tuning problems

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geoff956

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Can anyone help please?
I have a korg X5D which is set to the default tuning setting. When I tune my guitar or bass guitar ( korg tuner - old GT-6) to add tracks to keyboard basslines the guitars are slightly higher in pitch - just enough to annoy.
I then resort to tuning by ear which defeats the point of the guitar tuner.
Another thing I have trouble with is that vst's often seem to vary in pitch , and is there a simple answer to that?
Being a newbie I'm probably missing something glaringly obvious but any helpful comments would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
 
Orchestra concert pitch (441?) is slightly diferent to the common 440 & that caused me some probs when I was working with a 'cellist from a local orchestra - she at 1 me the other until she made it clear I was out in relation to her - so I have a set of recordings at concert pitch & have to remember when reworing them.
Why don't you set the Korg to match the tuner or visa versa.
VST tuning NO IDEAS sorry.
 
Thanks very much for the reply.
I have actually checked the keyboard with the tuner and they agree so having tuned the bass guitar to the tuner thay should be the same right? What I'm actually doing is playing a bass line on the guitar along with a recorded synth line to see which gives me the best bass sound, and the guitar sounds distinctly higher, maybe half a semitone. I've checked the recorded sound with the tuner and it's ok. So everything seems to agree on the tuner but not in practice.
I'm beginning to wonder if the bass overtones are playing tricks with my ears.
The bass could do with new strings, p'raps that could cause it.
 
you'd probably need a bass tuner. or you'd need to audibly tune using octaves.


as you get lower the perfect octave audibly is slightly off by a certain amount of cents.

when you tune a piano, you have to tune only a couple octaves with your tuner. the bottom and top have to be done by ear.

but you say the guitar is sharp? it should be the bass that's sharp.

either way...i don't trust tuners 100%. especially if the intonation of the thing isn't perfect. my classical is always tuned using an initial pitch, and then tuned by ear using octaves all over the fretboard.

its known as the railsback curve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_acoustics
 
Have your bass and guitar been setup, lately? intonation errors could cause tuning problems.
 
Thanks again for your replies.
Both guitars sound sharp. Not in every position though. Its most noticeable on
the C note of the bottom E string.
The thing I can't get my head around is that having tuned the keyboard and the guitars to the tuner, how can there possibly be any difference? Surely a faulty tuner would still give the same result in each case wouldn't it?
No I haven't had the guitars set up for quite a while - I'll have to attend to that.
Not sure I trust my own ears any more.
 
its not the instruments that are out of tune

its your ears

you, sir, are blessed/cursed with overly acute pitch perception

the only solution is to get drunk before playing music and keep a tuner inline and TURNED ON, and another tuner with a mic next to your monitor speakers

check EVERY note EVERY TIME

check all your tuners with test tones

know that you cannot expect every software device to be dead on every time

and know that the guitar is well-known to be a very imprecise instrument
 
The open strings of a gtr can be perfectly in tune and it's still VERY easy to play fretted notes out of tune even if the gtr is set up just right.

But it sounds like your various tuners are calibrated to different frequencies.
 
Thanks groovyisland for your assessment. Can't even imagine being blessed so it must be a curse. I think I'll take your advice but to be on the safe side I'll steer clear of the C note. BTW I'm not convinced there are enough tuners in your proposed setup.
TL - I take your point but if that were the case I think it would sound wrong in every position wouldn't it?
 
geoff956 said:
TL - I take your point but if that were the case I think it would sound wrong in every position wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

No. If your guitar is out of adjustment it can get worse as you go up the neck or it can be worst where you have to depress the string the furthest. Some guitars are just built sloppy to and will never be right in places.

check the 12th fret against the open string and the 12th fret harmonic. They should more or less line up on the tuner or be within a nat's ass.
If they don't, you more than likely have a saddle adjustment problem.
If there is no saddle adjustment problem you could have a truss rod problem, a technique problem (pressing too hard or bending the string) or a poorly built guitar.

F.S.
 
Both guitars show true on the octaves - well 2-3 cents sharp anyway.
I think I'll have to accept that the problem is somewhere in my perception for whatever reason. I've never had it before though.
Thanks again for the replies.
 
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