PitchPipes - A Java Guitar Tuning Applet

This applet implements a set if pitch pipes in Java for purists who like to tune their guitars by ear rather than using those new-fangled chromatic tuners.

The tones are pure sine waves, synthesised at the exact frequency for each string

To use, just click on the string you want to play. To shut it up, just click on an area of the fret between strings. You may need to click on the applet first to make sure it has the keyboard focus.

To produce the 1st, 2nd or 3rd harmonic rather than the string's fundamental frequency, select the fret position from the drop-down box (some people - including me - find it easier to tune to harmonics)

To use, just click on the string you want to play. To shut it up, just click on an area of the fret between strings. If you are so inclined, you can also use the keyboard...just press the letter of the note you want to play (string 1 is 'e', string 6 is 'E'. Case doesn't matter for any of the others). You may need to click on the applet first to make sure it has the keyboard focus.

Future Developments

I don't consider this anything close to finished. Some of the planned future features are...

• Support for alternative tunings - Since I can only just play a guitar with standard tuning, this isn't a high priority, but the Java code is easy to write so if you want your favourite tuning supported please let me know and I will see what I can do

If you want to download the audio files, here are the links:

I can make the audio files for other tunings available if anybody wants them. They are all in Sun .AU format (because it is very easy to synthesise files in this format), but any decent media player should play them just fine (Windows Media Player does).

The .AU files are generated by another Java program (not an applet). You can download it from here MakeAuFile.class. To use it, you will need a fairly recent version of Java Runtime Environment. Then run the program using the command "java -classpath . MakeAuFile" (assuming the class file is in your current directory).

Comments/suggestions welcome !

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