Ask HN: What program is running on this 1996 laptop?

We're happy to present Veena Chromatic Tuner, an app we've developed for musicians, instrument makers, and ethnomusicologists who need more than just a standard chromatic tuner. Our goal was to create a tool that not only supports pitch detection but also provides deep support for diverse musical intonation systems and offers intuitive visual feedback.

The Problem We're Solving: Many tuners are good for Equal Temperament, but has limited support when it comes to the Just Intonation, microtonal music, or the specific requirements of instruments like the Veena where fret positions are determined by precise ratios.

Oscilloscope-like Visual Feedback: Instead of just a needle, you get a dynamic, oscilloscope-like waveform display.

In Tune: The waveform appears stabilized, giving you an immediate, confirmation of perfect pitch. Sharp: The waveform rotates right. Flat: The waveform rotates left.

This dynamic visual feedback, akin to a digital oscilloscope's trigger synchronization, offers immediate, precise adjustment cues that go far beyond what a static needle can provide, allowing for incredibly fine-tuned adjustments.

Unmatched Intonation Flexibility: We understand that music isn't just 12-TET.

Just Intonation Support: Perfect for Indian classical music, early music, and any tradition that relies on pure harmonic relationships between notes. This is crucial for achieving the rich, resonant chords and melodic purity that Equal Temperament can't always deliver.

Custom Temperaments: Go beyond presets! Create, save, and manage your own unique temperaments with personalized ratio settings. This empowers composers, researchers, and performers to explore microtonal scales and historical tunings with ease.

Dedicated Veena Instrument Mode: It allows users to play and tune notes across 24 fret positions, specifically highlighting how note positions on the fretboard vary relative to each other when pure intonation is applied. This feature is invaluable for instrument makers and those studying the physics of string instruments.

Other Key Features:

Multicultural Note Naming: Display notes in Western, Indian classical (Carnatic/Hindustani), and Solfege, with support for multiple Indian language scripts (Tamil, Devanagari, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam).

Adjustable Reference Pitch: Customize A4 frequency from 440Hz to 432Hz or anything in between.

Transposition Support: Easily transpose notes for different instruments.

This app is would be useful for string players (veena, violin, guitar, sitar, etc.), wind instrument musicians, vocalists, music teachers, students, ethnomusicologists, and especially instrument makers and tuners who need to work with precise intonation and fret setting. Anyone exploring microtonal music will also find it incredibly useful.

We're actively developing the app, continuously adding features and improvements. While pitch detection is resource-intensive, we strive for broad device compatibility.

Check it out on Google Play: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.magima.digi...]

We welcome your feedback, questions, and thoughts!

Comments (17)

Ruarl · 4h ago

This is an interesting project. It isn’t immediately obvious to me how the visualisations aid the tuning process. Please can you say a little more about how you expect a user to interpret those as they perform tuning work?

v15w · 3h ago

Pitch is an estimate based on sampled audio. Sometimes, it is not always accurately detected. Here, we have an additional visual cue that produces a stable/stationary waveform when the detected pitch is in tune with the selected reference note. A plucked tone has a slight variation in pitch from start to end; it rises and falls slightly. You can see this in the visual display. This would be very useful for fretting work, where each fret's tone is expected to have similar pitch variation.

KaiserPro · 3h ago

Perhaps it lets you get that last 1-1/4 of a hz that might otherwise get lost?

Its also probably really good for beginners trying on their own to train them selves so they can spot when they are over/under tune

dsego · 2h ago

It's just easier to quickly notice a pattern moving or standing still than the needle moving by a few degrees. The needle can also appear twitchy or jump around and lag, making it harder to tune accurately.

v15w · 1h ago

Pitch detection is computed and can sometimes be influenced by external noise or sampling limitations.It can jump. However, the visual display is based on the period of the reference note (or set frequency), allowing it to function independently of the detected pitch.

opminion · 12m ago

This is a great answer. If I understood correctly: The feedback you give the user is different than a usual tuner in two ways: it is framed by the reference note, and is two-dimensional.

7bit · 3h ago

You can't tune an instrument to 1/4 of a hz. Temperature, humidity, mechanic impacts all constantly keep working on the instrument, changing it's tune. Instruments are not high precision tools.

Whatever features this app has, they're just visual fancy with no value.

KaiserPro · 2h ago

> You can't tune an instrument to 1/4 of a hz

I mean you can, but for stringed instruments keeping it to an absolute is hard. its the relative that you care about, at least for an instrument with a static fret. pretty much everything other non-keyboard instrument is down to you to adjust on the fly.

when you are within 1hz you get a beat at roughly 1hz, which is normally fairly easy to pickup.

Its part of the reason why brass instruments are never "wide" in stereo on recordings, because they tend to phase like a mother fucker. (there are ways around it)

porterde · 3h ago

The visual feedback sounds very much like the strobe feature on my guitar tuner. I think the first like this was the Stroboconn in the 1930s.

v15w · 2h ago

This visual feedback is very similar. It also shows octave changes i.e if the pitch detected is 0.5x, 1x or 2x the reference freq / note set.

uundur · 1h ago

https://www.facebook.com/calurtsdrums

uundur · 1h ago

Permanent block

uundur · 1h ago

Lupa password

7bit · 3h ago

A tuner with ads. There's plenty of ad-free tuners, thank you.

v15w · 2h ago

Thanks for the feedback! Ads help us keep the app free and support ongoing development.

hananova · 1h ago

Then charge for it. Ads are definitely not okay when you're trying to tune your instrument. The real reason of course is that ads will make more money than a one time payment.

Also, the OP smells like vapid AI slop.

v15w · 51m ago

We will be introducing an ad-free premium version once we finalize the implementation details. We also wish to clarify that English is not our native language.