[Trombone-l] strobe tuners

[David Bobroff]

Back on March 18th, Jackie Harris-Stone posted a query about virtual 
strobes.  I had never heard of these so I went surfing around for 
information.  Eventually I ran across this:

http://www.turbo-tuner.com/

I was unable to do side-by-side comparisons with other tuners myself, 
but the video demos sold me on this item.

I ordered one and when it arrived I set it beside my old Boss TU-12H. 
It takes some getting used to but I found I really liked this new tuner. 
  It allows you to select different temperaments as well as displaying 
the current frequency you're playing.  It can be set in auto chromatic 
mode, the default setting (like what we're used to with the tuners that 
have been around for years) or in manual mode where you set it to 
recognize only one pitch.

I loved it.  It was fast, sensitive....but it had one drawback.  Below 
bottom-of-the-staff F it was not so clever.  By low D it was hopeless in 
auto-chromatic mode.  In manual mode it was great.

I called the company and spoke to a tech support guy.  He suggested that 
it might not work so well in that register with acoustic instruments. 
He was very nice to send me a second unit in case the first one I had 
was defective, and he sent it to me before receiving the first one back 
(I explained to him that I had a time limitation due to travel).  Alas, 
the second unit displayed the same weakness so I sent both units back 
and was given a full refund.

I have nothing but good things to say about the product and the 
treatment I got from the company, save for this one anomaly in the 
performance of the tuner.  I believe the bulk of their customer base is 
the electric crowd so perhaps they didn't focus on acoustic sensitivity 
in the lower register.  I did mention to them that my aged Boss TU-12H 
had no trouble identifying pitches in that range.

When I returned the tuners I told them how much I liked it except for 
the lack of sensitivity in the low range in auto mode.  I allowed as 
their customer base was likely mostly electric musicians but that I had 
actually come across their tuner as the result of a posting to a 
trombone discussion list.  I went on to tell them that should this 
shortcoming in their tuner be overcome I wanted to be first in line to 
get one.

I don't know if a massive showi of interest in their tuners by acoustic 
musicians with large/low instruments would bring about an improvement in 
the tuner, but it's a thought.

David