Instrument Tuners For The iPad

eTuner is the essential tuning app for the iPad. The interface is nothing special. The functionality is what makes this app work. The main screen displays huge note letters with a bar underneath displaying how accurate your pitch is. Transposing instruments benefit from the app’s ability to show your transposed pitches. Simplicity and functionality make this the best tuning app out there for the iPad.

iChromatic Strobe Tuner HD is the best strobe tuner available for the iPad. We prefer the more traditional tuner apps like eTuner. Those that like strobe tuners will want to grab this one. The interface is visually appealing and easy to understand. The pitches displayed were also quite accurate. A great alternative to the essential app.

Miso Tuner is a strobe tuner for the iPad. The interface has been optimized for the iPad. The one big problem we have found with the app is the grey tones that are used to display your tuning. The app has the potential to be great if they change their color scheme, but right now it is just hard to use.

N-Track Tuner is a highly polished free app. A spectrum analysis is given for each note you play. The app is not very easy to use in a tuning scenario. It is fun to see what your sound looks like, but n-Track Tuner is not the best for tuning. This is free option that is fun to use. However, we would recommend spending a few dollars to get a better tuning app.

TuneLab Piano Tuner is a different sort tuning app, aimed at professional piano tuners. The $299.99 price tag should fend off any non-professionals. The interface should be better for an app of this price. Those tuning different brands of pianos can actually store different presets based on which instrument you are tuning. Historical presets are also given to help tune for unique scenarios. TuneLab Piano Tuner has all you will ever need as a piano tuner. We can only hope the interface improves in the next version.

Sing-inTune has great potential, but is one to avoid for now. The iPad monitors your pitch and displays it on staff paper with this app. The reason this app fails is accuracy. In our testing the pitches simply were not matching up to what we knew they were. Sing-inTune is an app we want to love, but right now it is overpriced and a little buggy.