Online Tuner

How to use the online tuner

1. Press Use microphone and allow the browser to use it. A laptop or phone microphone works; get close to the instrument in a quiet room.
2. Choose your instrument, or Chromatic for anything else. The strings of the preset appear under the reading, in string order.
3. Pluck one string and let it ring. The tuner lights the string it heard, shows how many cents it is sharp or flat, and the lamp comes on within 5 cents of the target.
4. Turn the peg: Flat: tune up means tighten, Sharp: tune down means loosen. Then move to the next string.

Nothing is recorded, stored or uploaded: the microphone is read in this browser tab.

Tunings and their frequencies

Each preset's strings in string order (on a guitar, from the low E to the high E), with the frequency the tuner aims for at the standard A4 = 440 Hz. Change the A4 reference and the targets move with it.

Ukulele is listed in playing order, G C E A, because standard tuning is re-entrant: the G string is tuned above the C next to it. The 5 string bass adds a low B below the E.

How do you tune a guitar?

1. Choose Guitar, standard. The strings are E A D G B E, from the thickest to the thinnest.
2. Pluck the low E string (E2, 82.41 Hz) and turn its peg until the lamp lights.
3. Do the same for A, D, G, B and the high E.
4. Go round once more. Changing one string's tension pulls slightly on the neck, so the first strings can drift while you tune the others.

For drop D, choose Guitar, drop D and lower the low E a whole step to D2 (73.42 Hz); the other five strings stay where they are. If you overshoot a note, go below it and come back up.

What do the cents mean?

A cent is a hundredth of a semitone, so the meter runs from 50 cents flat to 50 cents sharp, half a step each way. The tuner names the nearest string, then shows how far you are from it. The lamp lights when you are within 5 cents.

The reference is A4 = 440 Hz, the international standard (ISO 16). Orchestras sometimes tune to 442 Hz, and some players prefer 432 Hz. Set the A4 reference to match the band or the recording you are playing along to; against 440, a guitar tuned to 432 reads about 32 cents flat on every string.

For a single note from a voice, a synth or a sample, the Pitch Detector shows the same reading with a note frequency chart, and it can read an audio file too. To find the key of a whole song, use the Key and BPM Finder.

Common mistakes

• Reading the attack. A plucked string starts a little sharp and settles as it rings. Let it ring for a second before you judge it.
• Letting other strings ring. Two strings at once have no single pitch. Mute the others with your hand.
• Noise near the microphone. Fans, traffic and other instruments blur the reading. Move closer and tune in a quiet spot.
• The wrong preset. In drop D the low string should read D2; in standard it reads as a flat E. Pick the tuning you are aiming for first.
• A low string that jumps an octave. Very low notes are weak on small microphones, so the tuner can hear the harmonic above. Pluck a little harder, closer to the microphone.

<a href="https://vitricaudio.com/tools/tuner">Free online tuner</a> by Vitric Audio