Perfect Intonation FAQs

Troubleshooting

I'm having trouble installing the program.

First, be sure you downloaded the correct file (Mac or Windows).

For Mac:

After downloading, double click the "Perfect Intonation.dmg" file to mount it - a "disk" will appear in your finder. Drag Perfect Intonation to your applications folder. If you want the sample MusicXML files, drag them to a convenient location.

For Windows:

After downloading, double click the "Perfect Intonation.msi" file to launch the installer; follow the instructions in the installer window.

The program doesn't run on my computer.

If the program is installed correctly but won't run, it's possible your operating system does not meet the system requirements. Please contact technical support: http://provectismusic.com/support .

I can't get microphone calibration to work.

It actually may not be necessary to calibrate your microphone. Try to get pitch detection to work--press Record in either Freeform Singing or Exercises mode and sing at a comfortable volume into the microphone. If a blue line appears and is fairly consistent and steady, your microphone does not need to be calibrated. If it seems like your pitch is not being detected (and you are singing loudly enough,) you may need to calibrate. First test that your microphone is working properly and your computer's microphone input volume is set to a reasonable level, and then rerun the calibration. Be sure that your environment is fairly quiet; high ambient noise will disrupt the calibration (and pitch detection). It is important to sing at a comfortable, constant volume. You can also set the calibration manually (using the sliders to define the range), which may produce better results. If you are still having trouble defining a range that produces good pitch detection, please visit our support page to get help.

The pitch detection (blue line) is very choppy or jumps around.

There could be several reasons the pitch detection is variable. If the pitch detection seems to be halting and then jerking to catch up, your computer processor might be too slow. Try closing other applications that are running and reducing the Perfect Intonation window size. If pitch detection instead seems to be extremely spotty and broken up vertically, it is probably a microphone problem. Check that the microphone you are using is set selected in Preferences and your line in volume is loud enough: For Windows, go to Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Device Properties >Audio tab and look at Sound recording in the middle of the window. Be sure the microphone you are using is plugged into the default device shown. Then, click the Volume... button and check that the Line In Balance and Volume are set to a reasonable level, and that the Mute all checkbox is unchecked.

I think PI is not detecting my pitch correctly!

This is possible - we have attempted to adjust the pitch-detection algorithm in PI to accommodate a broad array of voice and string instruments at many different pitches, and to handle different microphones, computers, and levels and types of background noise. However, we are always seeking to improve it.

If you make a recording and you think PI didn't detect the pitch correctly, please save it with File -> Save Recording and email us the file, so we can use it to improve our pitch detection for the next version of the software.

There is weird background noise in my recordings when I use my laptop.

Many laptops suffer from a lot of electrical interference in their soundcards, especially if the soundcard is located near the fan or hard drive. Also, many have built-in microphones that may be located next to the fan and pick up interference that way.

If you suffer from these problems, we recommend using PI with an external, USB-based headset microphone, which should reduce or eliminate the problem.

What do I do if I found a bug?

We're sorry you're having trouble with the program. Please send a description of the problem you're having, along with steps to reproduce the problem (if any) to and we'll do our best to fix it in the next revision.