Using Linux and BASH as a Guitar Tuner

Linux is powerful. VERY powerful. The limits are unknown! What is the most effective use of this power you ask? Well, synthesizing a guitar tuner with the command line of course! Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1. Install SoX using a package manager or downloading the source here.

Step 2. Start simple. Let’s start with the following command which will give you an A:

play -n synth sine 220

To stop the tone, use your break key. Usually Ctrl – C.

Step 3. Step it up a notch. Now, let’s try a nice one liner that will give you each of the notes from the low E to the high E and then stop:

for n in E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4; do play -n synth 4 pluck $n repeat 2; done

Well, there you have it! Let me know in the comments section if you come up with any other cool uses for SoX!