Top Free Guitar Tuner Apps For Android
This post is part of a larger post that I am writing about recording music using your Android Phone. The guitar tuner is one of several apps that I believe will be necessary to accomplish that goal, and I will link to it as soon as it is finished.
To read the article about Free Metronomes go Here
To read the article about Free Voice Recorders go Here
As I was downloading Tuner apps I had a few requirements that they must meet to be on this list besides being free.
Requirements
1. App Permissions – The more permissions an app asked for the less likely I would be to download it. I don’t know why an app would need my location to tune my guitar.
2. I just want a Tuner right now, not an all purpose app that does everything. In my experience things that do one thing perform better than those that try to do it all.
3. I want a chromatic tuner (a tuner that tells you what note you are playing), not just one that tunes the 6 strings of a guitar, even if it has a bunch of options for alternate tunings.
The Apps
These are the apps that I feel would make a great choice to download and use (as of September 2016):
Your best guitar tuner! – This is a great guitar tuner with a very easy to see display. On my phone it takes up 5.2M of memory, and only asks for microphone permission. It is slightly “jumpy” but is still very usable.
Boss Tuner – Boss has been on the musicians side for a LONG time. These guys know what they are doing and the Boss tuner is no exception. On my phone it takes up 7.93M of memory, and asks for microphone and network access. It has some nice features, like a sensitivity setting and works great. It is “jumpy”, and sometimes took a few tries before it would start recognizing notes (it could be because I was switching through several different tuners) but is still very usable.
Pro Guitar Tuner – This guitar tuner is really nice looking and performs very well. On my phone it takes up 16.85M of memory,and asks for microphone and network access. This app does have settings for different tunings and different instruments as well. Very smooth and usable.
gStrings – A perfct, simple, easy to use guitar tuner. On my phone it takes up 5.42M of memory, and asks for microphone and network access. This app is over 7 years old, and is very good.
Pitched Tuner – A really great tuner that is as good as any other. On my phone it takes up 10.26M of memory, and only asks for microphone permission. Some reviews mentioned a second hesitation when a note is played but I didn’t notice it.
And that is the list. I hope that you will find something that you really like and can use. There are so many apps out there right now that it is impossible to review them all. If you have a tuning app that is not on this list that you like, by all means use it.
Thanks for reading!
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