Is the Boss TU-3 good enough for recording?

[H-evolve]

I came to a realization recently that tuning of your guitar is probably overlooked. I mean, when listening to productions that I find "so great" versus others that I find "ok", I realize that in the "great" productions, the guitars seem, at least to my ears, so freaking perfectly in tune.

Therefore, read a bit on tuning for recording and a lot of what I read was about getting a super top quality rack tuner that costs 400$.

I am well aware of the following procedure:
- Pick the strings as you would when you play.
- Tune to the attack and not to the resonating note.

But I only have a 150$ Boss TU-3. Would you say it's precise enough for recording purposes?

 

[The-Zeronaut]

I use VST tuners always when recording.

Check IRCAM the snail which is basically the most precise and complete tuner ever made.

Amplitube´s ultra tuner is cool too.

For something still better than average check tc-electronic polytune vst

 

[H-evolve]

I use VST tuners always when recording.

Check IRCAM the snail which is basically the most precise and complete tuner ever made.

Amplitube´s ultra tuner is cool too.

For something still better than average check tc-electronic polytune vst

Thanks for this. The IRCAM seems quite nice, but a bit over my budget.

As for the Polytune, I didn't know they had it in VST version. Do you know if it is much more precise than the TU-3? I would have thought it was quite similar in terms of precision, isn't it?

 

[GRStudios]

I personally don't like the boss tuners. I use the Korg pitch black and the pitch black pro. Super happy with those.

 

[H-evolve]

I personally don't like the boss tuners. I use the Korg pitch black and the pitch black pro. Super happy with those.

What don't you like about it if you don't mind me asking? As you probably understood I'm looking for precision. Something precise enough to be a good device to use before recording.

Heard about the Korg Pitchblack Pro (the rackmount) as being quite good and precise. So I guess the pedal is the same tech, but within a pedal frame right?

 

[BearOnGuitar]

I only ever use my Peterson Stomp Classic which is a very accurate strobe tuner that can also very accurately track low notes with ease, unlike other tuners which sometimes have a hard time displaying low tunings accurately or even at all. I personally hate needle tuners for the reason that it's very hard to use them to tune to the attack of the note as the needle keeps moving back and forth, and most people will by default tune to the sustain of the note with these, causing their instruments to be out of tune for the majority of their songs, unless the songs include sustained parts.

 

[GRStudios]

What don't you like about it if you don't mind me asking? As you probably understood I'm looking for precision. Something precise enough to be a good device to use before recording.

Heard about the Korg Pitchblack Pro (the rackmount) as being quite good and precise. So I guess the pedal is the same tech, but within a pedal frame right?

The Boss had problems with tuned down guitars. It was all over the place.

 

[H-evolve]

The Boss had problems with tuned down guitars. It was all over the place.

Ya to be honest I noticed that... I play a 7-string on standard tuning and I have a hard time tuning the low B, even if I have a long enough scale and decent string gauge (62 for the low B).

I'll have a look at that Korg tuner, it got me curious (in the pedal format, not the rackmount)

 

[GRStudios]

Ya to be honest I noticed that... I play a 7-string on standard tuning and I have a hard time tuning the low B, even if I have a long enough scale and decent string gauge (62 for the low B).

I'll have a look at that Korg tuner, it got me curious (in the pedal format, not the rackmount)

I'm happy with both, but the rack has a very useful strobe mode for super accurate tuning. Use that mode for intonation. Works great.

 

[H-evolve]

I'm happy with both, but the rack has a very useful strobe mode for super accurate tuning. Use that mode for intonation. Works great.

For the benefit of whoever is reading this post, I might be wrong, but after reading descriptions of the PitchBlack pedal, it seems to also have a "Strobe" mode. Maybe it's something that was recently implemented to make it closer to the rackmount?

 

[GRStudios]

For the benefit of whoever is reading this post, I might be wrong, but after reading descriptions of the PitchBlack pedal, it seems to also have a "Strobe" mode. Maybe it's something that was recently implemented to make it closer to the rackmount?

I didn't know that. I have the first gen.

 

[Megin]

I came to a realization recently that tuning of your guitar is probably overlooked. I mean, when listening to productions that I find "so great" versus others that I find "ok", I realize that in the "great" productions, the guitars seem, at least to my ears, so freaking perfectly in tune.

Therefore, read a bit on tuning for recording and a lot of what I read was about getting a super top quality rack tuner that costs 400$.

I am well aware of the following procedure:
- Pick the strings as you would when you play.
- Tune to the attack and not to the resonating note.

But I only have a 150$ Boss TU-3. Would you say it's precise enough for recording purposes?

That's why you need a strobe tuner. That's what pro's use in studios. TU-3 is +/- one cent and that's not good enough for top notch intonation and tuning. Peterson Istrobosoft tuner costs 9.99$ and like the their hardware tuners it's never nervous on the lower strings and jump around. Check it out: https://www.petersontuners.com/products/istrobosoft/

 

[BearOnGuitar]

For some reason I didn't enjoy the Istrobosoft tuner all that much. It works ok but I feel the Stomp Classic is much better.

 

[KillFrenzy]

I know it's been said before but anyway: I prefer to use VSTs for tuning.
If you use Reaper, Reatune is a very good option. I don't recall ever having a hard time tuning low strings using it and it's extremely precise.
Just don't forget to set the "Overlap" to 8x. And you can mess with the "Window Size" at will to best suit your needs.