Ocatune - dynamic practice drone for ocarina
Note that you must wear headphones for the dynamic drone to work correctly.
Ocatune is a dynamic practice drone. It listens to the note you are currently playing on the ocarina, and plays the closest equal tempered note for you as a reference pitch. You can then easily hear intonation errors by listening for the difference between the two notes.
This page can be accessed at the following URL in any web browser:
https://pureocarinas.com/ocatune-dynamic-drone
How to use Ocatune
When you click 'start' above, your browser will ask you for permission to use the microphone. Once you allow it, the tool will begin detecting the notes you are playing and play the closest in-tune note for you as a reference.
By observing the difference between this note and the note you're playing, it is easy to hear if you're playing in tune:
- When your pitch and the reference match exactly, you will hear a clean sound.
- If they don't match you'll hear a 'warbling' sound, and the speed of this warbling will increase the more out of tune the note is.
This is demonstrated by the following tool, notice how the sound changes when you drag the pitch slider left or right.
Ocatune works best for slow practice as it has some latency between when you play, and when it starts playing the reference pitch. Give these things a try:
- Play a scale, aiming to get every note in tune.
- Play a song slowly, and use Ocatune to check your intonation.
- Practice intervals, listening for a consistent clean sound.
Usage notes
Visualisations
Ocatune has a few options to visualise the tuning of the note you are playing, in relation to the reference pitch. The tool is primarily intended to guide you by ear, but you may find the visualisations useful to understand what you're hearing at first.
Audio latency
The time between when you start playing, and when Ocatune starts playing the reference pitch is called 'round trip audio latency'. It varies from device to device, and tends to be lower on desktops and laptops than mobile devices in my experience.
Finding a device with lower latency is desirable, as higher latency limits your playing speed.
Microphone audio quality
Note that pitch detection using the built in microphone in a laptop or other device with a fan may be unreliable due to noise. If you experience any difficulty using an external microphone will help.
Other tools
You may also find these tools useful: