Pedal Steel Tuning Calculator

[mat davallet]

After several months of development and a lot of work with my friend Emmanuel Danan we are proud to present our new Pedal steel tuning calculator based upon the first J.Y Lozach' system. Now with your cabinet drop value you can get all of your cents or hertz tuning for each notes in one click ! All you need now is to setup your own tuner and/or print your chart. We are now working on a complete solution with chromatic and automatic tempered tuner included. This tuner will be available for mobile such as Iphone or android (coming soon). For the moment enjoy our calculator at:

http://pedalsteel.fr/index.php/tuning-chart-calculator

[Danny Mitchell]

M. Davallet de beaucoup de merci. J'attends avec intérêt d'essayer votre calculatrice.

[Willie Gamble]

Danny, whit wiz that you said ?

Asleep at the steel

[Danny Mitchell]

Hawpal ratweecalculatorsraberries ahmgaggintaegetmahmittsoanit

Is what one was attempting to convey Willie.

[Jif]

Is that a French to Parly Vous Glesgie translator Danny.

Mange tout Rodney.

Calculator looks good, will give it a try later. I don't suppose you've got a version for a Universal

[mat davallet]

Not yet but i will do it soon (C6 and universal)

[Jif]

Hi Mat, I tried the calculator on my Carter U12 last night and can confirm that it works for me

I found my cabinet drop to be between 3 and 3.5 cents, I used 3.5 cents and programmed the corresponding values for each specified note into a new Pitchlab temperament. The only value not present was for a Bb so I left that at 0, I didn't have a Bb to tune anyway so it made no difference. I haven't tuned the B6 pedals yet as I wanted to see how it panned out for E9 first. If you can program a custom temperament either in a dedicated tuner or a phone app, it is just a case of setting the temperament values from the values of each note from your table, then just tune each string and pedal/lever so that it is centre on the tuner. The temperament setting takes care of any sweetening adjustments. I use Pitchlab Pro which is the bought version of this app, I think it's around £3 and well worth it IMHO.

I was originally using values that I believe Sid Hudson put up on the American forum which were close sounding to my ear, but your calculator is pretty spot on, minimum ear tuning. Thanks for doing this, much appreciated.

Out of interest here are the values of my original temperament compared to the new one.


Original Temperament........................Table Temperament

C = 0..............................................C = 0
C# = -15.7........................................C# = -14.5
D = -7.6...........................................D = 0
Eb = -9.7..........................................Eb = -11
E = 0...............................................E = 3.5
F = -27.8..........................................F = -29
F# = 2.5...........................................F# = 3.5
G = -3.4...........................................G = 3.5
G# = -9.9.........................................G# = -11
A = -6.4...........................................A = 0
Bb = 0.............................................Bb = 0
B= 1.3.............................................B = 3.5

[mat davallet]

Hi Jif
Thanks a lot for your feedback. I'm working on a global tuner with custom temperament included (not easy to imagine and build) i will keep you posted soon
all the best
Mat

[Jif]

No Probs. Good luck with the project, sounds challenging

[Jif]

I've been having problems with my E-F raises. I was having it before I tried the calculator and at first I thought they were OK after using the calculator but after playing something a bit more demanding yesterday, I came to the conclusion that the raise still wasn't right to my ear.

I tuned it by ear for a few different inversions to where I thought it sounded acceptable for all the inversions and then looked at my tuner to see how many cents the tuner was out by. By a process of trial and error I eventually got an F value which centred on the tuner. The value for this was -8.8, the previous value was -27 to -29. Big difference, I don't understand why this should be, the only thing I can think of is that the F lever pulls 3 strings including the low E on the Universal, string 11, so it might be causing more cabinet drop than the E - Eb lever.

In any case, it seems to be OK at that value, so I'll just stick with it, everything else sounds fine.