Dirk's Piano Tuner

Having over 3,000 parts, a piano is a wonderful instrument that takes some tools and the right software to tune properly. As the name suggests, Dirk's Piano Tuner is a program designed to analyze your instrument and afterward, using the results to calculate the optimal tuning for it.

The application comes with a user-friendly interface that incorporates a detailed tutorial that you should check out in case this is your first time using this type of program. To make sure everything is working smoothly, make sure that your machine can record and has audio, as otherwise the app cannot grab the information it needs to make the necessary calculations.

Perhaps the most important feature of the tool is the ability to determine the right stretch. The developer argues that even though you can employ specialized devices, you should bear in mind that the tuners do not account for the specific design of your instrument. The result is that certain factors that influence the stretch are not accounted for and you will need to dedicate more time to determine it by ear.

The advantage of using the tool is that all strings are recorded by simply playing them one by one, meaning only one string per note, whereas the others remain mute. Using the aforementioned data, the app can then calculate the optimum base settings for all strings and consequently, the ideal pitch and stretch.

While most instruments can be tuned via a specific device so that you can set each tone to a predefined frequency, the same method cannot be applied to a piano. Due to the specific way this stringed instrument produces the sound, tuning devices would ultimately make the sound harsh and out of tune.

From enabling you to figure out where to leave the tuning pun so that it is in a stable position to finding the optimal stretch and determining the correct pitch for the strings, Dirk's Piano Tuner might come in handy for both professional and amateur piano musicians.