How Does A Strobe Tuner Work?

How exactly are Peterson tuning products different from other tuners? What is a strobe tuner? Do I really need to be that "in tune"? What are "Sweetened Tunings"?
If you've asked any of the questions in the past, we invite you to watch our video series that breaks each one of these points down and explains how our tuning products can help make your instrument sound the best it can.
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[@mandolinic]

My Snark tuner was telling me my mandolin did not have correct intonation and was out on the 12th fret, implying that the bridge needed to move. Unfortunately, the bridge on this particular mandolin is not (easily) moveable, so it would need a visit to a technician. However, before doing that, I thought I'd confirm the problem with a strobe tuner, and I chose the Peterson clip-on, which arrived today. As soon as I tried it, it showed me that the intonation on my mandolin is perfect! No need to waste a trip to see a technician on a pointless errand.
No more Snarks for me; I'm hooked on Peterson! And the "sweetened" mandolin tuning sounds very cool, too!

[@Shariukasz]

For any measurement equipment one of the most important parameters is reference. In the case of strobe tuners it's the speed of a spinning disk. How accurate is it?

[@MG-vo7is]

Thanks.

[@dandixon7]

You lost me. You sold me on the idea that strobe tuners create immediate feedback without the need to compute pitch like digital tuners do then told me that your digital tuners are just as good. Could you please explain why the traditional strobe is the same as your digital tuners but not other digital tuners?

[@PetersonTuners]

Thanks for the question. Our digital tuners operate on the same principle as our mechanical tuners. Our mechanical tuners spin the disk at a set rate in relationship to the incoming pitch. The strobes flash at the frequency of the incoming pitch. When the phases align, the wheel appears to stand still.
Our digital tuners operate on this same phase identification, but instead of a spinning wheel, the incoming frequency is compared to a static internal tone generator. The phase is then displayed in real time on the digital display as either sharp or flat of the target pitch by the spinning strobe image.

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

Hope this helps;
It's not the accuracy of the tuner that's different, it's how best to display that accuracy. An LCD display is limited by the number of LCDs it's possible to fit into a screen small enough to be practical, but many hundreds would be needed to properly display the extremely fine accuracy.
For example; If 100 LCDs were used, each one could only display to an accuracy of 1%, so when you tuned to the "target" LCD you might still not be exactly in tune.
The solution is to use the rotating disc method which can display the tuning precisely without needing a lot of LCDs because it only has to be able to display movement, and when you stop that movement you are _exactly_ in tune.

[@mandolinic]

@@Kevin-mx1vi Not really. You only need two seven segment displays and a +/- to show the number of cents away from the target note. Eg. G -27 if you're 27 cents below G. You can add a decimal point and another seven seg display if you want more accuracy. That's about 24 LCDs. I suggest that for an instrument tuner, three decimal digits is more than adequate.

[@unitedunitedunited_]

Thanks.

[@Wivernryder]

Thanks.