with an effective pitch adjustment process has made getting the best sounding tunings out of so many different sized instruments during a regular tuning appointment.
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Worth it for me
I’m not a professional piano tuner, but this app along with my limited piano tech knowledge from college is enough for me to tune my piano. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough to not be annoying.
I just did my second full tuning with this app, and I was delighted to see that my tuning profile from last year was still in the app. Saved a ton of time and effort.
I just did my second full tuning with this app, and I was delighted to see that my tuning profile from last year was still in the app. Saved a ton of time and effort.
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Response from developer
Thank you Kitreh. Normally, PiaTune produces excellent results. Could you please recheck your inharmonicity measurements and stretch settings.
Update: Keeps crashing
Update: the new version seems to be running smoothly. Thank you!
Original: When it works, it’s a great tool. Unfortunately my app keeps crashing and is no longer usable.
Original: When it works, it’s a great tool. Unfortunately my app keeps crashing and is no longer usable.
Response from developer
Thank you for the feedback. Please update your app to Version 3.0 to solve the crash issue.
