Intonation is a tricky thing, and sometimes a matter of great debate. But out of tune is out of tune, and a tuner app can come in handy when we need to make sure our ears are not playing tricks on us.
But with a wide variety of apps to choose from, which is best?
Earlier this week I asked which tuner apps you found most helpful, and you nominated 23 of your favorites. Based on your feedback, here are your top five:
Cleartune
TonalEnergy
The interface is a bit more cluttered and less intuitive perhaps, but many mentioned enjoying the green smiley face that appears when you are in tune. Sometimes a little encouragement can go a long way when we’re struggling to get a note to sound just right.
iStroboSoft
Tunable
insTuner
Votes are in!
Cleartune ended up as the overall favorite, taking in more than a third of the total votes. But TonalEnergy brought in quite a number of votes as well, with iStroboSoft and Tunable garnering quite a bit of support in a tie for third place.
At the end of the day, the “best” tuner app may not be as clearcut as it is with metronome apps, and seems to be a matter of personal preference combined with the specific needs of one’s instrument (e.g. range).
Have something to add about one of the finalists? Is there anything we missed, or do you want to make a case for your favorite even if it didn’t make the top five or finish as high as you felt it should? Sound off below!
What's the Best Tuner App?
- Cleartune (38%, 101 Votes)
- TonalEnergy (22%, 58 Votes)
- iStroboSoft (15%, 40 Votes)
- Tunable (15%, 41 Votes)
- insTuner (9%, 25 Votes)
Total Voters: 265
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I love ins-tuner for my public school orchestra students. The lite version is free and it is so intuitive, my beginners are tuning their own instruments with confidence in no time.
Thanks for all your blog content , I look forward to each weekly issue!
As you’re reviewing apps, is there a recommended app for writing music scores? Ideally, I’d like to easily write a score for piano using touch screen features to place notes on a score. Any direction would be much appreciated! Thanks!
Hello Noa, do you know if any of these tuners also have violin option for sound? That is can I pick it to play the tones with a realistic (or as realistic as reasonably possible) violin sound?
By the way, should you do another posting could you consider a Scales app? I found the Scales Practice by the Stonekick website (Android and probably iOS too) has a great violin sound and does all the scales we are learning. Helps us learn scales like B flat melodic major and D melodic minor as my daughter and I learn violin, allowing us to pick the octaves to be only the notes the violin can play (ie the upper octaves not the cello or viola octaves).
Ricci Adams’ “Tenuto” app allows you to choose note ranges for the instrument you wish (customize exercise). He has very challenging tutorials for scale/mode/chord identification.
Hi Paul,
Tonal Energy has different presets, and there are also other apps which are specifically geared towards generating violin sounds (one which actually uses actual recorded violin sounds, not synthesized ones). Personally, however, I’m partial to the generic tones that don’t even pretend to sound like an instrument. We’re generally going to have to tune to a piano’s A, or the cellist’s A in an ensemble, or the oboe’s A in an orchestra, etc., so it may be helpful in the long run to get used to tuning to the timbre of an instrument other than our own.
Thank you Noa and Lee, I checked and Tenuto is not ready yet for Android but Noa I feel what you are saying is right….we are better off learning to tune to other instrument timbres than our own….better to start now as I cannot just pull out an app during a recital 🙂
[…] See original article here: Five Best Tuner Apps – The Bulletproof Musician […]
Why were there no free tuner apps included in the survey, e.g., “gstrings”? I use this all the time in my private lessons… but, am I missing something with the top 5 you listed?
There were a few nominations for free apps or “lite” versions of apps like gStrings, but interestingly, none got enough votes to make the top five.
I would recommend pitchlab for Android. I like it better than clear tune which I have on the Ipad. It has a variety of instrument presets along with a half dozen really interesting visualizations. Highly recommended.
If you like tuners with visualizations check out “Quantz tuner”, runs on all three platforms. Plus it can be used for free onPC and Mac in the browser at https://www.quantztuner.com.
Really surprised by all of the ClearTune votes. Its the Windows Vista of tuning apps.
Also, As of the writing of this comment, ClearTune will not work in iOS 11 as it is 32 bit only. The developer hasn’t updated it in 2 years so don’t hold your breath because all iOS developers were warned 3 years ago of the eventual shift to 64 bit only. So if you really want to keep using it for the foreseeable future, do not update to iOS 11 on iPhone and iPad. I believe the android version is still functional though.
Some of you might be interested in a blog that I write about apps to help your music practice.
PracticeApps
I’ve written about iStrobosoft & Tunable. Both great apps.
Thank you for your blog! I look forward to reading and sharing your posts.
Karen, have you seen Quantz Tuner? It is available on all three platforms, plus, if you go to the website you can use it in the browser for free, It is a Music visualization tuner, it uses graphics to show pitch, vibrato etc.
Thank you for this post! I needed a metronome/drone, and the comments and top 5 list were very helpful. I chose Tunable and am now practicing Kreutzer 2 with a lovely C drone:)
Do any of the tuners help you with tuning intervals? One thing that consistently amazes me is how few students, even very advanced ones, know about how intervals need to change when tuning. For example, if you’re trying to tune thirds…if you are trying to tune an E with a C, the E needs to be about 14 cents low, and if you’re tuning an Eb to the C, it needs to be around 18 cents high. It would be great if there was a tuner app that somehow helped students understand this!
Some hand-held tuners have the little “triangles” marked at the 14-cent-low mark and the 18-cent-high marks (the Korg tuner has this) and I’d be curious if any of these apps do too.
On Tunable, you can change the temperament to Just Intonation but then you will also have to choose the key that you’re in.
Karen
[…] flashes green if your note is in tune, and if you’re out of tune, the app uses a red bar and displays text telling you to go up or down. This will also cost you about […]
If you are really serious about playing in tune go take a look at Quantz Tuner for iOS, Windows and Android devices. It uses a completely new concept for visualizing pitch and is lightening fast. You can even see your vibrato! Also, you can play an entire piece and then scroll back and observe what your pitch did while you were playing.
Hi, Ive created online chromatic tuner.
https://onlinetuner.us, I’ll be glad if somebody check it and let me know how it works
[…] and you have an iOS device, download a tuner app. If you got an iTunes gift card in your stocking, check out one of these five. If you didn’t, find a free one. If (last one) you don’t have a tuner OR an iOS device, […]
Thanks, helpful apps!
[…] got an iOS gadget, obtain a tuner app. Should you acquired an iTunes present card in your stocking, check out one of these five. For those who didn’t, discover a free one. If (final one) you don’t have a tuner OR an […]
Are there any tuner apps you can recommend for Windows devices? All of the ones listed are for Android & Apple. Thank you!
Yes, take a look at Quantz Tuner for windows devices ( also on android and iOS)
What about Pitch Lab?
Yesterday I released version 2.0 of Well Tempered – a tuner, pitch pipe and keyboard with 212 historical temperaments. Check it out in the App Store. I’d love for it to participate in a 2015 re-run of the vote 🙂
Great post, you should try a chromatic tuner elegantune from https://elegantune.com
I recommend C Tuner by witbosoft. You should take a try from https://goo.gl/BOfzwA
I heard that it doesn’t work very well for iPhone6 plus. Can you please comment on this?
Thanks,
Pauline
Try Fine Chromatic Tuner. It is the best on Android and now is available on iOS
Thanks Noa — great research.
I’m thinking about purchasing a Roland VT-12 (https://www.rolandus.com/products/vt-12/), but at $200, it’s a bit pricey. Does anyone know of an app that might do something similar, that is, detecting the pitches in vocal melodies and giving real-time feedback for vocal training?
Real time visual feedback for voice- Quantz tuner on all three platforms. Free version too
Thanks! I’ll check it out (looks great).
Actually InsTuner, which I realized I already had, works *fairly* well for this, so I’ll try a few of the others listed here. I’ll also check out Shelly’s Quantz Tuner.
We have created a combination of strobe & chromatic tuner for guitar and violin:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a4tune
It’s free, hope you can check it out too, and will like it!
VitalTuner is by far the best tuner App that I have used. They have a free version out now too.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vitaltuner-only-best-tuner/id1128232445?mt=8
Can you recommend a tuner app for a tuba?
Thanks for the post. Would you know of an IPad Tuner app that allows one to change the frequency of a key on a music keyboard. The keys on a keyboard are equiempered and I’m looking to make the scale non-equitempered and set the keys in a way that meets the frequencies required for Indian Classical Music. Thanks for your time.
I made a more specific comment about this in a reply earlier in the thread: looks like Cleartune may have been abandoned by the developer, at least on the iOS side.
Are any of these better for voice? Speed and accuracy.
Yes, check out the free version of Quantz… it is very fast and records your pitch over time. Great for voice and looking a vibrato as well.
Shelly
Try https://tuner.ninja/. It works on desktop too, as well as mobile and tablet.
Try https://tuner.ninja. It’s a new one, and it even works on a laptop
There is this new tuner App that is great
So I was Navigation throw google play and find that new awesome App it’s totally free and got many features and very easy to use.
1- support 4 langs.
2- Great visuals affects and UI.
3- Change the Concert A from stander 440Hz to any other frequency that you like.
4- change notes name A B C To Do Re Me.
5- support guitar tuning and any other instrument.
6- support Auto or Manual note detection So you can focus in one string or let the APP do the work for you.
7- Switch between two visual effects for equalizer.
Download from google play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anyinstrumenttuner.kiwi
Cool post! I’d like to add that I recently made an iOS tuner app called One Click Tuner. It uses a pretty unique display that I’ve written about here: https://www.seqstat.com/tuner/.
try Tuner ONE! Totally FREE – no ads
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1435060008?mt=8