Music Apps for Musicians, Part 1

Tuner Apps

Very few things are more important to a musician of any type than being able to play in tune. To that end we all spend lots of time with tuners to make sure that everything we play comes out in tune. Rather than hauling an extra device around, wouldn't it be nice if we could have a tuner in our iPhone, iPod, or iPad that we could use to make sure everything we play comes out in tune? Well, there are a few nice tuner Apps that we can use for this and I'll talk about a few here. One thing to remember is a 1st generation iPod Touch is not compatible with most tuners (as it has no microphone and no capability to attach an external microphone), and a 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touch will require an external microphone. iPhones and iPads include a microphone that will work, or may be augmented by a cable to allow direct connection of electronic instruments.

Cleartune Chromatic Tuner

This chromatic tuner app, made by bitcount, is a Universal App, meaning it will run the same on your iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. This means that when you purchase this app (for $3.99 at the time of this writing) once, you can use it on all of your iDevices for no additional cost. This was one of the first Apps I purchased for my iPhone, and since becoming a Universal App earlier this year it has become a welcome addition to my iPad as well. Cleartune has a clean and well designed interface that is easy to use featuring a large pitch wheel showing what note it is hearing and a smaller needle display that helps you to fine tune the pitch. The calibration, temperament, and notation can all be adjusted, as well as the transposition (useful for all the trumpet players out there who are too lazy to transpose up one whole step - none of us, I'm sure ). Additionally it can function as a pitch pipe, playing notes between C0 and B9. The App, as tested against an external stand alone strobe tuner is accurate, easy to use, and very responsive, quick enough to detect subtleties in pitch with vibratto on trumpet or when working with a bow on bass. In fact you may need to turn up the 'Needle Dampening' setting to be able to work well with it (I did!). Especially when you factor in the price, this is one App that no musician with an iDevice should be without.

Peterson Strobe Tuner

This is an excellent strobe style tuner. It is made by Peterson, makers of many different models of hardware strobe tuners, and looks and feels alot like the tuner part of their V-SAM tuner/tone generator/metronome. To be clear, it only does tuning, no tone generation or metronome functions, but that is alright as we have apps for those too. It features several very useful functions like a noise filter so you can use it in a noisy environment as well as an input boost in case your source is very quiet. Other than that it has the usual software tuner settings, like calibration, transposition, and colour. Option wise, pretty minimal, but what it does (strobe tuning) it does very well. It is useful for getting some idea of overtone tuning and fullness, but it does not give you enough information to really dig into those areas. Also, unless you buy this app twice ($9.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch version, $19.99 for the HD iPad version) you don't get full support on all your devices, as this is not a Universal App. The HD iPad version allows you to lock the pitch manually, so you can then begin to really work on overtone fullness and tuning, but you still are limited to one at a time with whatever pitch you have locked it to. Good features in both that would make this a great app if you had one Universal App that had all the features in one single version, but with the limitations and price this is not the tuner for most musicians either casual or serious unless you are specifically looking for a strobe tuner for one reason or another. Strong accessories that you can get for this app are an external microphone that will support 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touches, and a cable adaptor that will allow you to connect your bass, guitar, or whatever with a standard quarter inch cable. Note that they are sold separately, and thus will require you to put out additional money to get them.

Miso Strobe Tuner

This last tuning app is a much later arrival than the previous two, but it has alot going for it. First, it's $0.99. Second, it is a Universal App. Thirdly, it will show all twelve tones at the same time, which makes it ideal for the more advanced student working on ensuring that their overtones are nice and strong and in tune. And did I mention strobe? Much going for it, there is still a bit of quirkiness to be worked out, but regular updates and attention to detail make this app a force to be reckoned with, and I am confident it will continue to get stronger in the future.

Metronome Apps

Along with good pitch is good time. These two are at the core of good musicality, so let us continue with some metronome apps. There are alot out there, some free, some not, but I have found two that do everything I need them to do, both by the same developer, Frozen Ape Pte Ltd.

Metronome : Tempo

This app will do just about everything that most casual, serious, and advanced musicians will need. It allows you to set tempos from 10 to 800 bpm, allows you to emphasize certain beats, supports 35 different time signatures, has 6 different sub-divisions (3 for compound meters), will play "over top" of your iPod library to allow you to work on time with a song, and is a Universal App. On top of that there are some other features like customizable themes, different sound sets, set lists, and different animations. All together, a powerful package, and coming in at $1.99 this should be one app that no one should be without. I use this almost every day on both my iPhone and iPad, and find it to be a great tool that helps me and doesn't get in my way.

Metronome :Tempo Advance

For those rare times when Tempo doesn't offer enough, we have Tempo Advance. This app allows you to really customize the time, allowing up to 20 beats per measure and up to 8 sub-divisions per beat. You can customize the sound of each part of every beat, which makes it very easy to keep track of where in the time you are and makes getting more comfortable with some "out-there" times a breeze. Also $1.99, these two apps together cover just about everything you could ever need (they cover all I have ever needed, between trumpet and basses, but maybe there's something I'm missing? Let me know if you've found something that does more.

Ear Training Apps

The last category for this article are apps that help us with ear training. It makes it very easy to learn songs if we know what each interval sounds like. Likewise if we can hear the qualities of chords and the progression within a song. This app will help to develop your ear to ensure you have those skills.

Ear Trainer

Ear Trainer, $6.99 by thoor software, is a Universal App. It will guide you through the training and development of your ear, starting with simple things (interval comparison), working up through more challenging things (interval recognition, chord identification), continuing it's escalation through the difficult (chord inversions, chord progressions, and scales), and ending up with hard but essential skills (note relative to chord, relative pitch). While doing this, it will grade you and keep stats on your progress. Additionally the exercises chosen are random, so working through the same level more than once is not just an exercise in memorization of the questions. I've been using this app for several months now and have found it to be very good, well thought out in how it progresses from one skill to the next and well paced in how it leads you from easier to more difficult. None of the skills of ear training are secret mysteries, and there is nothing new here, no "magic pill" that will make you instantly have "big ears", but for those who can't get together with others because of distance or availability this is a great app to have. Also, for those like myself who may only have a few minutes here and there throughout the day to work on this, having it in my pocket instead of having to find another musician, find a place to work, and then getting started just to stop is invaluable. I can work on this anywhere, anytime, and the results are very real and measurable. A great tool to have in your iDevice locker!


That ends this first in the series of articles on apps for your iDevice. Look for more to follow in the coming weeks, as there are many many more apps on my iDevices. Please note that I am in no way sponsored or endorsed by any of the software creators, I get these apps the same as you do, by buying them. These reviews are my take on the apps from the standpoint of their usefulness to me, a gigging, teaching, writing, composing, full-time musician. Your results with these apps may vary from mine, depending on your needs, but hopefully you find them helpful to some degree in wading through the thousands (literally) of apps out there. As always, if you think there is something I have overlooked or an app that you think should be included in future articles please feel free to comment below or drop me a line with your thoughts.

TTFN!
Doug