peterson AutoStrobe™ 490 Strobe Tuner Instruction Manual Revised 5-99 for Software Revision 1.03 by Michael Skubic © 1998-99 Peterson Electro-Musical Products, Inc. 11601 S. Mayfield Avenue, Alsip IL 60803-2476 Phone: 1-708-388-3311 FAX: 1-708-388-3341 email@petersonemp.com http://www.petersontuners.
TABLE OF CONTENTS THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS MANUAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 THE AutoStrobe 490—AT A GLANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 2.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS MANUAL Congratulations on your purchase of the peterson AutoStrobe™ 490 strobe tuner. For your convenience, this manual is organized into three major sections. The first, "The AutoStrobe 490—At A Glance", comprises just three short pages of "must read" information that everyone should read before attempting to turn the Model 490 on and use it.
5) Completely remove the fuse from the unit. 6) Make sure the "Fuse Pull" lever is in the absolute far left position, completely clear of the Voltage Selection Card. 7) Insert the tip of a needle-nose pliers, scissors, or other suitable item through the small hole at the edge of the selection card. (NOTE: if you believe that you will need to switch this card often, you might consider acquiring a special extraction tool available from Peterson.
KEY= C A=440 C 00 ¢ AUTO SETUP MODE 1 2 3 4 The first line indicates that the tuner is set for instruments referenced to the Key of C. Line two indicates that the standard for A is 440 Hz, the current note setting is "C", and that the global pitch offset is set at 0 cents deviation. Line three shows that the tuner is currently set to automatically detect the nearest standard pitch present in the audio input and use it as the current note reference for tuning.
THE AutoStrobe 490—IN DEPTH 1. SUMMARY OF FEATURES AND FRONT PANEL CONTROLS We will begin with a brief description of the front panel controls, indicators, and basic features of the Model 490. This will provide you with a quick reference guide to the front panel of the tuner. Detailed information about each feature is explained in the succeeding sections of this manual.
4. EIGHTY-CHARACTER LCD MENU SCREEN — Simplicity and ease of operation are enhanced by the intuitive and user-friendly menu screen displays which address all the functional features of the tuner. 5. FOUR MENU-DRIVEN FUNCTION BUTTONS — The action of each of these four push buttons is defined by whatever specific description is currently displayed immediately above them on the bottom line of the LCD screen. These software-defined buttons permit great flexibility and simple user interaction with the Model 490.
"MUTE" appears on the third line of the RUN screen on the LCD display. The MUTE button is connected in parallel with the 1/4-inch jack at the rear of the tuner labeled "MUTE SWITCH". Any momentary-close contact device such as a footswitch may be used in place of or in addition to the MUTE on/off button. (The front-panel button will continue to operate with a device plugged into this rear jack unless the device is held in the closed position—make sure that the device operates in a momentary-close fashion.
KEY= C A=440 C 00 ¢ MAN SETUP MODE 2 3 ÷ 4 C 00 ¢ AUTO SETUP MODE 7 1 + 2 KEY= C A=440 1 2 3 4 Accessing Auto Note Select Mode While the MAN MODE is indicated, the selection of note will not be affected by the incoming audio signal and must be selected by pressing one of the note buttons below the strobe disc.
SCREEN PARAMETER SETTING RUN (before entering SETUP) VALID RANGE: Strobe Disc Band DISPLAY +2 / -1 +2, -1, Normal, ... Factory Default: Normal 1st SETUP parameter screen Concert A Pitch Reference Recalibration 350 Hz to 550 Hz in 1 Hz increments Factory Default: A=440 2nd SETUP parameter screen Musical KEY Setting C, B=, F, E=, ...
RECALIBRATE TUNER? NOW A= XXX RUN DOWN UP 1 2 3 4 1 ÷ 7 NEXT + KEY SETTING KEY IS NOW : X NEXT RUN 1 2 3 4 Accessing the Key Setting Screen The KEY screen uses the front panel KEY button to alter the KEY setting just as it will under the RUN screen.
return the screen to the SETUP menu. The power-up condition of the Model 490 will now reflect these latest parameter settings until new values are once again stored under SETUP. c) VIEWING AND ALTERING TEMPERAMENT FILES Temperament refers to the specific frequency (pitch) intervals placed between notes in a musical scale.
The FILE (temperament) menus are accessed under the SETUP screen.
highlight only the sequence of button presses typically necessary for just one of these activities, that is to say, with no mistakes or back-tracking. The following key will assist in understanding the "shorthand" of these flowcharts: 1. To the right (or sometimes above) each front panel function button—"1" through "4"—depicted on the flowchart is the exact label for that button as shown on the LCD display at the current step in the programming. 2.
A comprehensive flowchart at the end of this instruction manual shows ALL possible paths through the temperament menus and provides a good reference once the fundamental concept of the these menus is understood. You may note that at almost every point, there is a button function (like BACK or REDO) which jumps to a logical earlier step of the current activity or a button function (like RUN or CNCL—short for "cancel") which jumps out of the current activity with no changes made.
1 2 3 + 2 ÷ 7 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 23456789 TMPR=_ _ _ _ < — — — — > BKSP CNCL 4 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 23456789 TMPR=_ _ _ _ < — — — — > BKSP CNCL 1 2 3 4 Selecting a Character To Enter Into the New Temperament File Name The cursor underline is now under the “B” in the selection string, but no character has been added to the temperament file name. To do this we must press the ENTER button on the front panel. (Note our position in the flowchart.
1 2 3 + ENTER ÷ 7 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 23456789 TMPR=B _ _ _ < — — — — > BKSP CNCL 4 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 23456789 TMPR=B G _ _ < — — — — > BKSP CNCL 1 2 3 4 Entering the Second Character Into the New Temperament File Name For the third character, a “blank” in our example of “BG 1”, we could either continue to advance through the letters and numbers in the selection string to arrive at the “blank” character or we could make use of the wrap-around featu
1 2 3 + 1 (Press and hold) ÷ 7 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 TMPR=B G _ 23456789 < — — — — > BKSP CNCL 4 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 23456789 TMPR=B G _ < — — — — > BKSP CNCL 1 2 3 4 Selecting the Final Character To Enter Into the New Temperament File Name And, finally: 1 2 3 + ENTER ÷ 7 PICK NAME = ABCDEFGH I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01 23456789 TMPR=B G _ < — — — — > BKSP CNCL THE NAME CHOSEN FOR TEMPERAMENT IS: BG 1 REDO 1 OK 2 CNCL 3 4 4 Entering the Final
We are assuming that we have chosen a valid name for our file and have, consequently, followed the “NO” path from the “Name already exists?” decision box on the flowchart. Thus, we have now entered the “Edit Notes” phase of our temperament file creation. From this one screen, we can now define the note offsets for all 12 scale notes. Note that this screen shows you which temperament file you are editing as well as which scale note you are editing.
KEY= C A=440 C 00 ¢ AUTO SETUP MODE 2 3 4 ÷ 7 1 + KEY KEY= Bb A=440 C AUTO SETUP MODE 1 2 00 ¢ 3 4 Choosing Alternate KEY Transpositions 5. ENHANCED RESOLUTION OF INTONATION MEASUREMENTS As you continue to practice your intonation with the Model 490, you will find that your pitch accuracy continually improves. As you find yourself playing more and more closely to perfect intonation, you may wish to adjust the tuner more precisely to your pitch. The Model 490 has tuning accuracy to within 0.
so that you can face away from the tuner. b. Adjust the tuner to the tuning key of your instrument as detailed above. If necessary, raise or lower the standard tuning reference pitch of the tuner (Concert A setting under the SETUP menu). c. You are now ready to begin. For the remainder of this section we will assume that your instrument is tuned in "C" to a pitch of A = 440 Hz. The normal RUN screen of the tuner will be displayed: KEY= C A=440 C 00 ¢ AUTO SETUP MODE 1 2 3 4 d.
KEY= C A=440 C MUTE AUTO SETUP MODE 2 3 4 + MUTE ÷ 7 1 00 ¢ KEY= C A=440 C 00 ¢ AUTO SETUP MODE 1 2 3 4 Disengaging the Mute Function When engaged, the word "MUTE" appears on the third line of the RUN screen on the LCD display. The MUTE button is connected in parallel with the 1/4-inch jack at the rear of the tuner labeled "MUTE SWITCH". Any momentary-close contact device such as a footswitch may be used in place of or in addition to the MUTE on/off button.
GLOSSARY cent - an audio frequency interval which is defined by the division of an equally-tempered semitone interval into 100 equalratio steps. Each cent is 1200/2 times the previous one in frequency, making it about 0.058% higher in frequency than the previous one. equal-tempered - type of note scaling within a musical octave in which a perfect 2:1 octave frequency ratio is divided into equal-ratio scale notes.
APPENDIX A: WHY USE A "REAL" STROBE TUNER? There are many cheap "strobe pattern" tuners on the market which attempt to emulate the look of the image produced by an authentic rotating strobe disc. This is usually done with an array of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) which are simply turned ON or OFF in sequence so as to "appear" that the light image is drifting left or right.
APPENDIX B: WHY BE CONCERNED ABOUT UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENTS? Temperament refers to the specific frequency (pitch) intervals placed between notes in a musical scale. With 12 notes per octave (the most prevalent case but, by no means, the only case), there are an infinite number of ways to set the audio frequencies of these notes relative to one another. Through the centuries, many have wrestled with the challenge of creating the most pleasing, yet universally flexible, temperament of these 12 intervals.
AC Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 accuracy, tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 Auto-Note selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AutoStrobe™ is a trademark of Peterson Electro-Musical Products, Inc. All contents © Copyright 1998-99 by Peterson Electro-Musical Products, Inc. No part or parts may be copied or reproduced without the expressed written consent of Peterson Electro-Musical Products, Inc.
