Sometimes you need to get your guitar back to standard pitch, but you don't have a tuner ready. Fortunately, you can also tune with style using your linux command-line!
To use this method, first install the sox utility using your favorite package manager. Now you can issue the following command to produce a nice A:
play -n synth sine 220
Press Ctrl + c to stop the tone. Admittedly, this way of tuning requires you to use your ears, but it does the job, doesn't it? What about this one-liner:
for freq in {164.81,220,293.67,392,493.88,659.26}; do play -n synth sine $freq; done
This will give you the lower E, then an A, then a D and so on until the higher E, after which it will terminate. Press Ctrl + c every time you finish tuning a string. Ain't that nice for just one line of shell script?
Edit: brendan fahy came up with a much nicer version of the line that should work with newer versions of sox and gives an actual guitar sound:
for n in E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4; do play -n synth 4 pluck $n repeat 2; done
Pretty nifty, isn't it?
Did you like this solution? Do you know of an even better way to tune your guitar using the command-line? Leave a comment! And if you like this blog, why not subscribe?
Looked interesting so I read the manpage for play, turns out there is a command in the man page that gives a much better one liner. Uses actual guitar sounds rather than sine waves.
for n in E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4; do play -n synth 4 pluck $n repeat 2; done
That sure looks much nicer, thanks for posting! However, the sox version I have here doesn't seem to know the pluck synth or the 'E2'-like notation. I'll mention your version, but keep mine for backwards compatibility.
Sox 14.3.0 has the pluck synth, 14.2.0 does not.
AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEAAAAAAAAH.
This is a bitchin' script, Thanks!
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Ok this is cool. Thanks very much
My guitar has been out of tune for over a year now. Used the script to tune it and jammed for a while. Brings back memories >)