Tuning keyboards and modules

[Shack]

I am getting an increasing number of keyboards and modules and constantly messing with the tuning and detuning etc as things are now beginning to sound wrong to my ears.

I was wondering does anyone know whether anything exists which automatically tunes keyboards/modules/ even other instruments such as guitars to each other without having to rely on your ears? i.e. probably some electronic tuner or something?

 

[SonicAlbert]

You could get a tuner, the same kind of thing that instrumentalists use. Typically, they have some kind of metering to tell you whether the pitch you are playing is flat or sharp. They also generate tones of various pitch to use for tuning as well. Some have line inputs and some don't, but most all have a little mic built in. You still have to use your ears to match pitch, as I don't know of any tuner that *automatically* tunes synths.

As you've discovered, many synths are not in tune. The problem is, they are not in tune with themselves either. So a part of the keyboard range on a sound can be in tune and another part will be out of tune, on the same patch.

What I've done at times is make splits of the same sound across the keyboard range and tune each slightly differently. That helps, but if you have individual notes here and there that are out of tune you are kind of stuck.

Just because the synth says "A 440" in the tuning menu doesn't mean that's the actual pitch that's coming out. Since so many synths are sample based now, it is common for the samples themselves to be out of tune. It just goes back to the designers of the synth maybe not having the best ears, or being rushed for time.

It's easier to tune samplers because you can tune individual samples. With synths you are sometimes just stuck with whatever they give you.

 

[TexRoadkill]

There usually isn't a need to tune modern digital keyboards. I don't recall coming across too many out of tune samples but it does happen on occasion. You must have golden ears or are just tricking yourself into thinking they are out of tune. If you want to be sure just get a chromatic guitar tuner.