SongScribe Tuner

Accurate.
Fast.
No nonsense.

Most virtual tuners jitter, lag, and fall apart in a loud room. This one was built by musicians who were genuinely frustrated with that. They did not ship it until it actually worked.

Free to download. Remove ads for $1.99: one-time, no subscription.

SongScribe Tuner app

All screens. No surprises.

Chromatic tuner display
Pitch detection in action
Instrument presets
Reference pitch setting
Dark mode tuner
Sharps and flats toggle
Bass guitar tuning
Ukulele tuning preset
Why another tuner?

Because most of them are not good enough to perform with

Most tuners jitter on lock, lag by a quarter second, and fall apart when other instruments are in the room. On stage between songs, you do not have time for any of that.

We built this because we needed it. Tested against hardware clip-on tuners. Tuned the needle smoothing until the jitter was gone. Made sure every preset shows correct string names, not approximations. Did not ship until rehearsals gave us nothing to complain about.

1 OS processing disabled

Echo cancellation, noise suppression, and auto gain are turned off. The audio pipeline from microphone to display is ours to control.

2 Bandpass filter

Audio is filtered to the musically relevant range: low enough for an open bass string, high enough for violin. Everything outside is discarded before detection runs.

3 Energy gating

Silence and ambient noise are checked before pitch detection begins. The algorithm only runs on a signal that actually contains sound.

4 Harmonic correction and confidence

A candidate frequency's harmonic structure is analysed to confirm the correct octave. A confidence score over a rolling window prevents false locks.

What it does

Everything you need. Nothing you don't.

Cent-level accuracy across the full frequency range. Tested against hardware tuners. The needle settles cleanly and stays there when the pitch is stable. It does not wander once it locks.
Pitch detection processes in real time with no buffering delay that you would notice while tuning. Strike the string, the needle responds. No waiting.
Guitar (8 tunings including DADGAD, Open G, Drop D), bass (4-string and 5-string), ukulele (High G, Low G, Baritone, D Tuning), mandolin, banjo (Open G, Double C, Sawmill), and violin. Every preset shows the correct string names and expected pitch. No presets gated behind a paywall.
Standard concert pitch is A440. If you play with a keyboard player who has tuned to A432, A443, or any non-standard reference, you can match it exactly. The full range covers period instrument tuning, early music, and alternative temperament work.
Toggle between sharp and flat notation with one tap. If you read F-sharp as G-flat or vice versa, the display uses the notation you prefer. Both are correct; this is a personal preference setting.
Microphone audio is processed locally in real time. Nothing is recorded, stored, or transmitted. No account is required. No email address. The app opens to the tuner immediately.
18 handcrafted color themes: warm parchment tones, late-night studio darks, retro phosphor glow. Or set any photo from your library as the wallpaper with adjustable blur and tint. The tuner can look exactly the way you want it to look.
The tuner functions with no network connection at all. Underground venues, rural rehearsal spaces, airplane mode: it makes no difference. The pitch detection runs entirely on device.
Themes & Wallpaper

18 themes. Build your own. Or bring a photo.

One tap switches the entire app to a new color palette. Every theme is a complete system: background, surfaces, accent, and text, all designed to stay readable when you are focused on playing.

Sunset Manuscript
Midnight Jazz
Forest Muse
Analog Tape
Lunar Ink
Vintage Melody
Cyber Solarpunk
Café Noir
Dreamwave
Copper Sky
Pastel Floral
Coral Reef
Classic DOS
Sea Glass
High Contrast
Arctic Aurora
Desert Dusk
Neon Tokyo
Build your own theme

Adjust the background, surface, and accent colors to create a palette that is entirely yours. Changes apply across the whole app instantly.

Use any photo as wallpaper

Set any image from your library as the backdrop. Blur keeps the tuner readable, tint adds a color wash, vignette darkens the edges. All three are independent sliders.

Under the hood

Built to track pitch accurately in a noisy room

Most tuner apps hand the microphone to the operating system and let it do the hard work. OS noise tools are built for phone calls, not music. In a loud room, the results show: jitter, latency, false readings.

Each step does one job. The next only runs when the previous one passes. We tested the whole chain against hardware tuners until the readings matched.

Design philosophy

One thing. Done properly.

A tuner has one job. The needle is large because you read it at arm's length while holding an instrument. The note name is first because it is the first thing you need. No tour screens, no mid-session prompts, nothing competing for your attention while you are actively tuning.

Every feature earned its place: instrument presets because string names matter and guitar approximations are wrong for banjo; themes because two hours of rehearsal is better when the screen does not look clinical; wallpaper because one size does not fit all. Everything else we looked at, we decided did not belong.

Pricing

Free to use. Pay once to remove ads.

Free
Free
Full functionality with banner ads on non-tuning screens. No ads while you are actively tuning.
  • All 22 instrument presets
  • Chromatic tuner
  • Adjustable reference pitch
  • 18 themes + custom wallpaper
  • Sharps/flats toggle
  • Works offline, no account
Remove Ads Forever
$1.99
One-time purchase. No subscription. Removes all ads permanently, restores on all your devices.
  • Everything in Free
  • No ads, anywhere in the app
  • One-time payment only
  • Restore purchase on any device
  • No subscription, ever

Common questions

Does it work offline?
Yes. The tuner requires no internet connection. All pitch detection runs on the device. You can tune in airplane mode, in a basement, or anywhere else with no signal.
Does it record my audio?
No. Audio is processed on-device for pitch detection only. Nothing is recorded, stored, or transmitted. The microphone is released when you leave the tuner screen.
What instruments does it support?
22 presets across 6 instruments: guitar (8 tunings including DADGAD, Open G, Drop D), bass (4 and 5 string), ukulele, mandolin, banjo, and violin. Chromatic mode lets you tune any instrument without selecting a preset.
Is there a subscription?
No. The app is free to download and use with ads. Removing ads is a one-time $1.99 purchase. That is the only purchase available. There is no subscription, no monthly fee, and no in-app purchases beyond ad removal.
If I buy ad removal, does it carry over if I get a new phone?
Yes. The purchase is tied to your Apple ID through the App Store. Use the "Restore Purchases" option in the app on any new device signed into the same Apple ID, and ad removal will be restored at no additional cost.
When do ads appear?
Ads appear only on non-tuning screens: settings, instrument selection, and similar navigation screens. The main tuning display never shows ads. This was a firm design requirement: nothing interrupts you while you are actively tuning.
Why is it so cheap?
Because it was built by a musician who wanted a good tuner, not a product manager who wanted a revenue stream. The goal was to make something genuinely useful and put it into the hands of as many musicians as possible. Free gets it there. $1.99 keeps the lights on. That felt like the right trade.