Tuning Apps

[Three Valves]

I use INS TUNER by EUM

I didn't like P!usadd Tuner OTU-2

Both free versions.

Must be accurate, easy to use and intuitive.

One was, one wasn't.

[thevillagetuba]

I use tonal energy, as well. It is available for both iOS and Android. TE has a lot of really useful feature, besides just being a good tuner with adjustable tuning settings and sensitivity, such as a built in metronome, the ability to record something and listen back to it with both an impulse-response analysis and tuner running during playback, and you can hook your phone up to the computer and pull the raw recordings off for future reference.

This app has been quite useful for when I have recorded audition runs to really analyze my playing to get specific areas that I need to work on.

Anything free, worthwhile, and work on an iPad?

"Cheap, cheap, cheap" says the bird.

The app is available for the iPhone, so it should work on the iPad as well but maybe without using the entirety of the screen. And though it might not be free (can't remember) it wasn't expensive... Maybe a couple bucks?

[Erik_Sweden]

Hi,

I use iStroboSoft from Peterson

[JCalkin]

I use Tonal Energy also. Yes, it costs a bit of money, but it's completely worth it. I like that it has the ability to instantly recognize and "drone" the pitch you're playing so that you are tuning with your ears and not just "freezing the needle." The ability to switch between just and equal temperament allows for better understanding of chord tuning for students. It also has an on-board spectrum analyzer, which is kind of fun to play with.

[Biggs]

iStroboSoft has been good to me, but the app I really found helpful for practicing with and not just spot-checking pitches was JustDrones. It was very cheap, plays in the tuba range, and has flexible settings for mixing harmonies. I like to let it run via headphones into one ear and play scales/intervals against the drone.

[smitwill1]

There's now a version of Tonal Energy for Android, which I recommend to my students! It seems to be pickier about whether pitch is spot-on--relative to my Korg--but that's selectable using the beginner/amature/pro options. I also use Trace Tuner, which has a simple interface yet shows how your pitch changes over time.

I suspect all phone apps are somewhat hampered by the small mics in the phones themselves: just listen to a recording of yourself (using decent headphones...). Between the auto level control and the roll-off in the low range it doesn't reproduce tone/tembre or dynamics as well as a pocket sized digital voice recorder. Maybe the phone apps are more sensitive to upper overtone fluctuations than the tuners...? Although, maybe the faster processors in the phones are responding to rapid fluctuations in our pitch that have been there all along? Any engineers want to weigh in?

[UDELBR]

I use Tunable for Android: https://goo.gl/5edEL

[windshieldbug]

Tonal Energy.

Well-tempered and pure tuning, several use levels for students/pro setting, tonal analysis, multiple temperaments, chordal drones, recording, sensitivity settings for loud rooms (warm ups), the works.
Just a couple of bucks as I remember.
Used to use iStroboSoft, but Tonal Energy has so much more...

[bisontuba]

Tonal Energy AND cello drones.....

[hduong]

Tonal Energy.

[thevillagetuba]

Is it possible that the phone's built in mic sucks worse than the tuner's built-in mic?

(a real question, not a rhetorical one)

If the phone is really old, maybe, but phones are used now to record and manufacturers know that and are constantly improving the quality of both the video and audio capabilities of their phones and the korgs I see people use are the same ones I saw years ago. How often are those tuners being upgraded?

[Rick F]

I have three tuner apps on my iPhone. Started with 'Cleartune' and it was just okay. Then tried Tonal Energy on someone's recommendation. I mostly like the Peterson iStrobSoft. It's $10, but I like the strobe effect display since it's easy to see indirectly. Mostly I use my ears though.

[Three Valves]

I am going to do some deep cleaning around the phone mic and see if that helps - my wife says it sounds a little distorted when I talk to her.

Mine says I sound drunk.

[grammit]

I heard the hype for Tonal Energy and bought the android version (it's a little cheaper than the iOS) but if there was anyone playing near me I couldn't get it to focus. I was curious if anyone else had that problem with it. Anyways, DaTuner will focus in just fine for me with a little background noise, so I've stuck with it.

[Bacchanalia]

The problem with almost all of the tuner apps (at least if you play tuba) is that they start get "jumpy" or just straight up lie to you at some point well below the staff (exactly where depends on the app). Yes, Tonal Energy is a wonderful app (on the iPhone--the Android is still pretty buggy), with lots of very handy bells and whistles--but it definitely has that same problem.

However, the Peterson iStroboSoft will give you a solid readout all the way down to the floor. Kinda funny how people would have RAVED about a tuner that worked well for only $10 years ago but these days people talk about an app being expensive if its more than a couple of bucks

[BMadsen]

Kinda funny how people would have RAVED about a tuner that worked well for only $10 years ago but these days people talk about an app being expensive if its more than a couple of bucks

Well, a couple of bucks plus the hundreds invested in the phone….

That being said, I love Tunable for myself (on an iPhone). Haven't tested the lowest range of of the tuba yet, but seems to be stable well below the staff for me. And it's $5 or less, last I saw.

A great metronome app, btw (since it's related) is Time Guru. Easily programable for a wide variety of time signatures, can program multimeter signatures easily (like 7/4 being divided as 3/4 - 4/4 is very easily programmed to give the proper stresses), and it has a random mute feature that helps you to internalize the pulse. And, you can save setups to make it easy to return to in the future. Similar price - $5 or less.

[Bacchanalia]

There's always the "el cheap-o" option too. Instead of putting an adapter on your real mic, you could just buy one of these, one of these, and get busy with the solder

I agree about useless clutter on the phone. But I'll point our that Tonal Energy isn't exactly useless even if you can't really depend on it as a tuner. It's a very feature rich little app with a nice met, tone generator that lets you build chords and then apply the various temperaments to them, all while outputting the screen on a monitor (or projector) make it very popular with teachers.

[Bacchanalia]

Yes, Tunable is a nice little package too, but it suffered from the same low-range problems when I tested it out. I'll admit, the Peterson is a bit of a one trick pony. But that trick is well worth $10 to get right every time, imho. Besides, the "strobe" effect is mesmerizing

[Jobey Wilson]

Musician's Kit on Iphone or Ipad...FREE!! It has a pretty darn good drone, tuner, metronome & recording device. jobey

[Bacchanalia]

I'm picturing Bloke carefully testing the water with a toe in the App Store pool--then the next day it's this:
http://m.imgur.com/gallery/CyXkMV2