Guitar tuner test

Guitar tuner test

July 24th, 2007, 21:01 Posted By: wraggster

A test release from Philip:

I'm trying to write an electric tuner for the DS, but I'm having trouble with the timing. Namely, the timers in the DS aren't that accurate - they're well within the range you'd expect from a video game system, but to be accurate to, say, the nearest cent, the timers need to be accurate to ±1/20%... way more than the DS is designed for.

I'd like to think that, with enough calibration, this problem can be gotten around... but it depends on how consistent a DS's timer is, in the same DS... I know from a quick experiment in IRC that WinterMute's DS's timer runs about 2% slower than mine (it reports the sound as about 40 cents higher)... but on the few tests I've run on my own DS, it rarely disagrees with itself more than about a cent. If it's always about the same on a single DS, then running some sort of calibration the first time you run it should be enough.

This is where you need your help:
Download the tuner.
Put the .nds file on your DS and run it.
Put your DS next to your computer speakers, and play the two .wav files in the zip.
Post your results here. Specifically, the reading in the top-right of the lower screen.

Run the tests a few times, and see if you get consistent results... if possible, test it in the middle of the day, and at night... temperature might affect it, depending on how the timers work in the hardware.
If all (or even most) DSs get similar numbers every time, even if they don't agree with each other, then the project can probably go ahead... otherwise, I'll probably have to scrap it, which'll be sad.

So yeah, the more data I have, the better, so if as many people as possible do this for me, it'll be great. I don't think I'm asking much, just run a program, and play a couple of sounds... should take 1 or 2 minutes, at most, at a couple of times during the day.

Oh, and one last thing: The program, as written, isn't particularly good for tuning actual instruments yet, even without the calibration problems... it's good for sine waves, and not much else. That'll get fixed before release... it's just got something in there right now that's simple and works.

For more information and downloads, click here!