I read in the manual för the TE 1.03 OS update, on page 8, about auto tune. I read again and again and it still doesn’t make sense.
What does this mean?:
In AUTO mode, the LP will continually tune to this value [“60.12” - Assars remark].
/…/
Hitting another note on the keyboard will set that note as the new target for tuning.
What will tune to “that value”? The whole LP? As long as the notes at tuned to eachother, that doesn’t make sense …
Further …
AutoTune works to keep the LP in tune by automatically making fine adjustments to the Fine Tuning CV
More precisely, what is adjusted?
Tuned to what?
The notes related to eachother?
The whole LP in relation to a specific value, like A=440Hz?
Osc1 to Osc2?
Even if I use auto tune, my LP needs 20 minutes to tune after startup.
So what is the auto tune for?
What does it do?
I mean … I read english documents most every day at work and that is almost never a problem for me. But this text is a mystery …
Auto tune will scan the pitch of your oscillators and adjust the CV as necessary to keep it at contant tune. The CV is the control voltage, the electrical signal sent to the oscillators to generate the pitch. If auto tune notices the oscillators drifting out of tune due to higher temperatures, it adjusts the CV higher or lower as necessary to put the oscillators back in tune.
auto-tune is admittedly a bit tricky to get one’s head around. I have had it explained to me directly by the programmer and I think I get it.
Try this experiment: Turn on your LP; don’t play any keys at all yet.
Go to the MASTER menu, and scroll to the TUNE page. Set tuning to Auto. Still don’t play any keys. Look at the number in the lower right corner of the LCD. It should show some number below 60.00… it will probably be a number in to 50’s. Just wait, and watch this number. You should see it increase, and gradually settle on 60.00. This might take a little while, so alternatively, you can press CURSOR to move the cursor under this number, and use the VALUE knob to increase the number until it reads 60.00. Hint: if you press+turn the VALUE knob it will change the value in larger increments.
OK, once the number in the lower right of the TUNE display reads 60.00, go back to PRESET mode and play some notes on the LP. Is it in tune? Should be.
If you now go back to MASTER, you will see that the number on the TUNE page is […] ; this means that the autotune function is timed out. Autotune uses the Calibration preset, which is why the sound is muted when you are on the TUNE page… and also why autotune is disabled any time you are actually playing the LP normally. If you stop playing for about 90 seconds, autotune kicks back in and works in the background to make sure that the FINE TUNE voltage is adjusted to keep you in concert pitch. That’s all Autotune is doing really; it measures the frequency of oscillator 1 and adjusts the fine tune voltage to keep the synth on pitch; just like if you were looking at a tuner and adjusting the Fine Tune knob manually, only it happens in the background. Ideally, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
So … if I understood you right …
Auto-tune tunes OSC1 but not OSC2 … and that’s why the OSC1- and OSC2-pitch doesn’t match right after start-up.
Is that correct?
I still have a couple of more questions:
If that’s correct (the above), why not auto-tune on OSC2? That way my LP would be tuned already from start-up. (?)
I still wonder what this means:
Hitting another note on the keyboard will set that note as the new target for tuning.
As long as my LP is calibrated, hitting another note wont make any difference, or does it?
Nein! Auto-tune LISTENS to oscillator 1. It ADJUSTS the fine-tune voltage, same as if you were adjusting the FINE TUNE knob, which affects both oscillators equally. The oscillators don’t match right after start-up because they are cold and have to warm up.
I still have a couple of more questions:
I still wonder what this means:
Hitting another note on the keyboard will set that note as the new target for tuning.
As long as my LP is calibrated, hitting another note wont make any difference, or does it?
It’s kind-of subtle and doesn’t make a lot of difference to you, probably… but let’s say you are onstage, your LP is set up, and the first piece you are going to play is this really low bass groove in A. Instead of having auto-tune calibrating your LP in the background to a middle C (which is what it does by default - that is note 60), you might want it to be tuning to A1 in the background, so that A1 is absolutely bang-on pitch the moment you start to play. It’s a subtle difference and I don’t even know if it will be particularly useful yet… it’s just how the autotune was implemented. Basically, it has to pick some note to tune to for the whole concept to work… and we allowed for the possibility that the user might want to choose their own note.
You can also adjust the auto-tune target manually, to be “off” from concert pitch, in case for example you are playing with a Hammond organist and running on 50Hz AC power, or something… anyway if you need to auto-tune to some funky off-pitch, you can dial that in and set it that way if you want.
That thing about OSC1 and OSC2 … we are actually saying the same thing but in different words.
Since OSC1 and OSC2 are out of tune with eachother on start-up, and the auto-tune listen to OSC1 to adjust the fine-tune, OSC2 will be adjusted in the same amount and consequently to that out of tune.
The other part still doesn’t make sense to me, but what the heck. I doesn’t seem to matter anyway.
