TC Electronic PolyTune 2 - Manual (Page 9)

21st century tuning: How to use PolyTune 2
PolyTune 2 English Manual Version 2.1 7
21st century tuning:
How to use PolyTune 2
Chromatic vs. polyphonic tuning
A very simple guitar tuner will only allow you to
tune open strings, one string at a time – e.g. E, A,
d, g, b, and e’ for the standard tuning of a guitar.
PolyTune 2 is a chromatic tuner – meaning it will
detect and allow you to tune all twelve notes of
the scale.
But that’s not all. Other than a traditional tun-
er, PolyTune 2 allows you to play all your in-
strument’s string
simultaneously when tuning.
PolyTune 2 will detect which strings need to be
tuned and indicate those strings in its display.
This allows you to tune your instrument much
faster.
Finally, you may have tuned one or all strings on
your instrument differently from standard tuning,
or you may be using a capo to change the play-
able length of the strings.
In all these situation, PolyTune 2 has you cov-
ered.
Display modes
If you press the display mode button (4) on the
rear of PolyTune 2 once, the currently selected
display mode will be shown. Pressing the display
mode button repeatedly will cycle through four
display modes:
– Guitar / Needle mode (indicated by a “G”
and the center LED column lighting up).
– Guitar / Strobe mode (indicated by a “G” and
the middle row of LEDs lighting up).
– Bass / Needle mode (indicated by a “B” and
the center LED column lighting up).
– Bass / Strobe mode (indicated by a “B” and
the middle row of LEDs lighting up).
Needle mode
In (Guitar or Bass) Needle mode, when you tune
a single string, pitch is indicated by a column of
five LEDs in the upper part of the display, and the
name of the target note is displayed at the bot-
tom of the display.
If the string you are tuning is too low, LEDs to
the left of the center column will light up. If the
string is too high, LEDs to the right of the center
column will light up.
Tune the string until the middle column and the
middle row of green LEDs lights up. This means
you are “on target”.
Needle mode – A string in tune
Strobe mode
In (Guitar or Bass) Strobe mode, the difference
between the correct (target) frequency and the
actual detected frequency is displayed by two
indicators simultaneously:
1. red LEDs to the left (pitch too low) or to the
right (pitch to high) of the center LED column
2. rotating segments in the display. The closer
the detected frequency is to the target fre-
quency, the slower the rotation.
Tune the string until the rotating pattern has
come to a stop and only the middle column of
green LED lights up.
Polyphonic tuning
As you know by now, PolyTune 2 is a polyphonic
tuner. You can strum your instrument, and Poly-
Tune 2 will analyze and display the tuning of all
strings.
So how do you activate polyphonic tuning mode?
You don’t – it just works. Strum, tune, rock on!
Strum your guitar. Strings that are in tune will
be represented by two green LEDs. Strings that
need tuning are represented by two red LEDs
below (flat) or above (sharp) the middle row.