Cleartune Reviews

by String Quartet Pro

I used to love Cleartune. It WAS beautiful, accurate, and easy to use. But with this first update in years, its become unusable for me. It seems like a hasty and thoughtless update. Even with needle damping turned off, it's incredibly slow to register changes in pitch. So slow that it's useless. The ability to turn the wheel to generate any pitch (such as in-between pitches, outside of the set temperament) is gone, with the disappearance of the padlock at the bottom. Finally, it doesn't force the screen to stay on anymore, so that when practicing with a drone it shuts off after a minute - when the screen turns off. Questions sent to the developer about these issues have been unanswered. As far as I'm concerned, this "update" ruined Cleartune .

by Allthingsgeetar

As a guitar teacher, I have referred so many students to download this app. The update a couple years ago made a great app considerably more frustrating. The green arrow pointing to the exact pitch you’re on used to only turn green when you were perfectly in tune, staying yellow when you were not. Now it’s just always green, which is confusing for my students. I avoided updating Cleartune on my iPad for that reason, but recently was forced to update it finally. I also don’t know why the updated version has a more zoomed in version of the pitch wheel. It was great the way it was, please go back.

by TristansHaze

I’ve been using Cleartune for a while for pipe organ tuning. Its ability to do temperaments is great, however today when I tried to tune to A415 Neidhardt Kleine Stadt, this preset had disappeared and the A415 setting kept reverting to A440. I’m trying to get an organ tuned for a performance and now I am screwed. Two stars for past usefulness but this is really a problem. I’d say use Cleartune with great caution because it is unstable and features that once worked have ceased to. I wouldn’t call it dependable. Sadly for what I do there is no other adequate app. What are we supposed to do? No app with the temperament features, and the one that has them doesn’t work!! Frustrated.

by Glbmstar17

I’m a musician who likes to put a tuner up on the stand and play through an entire piece of music to check for any intonation issues. With the newest update, if I’m not actively touching the screen, it dims and locks on me, which I find annoying. The only way around this is to change the settings on the phone to never lock, which I don’t want to do, so I’ve essentially stopped using this tuner and gone back to my old Korg. As I’ve used and loved Cleartune for years, this is a huge disappointment.

Other than this issue (which is a huge one for me), the tuner is accurate and useful, but the pros aren’t enough to overcome the cons for me at this rate.

by Drummin

This has been my go-to tuner for years. As a music teacher, I was able to use Cleartune on two different devices side-by-side to demonstrate what it sounds like when two pitches go in and out of tune with each other (using the tone generator). The “unlocking” feature that removes the pitch grid is essential to the success of this lesson because the students could see the wheel move farther and farther away from the pitch and compare it with the sound waves they hear (as the waves get faster, the pitches go out of tune with one another). They LOVED it and it was an extremely effective lesson. This feature has been removed, unfortunately, and now I need to find an alternative app. Very disappointed.

by Polydivits

I rarely pay for apps, but I bought this one a couple of years ago and loved it. I am a music teacher and have referred many students to Cleartune. However, the update has made it frustrating to use for several reasons. I like the smaller size of the old tuning "wheel". This larger size seems to be more "jumpy" and is distracting. It was also very helpful to have the needle stay yellow until the correct pitch was attained (now it just stays green making more difficult to see when that pitch is achieved).
I would have rated Cleartune 5 stars with the old version. I will probably look for a new app to use and recommend.

by Steven Loy

Very grateful Cleartune was updated for iOS 11! It has always been one of my most-used apps and I was so afraid I would never have it again after updating to iOS 11. The new update is completely functional, though hopefully just a temporary step towards a version that continues the excellent utility of the previous version. The microtonal tuning functionality in the previous version was peerless, I hope that gets reincorporated into the new version. I’d even be willing to purchase a new version. But THANK YOU for making it 64 bit!

by Ejmusician

Finally, a tuner app that works for classical musicians! So many of the most popular tuner applications are for guitarists, so it was really refreshing to find this one. I love the ability to choose key and notation system and adjust the calibration of the tuning pitch. All though I don't do much historical performance, those who do will appreciate the wide array of different temperaments to choose from. The only thing I wish Cleartune had was a better background noise dampener for use during orchestra warm up.

by King Zulu

Update 2017: This was Cleartune I was most concerned about possibly losing in the switchover to exclusively 64-bit apps for iOS 11. Now this app has been updated to function in iOS 11, and I am greatly relieved. It's (still) an excellent tuner. If you're looking for a tuner, you should buy this one.

Previous review: I've had this tuner for quite a while now, and use it to tune multiple and various instruments, from my uke to my piano. It's been very precise and reliable. Highly I recommend it.

by LSA2013

I have had no problems with the tuner, and our band director used it for about 3 years until he wanted a more feature-filled app. (I don't blame him considering that he used his phone to tune, record, and act as a metronome.)

As a bassist, sometimes it's hard for me to tell when I'm out of tune, especially on the E string. I have always gotten it down to a T when tuning using this.

For guitar and bass players (maybe all string instruments?), my other strings tend to ring out when I tune, and that causes Cleartune to spin pretty badly. As long as all my other strings are muted, it works fine.

For those rating it very lowly because it's not working: Have you tried using another person's phone/iPod? I watched a friend of mine use this to tune a piano and his trumpet.

by Neuro2go

I bought it to tune my guitar and to just play with sounds. However, I discovered it is an excellent way to test your hearing. Turn the volume down some and use a good set of earphones to test your hearing for losses. People with hearing loss could actually use this to track the character of their hearing loss over time. Musicians or people who like to listen to loud music could use it to be sure they're not losing hearing as time goes on. Useful.

by SaucieFellow

I have two tuners that I just bought this one and a 30$ tuner for my guitar. Well after using both I haven't touched my 30$ tuner, I use this for every instrument I own guitar, trumpet, trombone, and tuba and I never plan to look back if you need a tuner this is a great app that I would advise over many store bought tuners. Plus this is equipped with your phone so it's just one less item to carry around with all your band equipment. So all in all I advise Cleartune very precise and usefulo

by Djdirkie

I have had Cleartune a long time. It has long sent my korg and clip on tuners into the obscure corners of my garage. But… I recently purchased an IPhone 13 pro and re purchased Cleartune under a new Apple ID. I am very disappointed. I am using free turners with better success. If the problems are not fixed by march if 2022, I will change to zero stars if it is possible. I hope that I will get my favorite app back and functional.

by Donagh

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!!! . I’ve been a professional musician since 1980 and this is BY FAR the best and most accurate guitar tuner I’ve ever used. I was devastated when IOS 11 came out and the tuner wasn’t working. Thanks for the quick update. The temperament function really makes it worth it, too. Ever since I read an article in an article in Disc Makers Blog, I’ve used it regularly. Below is a brief section from that article:

James Taylor, in order to accommodate the vagaries of acoustic guitars, tunes his strings flatter than normal. Here is his guide:
High E string -3 cents
B string -6 cents
G string -4 cents
D string -8 cents
A string -10 cents
Low E string -12 cents

This tuning method is also great for using a capo.

Now, your mileage may vary. Your guitar is different than Taylor’s guitar. Your action may be higher. Maybe you play harder. Maybe you don’t use capos. Try it out and adjust your tuning as need be.

Anyway, thanks again! This tuner is the best of any I’ve found in Cleartune Store, and (if you’re a serious musician) is worth more than the price you are charging. Have a wonderful day! -DJG. nyc

by Jello Shot7

I play the cello and well it works and it's awesome, I would recommend it for anyone. The ONLY thing was that I wanted to use a G as a drone because I was playing something in G Major so I turned on the G to the loudest volume setting on my iPhone and after it damaged my speaker and now my speaker is basically broken, so I would recommend not putting the volume all the way up if you want to use the tuner as a drone, either that or use other headphones or heavy duty speakers if you want to use a note as a drone.

by Nathan#11

This tuner is excellent. For the money, you won’t find a better tuner for your iPhone. It’s easy to use, accurate and customizable. It had a pitch pipe setting so you can easily listen to any reference tone you like.
That being said, I noticed two small differences from the older version versus the new iOS 11 version:
1. The green needle used to turn green when you were +/- 5 cents from the center of the pitch. Now it’s perpetually green. Please change it back to how it was.
2. The pitch pipe used to have a lock setting so that you could set it to any pitch and listen to what it sounds like in or out of tune. Please bring that lock setting back so the pitch pipe works exactly as it did before.

No big deal, just hoping the developers see this review and make those changes if they feel the need to. I hope they do.

by DeltaForce85

Cleartune is a life saver. It is extremely accurate. We have several tuners lying around but I always reach for my phone. I have tuned every guitar I own from acoustics to bass guitars and never had a problem with a note registering.

I plug the guitar into my phone when tuning. I have used the iPhone built in mic before and it worked fine as well. Those complaining about certain notes or frequencies not picking up can blame the mic not Cleartune . If you are having an issue like this, try moving the soundhole itself closer to the mic.

by Msh161297

This tuner works great with the phones built in mic on an acoustic guitar. It works ok on an unplugged electric if you hold it really close to the strings, but for electric it really shines when connected through an iRig(I'm sure other similar adapters work fine too).

I've used this on iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPhone 5. My main use is still on my old iPhone 4 which I keep around as a beater for just this type of use. I'm guessing this would have worked fine on my 3G while I still had it if I hadn't killed its usefulness by installing iOS 4 on it which slowed it to a crawl.

by Littlemissviolin53

I never deleted Cleartune before the update and I tapped on it by accident and it opened! I was so ecstatic, Ive never been more excited about an update for an app! No I can resume my practice just as I did before! Thank you so much for updating this wonderful app! One thing I did notice however... I like to play the drone through a Bluetooth speaker so I can hear it as I’m playing a passage, and now it won’t play through my speaker. My metronome does, so this is a little disappointing. But this is a minor thing compared to how great Cleartune is! Thank you again!

by Fuzzylongbeard

Both this and very sadly Stagepass are not updated anymore for compabillity anymore. Cleartune made me buy an Iphone. Now I have to keep a couple of phones from updating to new ios! Stagepass has been taken off Cleartune store. This is a serious loss! Please save the Stagepass app. It is totally unique and there is nothing like it. The effort is also like no other app out there. Again I am saving a couple of phones just for these 2 apps please don't loose them. Update them! I will pay for the update!! Stagepass is a gem!!