OWNING VS Licensing Software

SIGNIFICANT Differences

There are significant differences between the way an Accu-Tuner works and the software products. The Accu-Tuner is one of the only products that creates the pitch internally before the you ever play the pitch to be tuned. You may think: so what? Well the difference is in the accuracy, the software tuners use a mathematical method to determine pitch which is incorrectly influenced by the note being play pianissimo or forte. This is amplified by the higher up the partial, the larger the errors versus the true inharmonicity. This has led many piano people to declare that inharmonicity formulas are not accurate, if you measure inharmonicity with an accurate instrument the inharmonicity formulas work out very close to perfect. Some of the best quotes are from the creators of the software tuners making up words to blame the piano strings for the variations in inharmonicity versus admitting the inaccuracy of the software.

Owning vs. licensing

There also are significant differences in owning an Accu-Tuner versus licensing software. Software loses much of its value once you have opened the package whereas an Accu-Tuner still has value thirty five years later. Inventronics started manufacturing the Accu-Tuner in 1981 and serial number one is still in use and has value. How many software licenses have any value ten years after purchase? Answer: probably zero!

If you look on eBay, you'll see Accu-Tuners sell quickly for a good percentage of the investment, and also see software less than a year old selling for under fifty percent of the purchase price. Even in short run, recouping the investment in your tuner should be obvious.

Inventronics has had customers convert to software, then drop or somehow lose/damage/break their phone or tablet a little over a year later. Face it, these types of devices are fragile. In this common occurance not only have you lost your contact list/phone, but also lost your tuning advantage at the same time.

New models of the phones and tablets are released all the time and new operating systems forever in the offing. The software vendor already knows this and thinks the customer should purchase a new license at full cost, or charge again for the updated one. Contrast this to the Accu-Tuner needing service two to three times in twenty years! Some of our customers have tried the software route and come back to our Accu-Tuner: we win back a lot of disgruntled software experimenters.