Tuner Guide
Starting the tuner
Press Start and allow the browser to use your microphone — the tuner listens to the room and reads the pitch it hears; nothing is recorded and nothing leaves this device. Play one string at a time and let it ring: a plucked note is easiest to read just after the attack has died away. Press Stop when you are done to release the microphone.
Reading the needle
The large reading is the note heard, and the needle below it shows how far off it is in cents — a hundredth of a semitone. Left of centre is flat (tighten the string), right is sharp (loosen it). Within 5 cents the display turns green and reads In tune; between 5 and 15 it warns you are slightly off; beyond that it tells you plainly to tighten or loosen. The scale stops at 50 cents either way, which is a quarter-tone — past that you are nearer the neighbouring note.
Chromatic mode
Chromatic is the default and needs no setup: it simply names whatever note it hears and measures against the nearest one. Use it for a whistle, a flute, a free-reed instrument, or any time you just want to know what note is sounding rather than tune a particular string.
Instruments and tunings
Choose an instrument to tune string by string instead: guitar (standard, open G, open D and DADGAD), violin (standard and an open scordatura), ukulele (standard, low G and an open tuning), tenor banjo (CGDA, GDAE and open) and 5-string banjo (open G, double C, modal G and open). Pick the tuning, then tap the string you are working on — the tuner holds that string's target until you choose another, so you are not fighting a reading that jumps to a neighbouring note halfway through.
Your own tuning
If your tuning is not in the list, press Edit and set each string's note yourself, then Apply — every instrument can be an open or custom tuning this way. Cancel leaves the stored tuning untouched. This is meant for the one-off: a cross-tuning you keep coming back to belongs in your musician profile, where it is saved with the instrument.
Sharps or flats
Whether the tuner names a note B♭ or A♯ follows the same preference the tablature options use, so the app spells notes one way throughout. Change it in Configuration and the tuner follows.