Best iOS Tuner Apps?

pootsie said:

This is the insTuner display setting that you can read from a mile away:

here is more info:

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2013/04/29/instuner-a-look-at-the-chromatic-tuner-for-ios/

Click to expand...

The free version is great for what you get.
The free version was certainly as good as my Snark. And works perfectly well for most folks. You can absolutely read the rough-tuning setting from across the room. But not the tiny fine tuning needle.

There is no fine-tuning and no strobe-tuning unless you pay the couple bucks. And the little needles on the fine-tuner are a heck of a lot smaller than that great big green-light on the free version, so landscape mode helps out there. For $3.99 you get much better accuracy. Four bucks well spent in my opinion.

And knowing how technical Oldephart's posts often are, I suspected he would be in the "spend four bucks for the improved accuracy" camp.

...just my two cents about the three-hundred-ninety-nine cents the upgrade costs.

davidrboy said:

And knowing how technical Oldepharts posts often are, I suspect he would be in the "spend four bucks for the improved accuracy" camp.

Click to expand...

I tried to read his posts on the noisy pickup and almost pulled a muscle in my frontal lobe.

pootsie said:

I tried to read his posts on the noisy pickup and almost pulled a muscle in my frontal lobe.

Click to expand...

Exactly.
I was thinking back to one he posted about intonation and tuning across something or other I fizzled out trying to follow.

By no means is it the "best" tuner app, but in keeping with ukulele being a fun instrument, I loaded Ukulele Girls app. I generally have a clip-on with me when a uke is by my side, but in a pinch, this tune-by-ear app suffices and gets a chuckle every time.
It's just......well.......fun!

davidrboy said:

The free version is great for what you get.
The free version was certainly as good as my Snark. And works perfectly well for most folks. You can absolutely read the rough-tuning setting from across the room. But not the tiny fine tuning needle.

There is no fine-tuning and no strobe-tuning unless you pay the couple bucks. And the little needles on the fine-tuner are a heck of a lot smaller than that great big green-light on the free version, so landscape mode helps out there. For $3.99 you get much better accuracy. Four bucks well spent in my opinion.

And knowing how technical Oldephart's posts often are, I suspected he would be in the "spend four bucks for the improved accuracy" camp.

...just my two cents about the three-hundred-ninety-nine cents the upgrade costs.

Click to expand...

I asked because I thougt I had the lite version, (but I just checked and I have the full version), and I was just wondering what more would you need

I didn't remember I had paid for it, maybe it was a promotion...

Anyways, thanks for your reply!

I've got the Ukulele Girls for laughs and the GuitarToolkit for serious business.

davidrboy said:

There is no fine-tuning and no strobe-tuning unless you pay the couple bucks. And the little needles on the fine-tuner are a heck of a lot smaller than that great big green-light on the free version, so landscape mode helps out there. For $3.99 you get much better accuracy. Four bucks well spent in my opinion.

And knowing how technical Oldephart's posts often are, I suspected he would be in the "spend four bucks for the improved accuracy" camp.

Click to expand...

Heh, heh. I'll take that as a compliment, and, yes, you're absolutely right; four bucks is money well spent for better precision in a tuner. LOL

It's nice to know that the paid version offers a strobe-like UI - they don't really seem to do a very good job of advertising that. I tried the free version and I was like, "meh" and deleted it - now I'll have to go ahead and try the paid version because that was what I really liked about the pro version of Da Tuner on Android.

JOhn

pootsie said:

I tried to read his posts on the noisy pickup and almost pulled a muscle in my frontal lobe.

Click to expand...

You just need to exercise it more. :biglaugh:


At least your head didn't explode. I think that's why the company lets me telecommute now - cleaning brains off the walls was getting expensive... LOL

As a follow up...

I bought the paid version of the InsTuner last night and it is much better. The simulated strobe view is what I was looking for. You can tune really precisely with that view. It's a little more jittery up the fretboard than my Da Pro Tuner was on my android phone, but I think that's probably a hardware issue of the iPhone microphone filtering out the highs

I'm still "meh" about the main tuner display, though. Yeah, it's big and easy to see and not at all jittery - but, it goes solid green when you are within +/- 5 cents (contrast with a Snark that shows "in tune" at about +/- two cents). That means with InsTuner in standard mode you can have relative tuning of 10 cents off (some high and some low) and still be showing steady green on all strings. IMHO that's not very good tuning. That's far enough out that almost anyone can detect it - they may not recognize that it's a tuning issue but they will notice that the uke is "not as sweet as" some other ukes. Also, your ear will improve much faster if you play with really "tight" tuning.

One thing to keep in mind with electronic tuners - while signal processing makes some less jittery than others, any tuner that shows a steady "in tune" indication on a plucked instrument too easily is probably not showing the tuning very precisely!

Anyway, thanks for your help everybody. I think InsTuner is going to meet my needs for a backup tuner just fine.

John

I like spin tuner. Nice visualization.

Bill in NH

OldePhart said:

As a follow up...

IMHO that's not very good tuning. That's far enough out that almost anyone can detect it - they may not recognize that it's a tuning issue but they will notice that the uke is "not as sweet as" some other ukes. Also, your ear will improve much faster if you play with really "tight" tuning.

John

Click to expand...

I never realized until recently how much this is true. Precise tuning makes strummed chords sound so much better - it's like night and day!

OldePhart said:

Okay...anybody have any recommendations for good tuner apps for the iPhonePowre Bank? I've been using Da Tuner Pro on my android and love it but I finally had to break down and get new phones (my almost 4-year-old HTCCase Hero was actually still working very well but my wife's Samsung Instinct HD? of the same vintage was on its last legs). I decided if I was going to be stuck with a contract again I'd better replace both phones otherwise that Irish chap would stick his ugly head up and my old Hero would have bought the farm next week.

BTW, if anyone owns stock in Sprint you might want to dump it now. Historically, every time I have renewed a contract with a cellular provider they have reduced their network coverage by 50%, lost most of their market share, and been gobbled up in a hostile takeover within 60 days...

John

Click to expand...

I can't recommend GuitarToolkit enough!
You could try CarlTune,
and I have tried a lot

pootsie said:

I got insTuner free and it does a fine job. It has different display settings and one of them is super-easy to see

Click to expand...

+1 for insTuner. I like it a lot. It very precise as it shows a very detailed display. You can also change to different modes, i.e., something aside for the 12-tone equal temperament tuning (but I have no instruments that use something different).

Aside from detecting your pitch, it will also generate a tone for you, so you can tune by ear as if you have a tuning fork, and there is a tone-wheel display that looks kind of like the circle-of-fifths when you look at that screen.

Checking insTuner against both my NS Mini and NS Micro tuners, it shows that the NS Mini can be off sometimes, but the Micro is dead on.

I was considering getting the Peterson iStrobosoft, which is the iOS software version of their strobe tuners. It's $10 to buy, but much cheaper than their clip on tuner...

I have also used the tuner that is built-in to the iOS version of Garageband, but you will not see it available unless you select the GUITAR as your instrument, and then the tuning fork icon, otherwise if you select the AUDIO RECORDER, it does not give you a tuner.

As an aside: The only problem with selecting the GUITAR instrument is that it will default to using some amplifier and effects, which will color your sound should you record with that option and there is NO WAY to get it perfectly clean unless you select AUDIO RECORDER.

I also used ProTuner for a while but got tired of being assaulted by advertising banners that constantly animate in the app, I have removed it and will use insTuner if I need an iOS tuner app.

Hey John,

I just found this one - UltraTuner from the iRig folks.

The display looks cool, but not sure if I want to spend the $5 right now to try it.

Video demo here.

(Sorry, and this is completely off-topic, but it sounds like they hired voice actor Brooks Moore to do the voice-over, if you are a fan of the History Channel's 'How It's Made' series you might remember his voice)

-Booli

Ahh, I guess somebody revived this thread. I've been using insTuner (the paid version) for months now. I love the precision of the strobe view.

Actually, "using" might be a bit strong - I only use my phone for tuning if I happen to be in a store or someplace else where I don't have one of my dedicated tuners handy.

John

Thought this thread could use some updating. Anybody have any current iOS tuner apps they really like?

I'm using Guitar Tuner, a free app. Yeah, the ads are a little annoying, but it works OK for me. Hoping to find one I like better.

missameeames said:

I've only used iStrobosoft, and I've been happy with it. I have GuitarToolkit, and probably a few other tuner apps, but I've never tried them. I guess I was just so content with iStrobosoft that I never felt the need to try any others?

Click to expand...

Same here. It is convenient, easy to use, and resolves to one cent. This is the only tuner tool that I use for setups and everyday tuning.

My favorite tuner app, so far, is Tonal Energy. Tuner that will transpose for all my lessons and the things I play, as well as a metronome and tons of other stuff. Works very well and it is a hoot when you get in tune and it smiles at you.
http://tonalenergy.com