Chromatic Tuner
Allow microphone access
To detect the pitch of your instrument we need to listen via your microphone. Click the button below and allow access in your browser's prompt.
How to use
- Click Start tuner and allow microphone access.
- Pick your instrument from the dropdown — chromatic mode listens for any note; instrument modes light up the target strings as you hit them.
- Play one note at a time. The needle shows how flat (left) or sharp (right) you are; the dial turns green when you're within ±5 cents.
- Adjust the A reference if you're tuning to 432 Hz, Baroque 415, or anything other than concert 440.
- Tap Play reference to hear the closest in-tune pitch — useful for tuning by ear.
How a chromatic tuner works
A chromatic tuner detects the dominant pitch in your input and shows you which of the 12 chromatic notes is closest, plus how far off in cents (a cent is one hundredth of a half-step, so ±50 cents takes you halfway to the next note). Most clip-on guitar tuners only listen for the six guitar-standard pitches; a chromatic tuner listens for all 12, which means it works for any instrument.
This tool uses a pitch detection algorithm based on autocorrelation — it slides a copy of the audio waveform against itself and finds the offset where they best line up. That offset is the period of the sound, and 1/period gives you the frequency in Hz. From the frequency, the tool computes the closest musical note and the deviation. The whole pipeline runs locally in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
For best results: play a single note at a time (chords confuse pitch detection), keep the mic close to the instrument, and avoid noisy environments. If the readout shows "—" it means the tool isn't confident enough about the pitch — try playing louder or moving closer to the mic.
FAQs
Why is my tuner showing different notes than my guitar headstock tuner?
A few possible reasons. Most clip-on tuners default to A=440; check whether yours is set to a different reference (some default to 442 for orchestral instruments). Also, clip-on tuners detect vibration through the wood, while this tuner detects sound waves through your mic — both are accurate, but mic tuners pick up overtones that can occasionally pull the reading. If you see a one-octave difference, it's almost certainly an octave detection issue with very low or very high notes.
Can I tune to 432 Hz?
Yes — set the A reference dropdown to 432 Hz. Every detected note will shift accordingly. The same toggle handles 442 Hz (orchestral standard in some regions) and Baroque 415 Hz.
Why does it say "—"?
The tuner uses a confidence threshold — when the input is too quiet, too noisy, or polyphonic (multiple notes), the algorithm returns low confidence and we display "—" rather than misleading you. Play louder, get closer to the mic, or play one note at a time.
Does it work for woodwind, brass, vocals?
Yes. It's chromatic, so any pitch in the human-audible range (~50–1500 Hz core range, more for harmonics) is detected. Brass and woodwind work great. Vocals work well for sustained notes; vibrato and consonants can throw the reading temporarily but the steady-state pitch will lock in.
Is my audio uploaded anywhere?
No. The microphone audio is processed entirely in your browser using the Web Audio API. Nothing leaves your device. There are no analytics events tied to the audio either.