AP Instrument Tuner Help

Thank you for downloading AP Instrument Tuner. We are proud to present to you the world’s most advanced instrument tuner. We hope you enjoy using it.

Tuning Your Instrument

Connections – Your instrument should be played into a microphone, which needs to be connected into your microphone jack in your sound card. If you have an electric guitar or bass, you can plug directly into the the microphone jack (you may need a quarter-inch to eighth-inch adapter plug to get your instrument cable to fit the soundcard input jack). If you are not using an electric guitar, or an acoustic pickup, a regular desktop microphone will also work. If using a desktop microphone you will probably need the soundboard to be within 12 inches of the microphone head for best results.

Input Level – the left column shows an input energy indicator. Your input levels should be set so that playing strongly will send the colored bar very near the top, but without hitting it. For more help with input level issues see “Troubleshooting Input Levels”

Fine Tuning Indicator – the box on the right hand side of the window is the Fine tuning indicator. The current note being played will show up in the upper left corner, and the current percent error will be shown in the upper right corner. The needle will display the current percent error as well. The number shown next to the root is the octave number. A4 is defined to be 440 Hz (or changed slightly by the user). Octaves played below the concert A, will decrease in value and octave above will increase.

Key – By selecting the key of your instrument, the correct concert pitch is shown in the Fine tuning indicator.

A 440 Modification – Most instruments tune their “Concert A” to 440 Hz. Sometimes the need arises to slightly adjust this frequency. Clicking on the A: 440 Hz Button will bring up a screen to adjust the base frequency. The Frequency can be adjusted with the white textbox or the gray slider control. Hitting the reset button will restore the frequency to its default 440 Hz.

User Options

Clicking “Options” will bring up a dialog box with two tabs: Colors and Devices. Click the tab to switch between them.

Options: Colors - Clicking on the colored box you wish to change and selecting a new color can adjust colors. Click “Restore Default Colors” to return to the standard color scheme.

Options: Devices - Most users will not need to use this tab. Setting the devices to “Preferred recording device” and “Preferred Midi Output Device” should always work. If you have a more complicated recording or MIDI setup on your machine, you can choose one of those devices. If your system does not have a MIDI device you will be able to tune normally. If your system does not have a recording device, the tuning process won’t get very far.

Troubleshooting Input Levels

The most common problem users of AP Instrument Tuner encounter is an incorrect level setting. If the level is correctly set, the Energy Gauge in the center of the window should jump near the top with each strong pluck.

What if the gauge does not follow what I am doing?

If the gauge is not responsive, i.e. you pluck a note and the gauge does not register the energy, you need to adjust your windows settings.

1) Open the Windows volume control utility from Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Volume Control. You can also open it by clicking on the little icon of a yellow speaker in your system tray in the lower right hand corner of your screen.

2) Switch to the recording settings page by selecting menu item Options > Properties, and then choosing the option “Recording” in the group “Adjust Volume for…” Make sure that the volume control “Microphone” has a check next to it in the list labeled “Show the following volume controls:”.

3) Make sure that the box labeled “Select” under “Microphone” is checked, and that the vertical slider bar is set all the way to the top.

4) When this is done AP Instrument Tuner will respond to any input connected to the microphone input of your soundcard.

What if the gauge does not jump very high?

If the gauge seems to not be rising high enough then there are a few things to check. First of all open the windows volume control utility, in the manner described in steps one through 3 above. Make certain that the recording volume control is set to its maximum level.

If the level still seems insufficient, try increasing the actual signal strength going into the sound card. Increasing the volume knob on your electric guitar or acoustic pickup will help. If using a desktop microphone, make certain that the instrument is as close as possible to the microphone.