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Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Tuesday June 09, 2026 @07:24PM (#48469198)
There are some piano tuners I've found who are a bit on the spectrum, who believe they can tune a piano in a way that no digital device can replicate. I'm skeptical, and would like to see how this method holds up against one of these savants.
Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by arjf on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @01:42PM (#48479901)
A tracking resonator bank should self-tune to any frequencies... so as long as the density of resonators is adequate, after convergence, it should paint a representative picture of the tone profile. Then you can try funny chords, or see how harmonics interfere, or see what happens when you hit 2 adjacent keys, etc.

Fun analysis experiments like this are why I made the free demo app (it runs on iPhone/iPad/Mac):

https://alexandrefrancois.org/Oscillators/

Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @05:38PM (#48483085)
Check out the big brain on Brad....

Impressive. Thanks for the pointer.

Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Tuesday June 16, 2026 @02:10AM (#48551210)
Why does it only go down to 32.70 Hz? I just learned that watermelon ripeness can be determined by the FFT of 17Hz. Tried thumping my phone on th watermelon with your app. No luck. Can you make it go lower? Or is this some fundamental limit of iPhone hardware?
Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by arjf on Tuesday June 16, 2026 @05:59PM (#48562736)
32.7 Hz is C1, lowest C on a standard piano (A440 tuning).

No inherent limitation of the technique, the resonators can be tuned to much lower frequencies. But indeed you‘ll need a better mic than the iphone’s to get frequencies below 50Hz iirc… too bad - the watermelon ripeness checker could be a really cool app :-)

Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Tuesday June 16, 2026 @07:59PM (#48564010)
There apparently are a bunch of watermelon ripeness checker apps. None get great reviews. Maybe you can get it to work. I only learned about this phenomenon while walking through Costco trying to pick out a good watermelon and asked Claude to explain what characteristics are most strongly correlated with Brix (sugar) levels. This sound check had the highest correlation.

Let me know if you update your app or make a watermelon version.

Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Thursday June 18, 2026 @01:34AM (#48581210)
I just tried a watermelon app called MelonAid. It predicted my melon was ripe to overripe. Cutting it up, my son seems to agree with the assessment.
Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Tuesday June 16, 2026 @08:02PM (#48564036)
Side note, I was playing with your app on my piano, checking each key. I noticed that the lowest keys didn't actually have the lowest values in your app. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how the app works?
Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by arjf on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @07:43AM (#48568955)
Most likely microphone lower range limitation. The fundamental frequency is out of the microphone’s range, so you only see the harmonics.
Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Friday June 19, 2026 @09:56AM (#48598631)
Dang. I wanted to try tuning my piano.
Re:Show HN: Resonate – Low-latency, high-resolution spectral... by jmpman on Monday June 22, 2026 @12:09PM (#48632129)
Can you reduce the lower limit? I think my piano is tuned to just under that lower frequency and thus those fundamentals aren't showing up.