Piano tuning is a crucial aspect of maintaining the instrument’s sound quality and performance. With the advent of technology, piano tuning apps have emerged as a convenient solution for professional piano technicians and enthusiasts alike. These apps offer various features that aid in tuning the piano accurately, such as virtual tuning forks, pitch analysis, and temperament settings. In this article, we will discuss the top piano tuning apps available for both Android and iOS platforms.
We have compiled a list of 5 Top Piano Tuning Apps For Android & iOS for your consideration, which have undergone rigorous testing and evaluation by our team of experts.
Table of Contents
5 Top Piano Tuning Apps For Android & iOS
1. TuneLab Piano Tuner
TuneLab is a professional piano tuning app that is part of a popular line of piano tuning programs for smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops. Piano technicians have been using it since 2001. It is not recommended for individuals who are not professional piano technicians.
TuneLab has notable features that include an accuracy of up to 0.02 cents, the ability to measure and use inharmonicity of the piano to construct a custom tuning, and an over-pull mode for more accurate pitch-raises. It can store hundreds of tuning files for individual pianos, and these files can be stored locally or on the Cloud on Dropbox. TuneLab also provides many historical temperaments for period music.
TuneLab lets you customize a tuning by sampling the inharmonicity for a few notes of the particular piano. You can choose the kind of tuning stretch you want, based on octaves, 12ths, double-octaves, or other intervals. Good defaults are in place if you are not sure which settings you prefer.
After a custom tuning has been created from inharmonicity measurements, you can store the tuning by name. The next time you need to tune that piano or one very similar, you can load that same tuning file and begin tuning. There is no limit to the number of tuning files that can be stored. TuneLab comes with some sample tuning files and an “Average” tuning file, allowing you to begin tuning right away without measuring inharmonicity.
TuneLab covers the normal piano range from A0 to C8 (88 notes). The automatic note-switching feature enables hands-free operation, and there is also an easy one-touch manual note switching. TuneLab has two different displays that are visible at the same time. The Phase Display is a band where black squares move left or right, with the aim being to make the squares stop moving.
2. Pano Tuner – Chromatic Tuner
Pano Tuner, a chromatic tuner, is now available on Google Play. This app can tune your instrument accurately by detecting the pitch of the sound you make and displaying the offset from the desired pitch.
One of the main advantages of Pano Tuner is its quick and sensitive response to your sound. It has a wide range of pitch sensors that can follow any pitch your instrument can make, including guitars, upright basses, trumpets, and piccolos. However, due to the varying microphone specifications among Android devices, the sensor range can differ.
Pano Tuner also offers customization options. You can adjust the concert-A frequency to match your band’s harmony or change the sensitivity for more accurate tuning. Additionally, you can utilize non-standard tunings like Pythagorean, Just intonation, 1/4-comma mean tone, and more temperaments to create your own harmony. The full version of the app includes the ability to add your own temperaments for greater consonance in your chords.
3. Smart Piano Tuner
The Smart Piano Tuner is a user-friendly and precise device designed for the purpose of tuning musical instruments. To utilize the tuner, one simply selects a tone and proceeds to play and tune their instrument accordingly. A green color indicator on the panel of the Smart Tuner signifies that the pitch of the instrument matches the selected note.
4. Instrument Tuner
Instrument Tuner is an Android mobile phone application that functions as a portable chromatic tuner, capable of tuning any musical instrument with high accuracy up to ±1/100 semitone (±1 cent) precision. The app boasts a wide detection range that covers A0 (27.50 Hz) to C8 (4186.01 Hz).
The application offers several features, including a tone generator optimized to produce sounds in the full range of A0 up to C8. It also includes tuning modes specifically designed for different instruments and special tuning features.
The instrument tuning modes include Chromatic Tuner, Guitar Tuner, Violin Tuner, Viola Tuner, Violoncello Tuner, and Bass Tuner (4 Strings and 5 Strings).
The special tuning features of the app include Orchestra Tuning, which allows users to shift or redefine the concert A pitch, and [Pro] Tempering Modes (e.g. Equal Tempering, Kirnberg3, Werckmeister3, Meantone). The app also offers [Pro] Stretching 4 Modes, which enables users to tune pianos according to their preferences.
5. Piano Designer
The Piano Designer app offers customization options for the sound of Roland pianos. The app allows users to adjust various parameters, including pitch, volume, tonal characteristics, and the virtual lid “position.” Additionally, the app includes pre-set sound options created by notable piano technicians.
To use the app, users must ensure their Roland piano has the most recent system program, which can be found on the Roland support pages. The app can be connected to the piano through Bluetooth or wireless LAN, or via USB cable. However, compatibility with all Android devices cannot be fully guaranteed.
The app visually displays parameters related to the piano lid, strings, and hammers, allowing for easy editing and transfer to the piano. Users can also independently adjust pitch, level, and tonal character for every note on the piano.
It should be noted that location information must be permitted when connecting the piano to a mobile device via Bluetooth for Android 6.0 and above. The app is compatible with Android 5.1 or later.