tuning

Pluraltunings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The process of adjusting a musical instrument so that its pitch matches an agreed standard.

   The orchestra paused for a final tuning before the performance began.

   A slight change in temperature can throw a violin's tuning off.

   Note

   Music's everyday use names both the act of bringing an instrument to pitch and the state that results. That is why a violin's tuning can drift or be thrown off. The reference is a fixed frequency, such as A4 at 440 hertz. Keep it apart from a whole pitch system: a player checks the tuning before a performance, while a tuning system decides which pitches exist at all.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The adjustment of a system or circuit to get the best possible performance.

   After careful tuning, the amplifier delivered a much cleaner signal.

   The control system required tuning to stop the temperature from swinging.

   Similaradjustment, optimization, calibration, tweaking

   Note

   Engineers borrowed the musician's word: a circuit or control system is adjusted until it behaves as it should. What changes is a setting, not a pitch, and the goal is the best performance, such as a cleaner signal or a steadier temperature, rather than a match with an outside standard. That is the line between this and the instrument-tuning sense. One aims at a fixed reference, the other at the best result.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of tune.

   The technician is tuning the radio to a clearer station.

   Mechanics were tuning the engine all afternoon.

   Note

   The -ing form of tune works as both participle and gerund, and it is spelled the same as the noun tuning. To tell them apart, look at what follows. The verb takes a direct object (tuning the engine, tuning the radio), while the noun needs of (the tuning of the engine) and can take an article or a plural (a tuning, two tunings). All the verb's meanings carry over, from instruments and engines to radio channels.

4. 4
   nounabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of tuning system.

   The composer wrote the piece in a just tuning rather than the standard one.

   Gamelan ensembles use a tuning quite different from Western scales.

   Note

   A clipped form of tuning system, and it behaves like a full countable noun. Composers, traditions and ensembles each have a tuning, which fixes how many pitches there are and how far apart they sit. An adjective usually narrows it, as in a just tuning, and the word lets you contrast whole systems, as when gamelan ensembles are said to use a tuning quite different from Western scales.

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