iPhone Tuners Reviewed

There are many tuners available for download on your smart phone.  They range from free to almost $6 in either up-front costs or with in-app purchases.  None of the tuners we looked at were given to us.  We paid full price for everything and hope to give an unbiased look at the features or lack thereof in each tuner.  All of these tuners currently have between four and five stars in the app store. 

If we missed anything please let us know in the comment section below.

(Click for larger image)

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The tuners are listed in Alphabetical order. 

Cadenza

Cadenza is currently $2.99 in the app store with three different in-app purchases at $.99 each (totaling $5.96). The in-app purchases unlock "pro" features (which add settings to the metronome, a pitch pipe to the tuner), a "sequencer" (allowing you to create a series of different bars, tempos, and time signatures played one after the other on the metronome), and color themes.  This tuner can be displayed in both portrait and landscape mode. 

Positives: 

1. Clean look
   
2. Metronome included
   
3. Rich metronome functions in the sequencer in-app purchase
   

Negatives: 

1. A bit pricy for an iOS app with all in-app purchases
   
2. Small font can be hard to read for some

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ClearTune

ClearTune is currently $3.99 in the App Store. There are no other in-app purchases.  The settings are very simple to find in ClearTube with one page where you can control everything. There are many different temperaments (systems of tuning) available in this tuner. Besides being able to hear the pitch ClearTune can also play sounds back.  ClearTune only displays with the phone in portrait mode.  There are no extra features like a metronome, but as far a tuner goes ClearTune does it well.



Positives: 

1. Easy to read
   
2. One price for everything (No in-app purchases)
   
3. A lot of settings/options

Negatives: 

1. No metronome
   
2. No landscape mode

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insTuner

insTuner is currently free in the App Store with an in-app purchase for $3.99 to unlock the "pro version."  insTuner can be displayed in both portrait and landscape mode. The portrait mode has a note wheel that shows a larger image of the notes while landscape mode has a cleaner look that just shows either the needle or whatever tuner you choose.  On that note, this tuner has many different displays.  There is a normal needle view, a clean "easy-to-read" view, strobe view, spectrum graph, spectrogram and historical curve.  There are many settings to adjust temperament, needle dampening, etc.

Positives:

1. Multiple types of displays
   
2. A ton of setting options
   
3. Portrait and Landscape mode.
   

Negatives:

1. No metronome
   

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PanoTuner

PanoTuner has both a free version and a paid version in the App Store. The paid version is $1.99 and comes with extra settings to adjust (such as temperament) plus remove ads from the app. This tuner will only display in landscape mode.  Like most of the other tuners you can adjust the temperament, transpose the key, adjust the tolerance of the needle, and adjust many other settings.

Positives:

1. Easy to read
   
2. Simple settings page
   

Negatives:

1. Only displays in landscape mode
   
2. More of the screen could be used to make the tuning bar bigger.
   
3. No metronome

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Pitch - Chromatic Tuner

Pitch is currently $.99 in the app store. It has a very nice elegant design and is very easy to read.  There are not many settings to adjust in Pitch besides the reference frequency and a couple other things.  The app only displays and portrait mode.

Positives:

1. Very nice design and easy to read
   
2. Simple settings page
   
3. Links to metronome app built by the same company in the settings page

Negitaves:

1. Only displays in portrait mode
   
2. no adjustment of temperament available or needle dampening

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Practice+

Practice+ is the jack of all trades type of tuner. It has a very nice looking display, includes a metronome, a recorder, and different settings to help practice.  Practice+ can display in both landscape and portrait mode. There are many settings to adjust but it can be difficult to navigate at first. 


Positives:

1. Clean design made to look like iOS8
   
2. Metronome included
   
3. Recorder included

Negitaves:

1. Can be a bit hard to navigate
   
2. No temperament functions in the tuner

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TonalEnergy

TonalEnergy Has the most features out of any other tuner on this list.  Within the app you have a tuner, metronome, recorder, a wave analyzer, and a display that will show your intonation throughout 35 seconds of recording.  This tuner would work great during practice (not just for tuning before practice).  With TonalEnergy being the most feature-rich, it is also the most difficult to navigate.

Positives:

1. A lot of information displayed all at once
   
2. Metronome included
   
3. Pitch analysis built in

Negitaves:

1. A bit confusing to understand at first
   
2. Hard to use on smaller screen

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Tuner Master

Tuner Master is currently $1.99 at the app store.  It has a very basic interface.  The app is not designed for a screen larger than the iPhone 4s so there will be black bars on the top and bottom, plus the app os only designed to be in portrait mode.  On the other hand it is the only one to offer different tuning options for the violin.  You can look up different styles ranging from Standard Tuning, to Cajun Tuning, to Sawmill Tuning and many others.

Positives:

1. Easy to understand layout
2. Different tuning styles described

Negitaves:

1. Portrait mode only
   
2. Very limited settings (no temperament change available)

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Tunable

Tunable has a lot of things going for it.  The look is flat and fits the style of iOS8 well.  The tuner function has a neat display that tests the players ability to stay on the correct pitch for a few seconds.  There is also a metronome and recorder included.  The recorded has a reverb function which is necessary for any phone recording. 

Positives:

1. Tuner, metronome, and recorder
2. Rich in adjustable settings
   
3. easy to understand

Negitaves:

1. Portrait mode only
   

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Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on these or any other music apps available for download on your smart phone.