Pitch tool · The microphone starts only when you do
Pitch studio
Online chromatic tuner
Play one steady note and hold it.
Tune one note at a time
Your microphone starts only after you choose this button.
Audio stays in this browser tab and is not recorded.
Play one note and hold it. The tuner names the note and octave, shows how far the pitch sits from the target in cents, and measures everything against the concert pitch you choose between 410 and 480 Hz.
What can you set on this tuner?
Two settings change what the tuner reports: the reference pitch every target is measured from, and how strong a signal has to be before a note is shown at all.
| Setting | Available range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Concert pitch | 410–480 Hz | The frequency of A4 that every other target note is derived from |
| Sensitivity | Low, Balanced, High | How loud and how clean the signal must be before a reading appears |
| In-tune window | ±5 cents | How close to the target counts as in tune rather than flat or sharp |
| Cents reading | −50 to +50 cents | The distance to the nearest chromatic note, in either direction |
What does the cents reading mean?
A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, so an octave holds 1200 cents and each step of the chromatic scale holds 100. The tuner shows how many cents your note sits above or below the nearest target, which is a much finer measure than the note name alone.
A reading of +12 means the pitch is twelve cents sharp: still clearly the same note, but high enough for a second instrument to beat against it. Readings within five cents of the target are shown as in tune, because the difference below that is smaller than the drift a warming instrument produces while you play.
When should you change the 440 Hz reference?
Leave it at 440 Hz unless you are playing with people or recordings that do not. The reference sets the frequency of A above middle C, and every other target moves with it.
Some orchestras tune to 442 or 443 Hz, historical ensembles often work near 415 Hz, and a fixed-pitch instrument in the room decides the reference for everyone else. Set the tuner to the pitch that instrument or ensemble uses, then tune to the tuner.
How do you tune one note accurately?
Work on one string or one note at a time, let the sound settle before you judge it, and approach the target from below so the string is being tightened when it arrives.
- Play the note on its own, in a quiet room, at a moderate volume.
- Wait for the reading to hold still; the tuner says when the signal is steady.
- If the note is sharp, lower it past the target and come back up to it.
- Play the note again at performance volume and check that it stayed put.
What happens to the microphone audio?
Nothing leaves your device. The tuner asks the browser for microphone access only after you choose the start button, analyses the incoming sound inside this page, and shows the result.
The analysis runs in a background worker in your own browser: each short slice of audio is turned into a frequency, the frequency into a note and a cents offset, and the slice is discarded. No audio is recorded, stored, or sent anywhere, and stopping the tuner or leaving the page releases the microphone.
If you decline the browser prompt, the page says so and stays usable; nothing else on ClefPulse needs a microphone.
Questions about the online tuner
Does this tuner record me?
No. Microphone audio is analysed inside your browser while the tuner runs and is discarded frame by frame. Nothing is recorded, stored, or uploaded.
Which instruments can I tune?
Any instrument that plays one sustained note at a time. The tuner is chromatic, so it names whatever note it hears instead of expecting a fixed set of strings.
Why does the reading jump between two notes?
The pitch is close to halfway between them, or the room is adding sound of its own. Play a little louder, move closer to the microphone, or lower the sensitivity.
Do I need an account to use the tuner?
No. The tuner works anonymously. Your concert pitch and sensitivity live in the page address so a link keeps them, but no reading is saved.
What if I refuse microphone access?
The page explains that access was declined and offers to ask again. You can restore it in your browser's site settings, and the rest of ClefPulse keeps working without it.
Which sources support this guide?
The setting limits and the in-tune window come from this tuner's own engine. The pitch standard and the cent explanations rest on the references below; the wording and the tuning sequence are original to ClefPulse.
Published and reviewed by ToolForge.
Content reviewed on .
- ISO 16:1975 Acoustics — Standard tuning frequency (Standard musical pitch)
The international standard that fixes the A above middle C at 440 Hz.
- HyperPhysics, Georgia State University: The use of cents for expressing musical intervals
Reference for measuring pitch distance in cents, the 1200 cents of an octave and the equal-tempered semitone.
- YIN, a fundamental frequency estimator for speech and music
The published estimator behind this tuner's frequency detection, including how confidence in a periodic signal is judged.
Continue from pitch to notation
Put a name to the notes you just tuned, or take the same instrument to a steady pulse.