TyroTuner – Review

Our rating:

By: J Allen

Version #: 1.0

Date Released: 2008-07-01

Developer:

Price: 2.99

User Rating:

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     First off, I am an avid guitar player.  While I am coaching my seasons I do not get to play much, so there are times when I get pretty good, then don’t get to play for long periods of time.  I am by no means a professional but have played for over twenty years.  When I found out there were guitar apps for the iPhone I was really excited.  I did worry how well they would work.  So I have began a quest to find out just how well guitar apps are on the phone.  TyroTuner does not require screen shots beyond the one on the front page, so I just took a fuzzy iPhone shot of my closet turned guitar showcase.  

     TyroTuner has a very simple and straight forward interface.  The application uses your iPhone’s microphone to tune your acoustic guitar.  The first picture of this review is the main screen.  You can see that the key is A .  While tuning you have two options.  You can let the tuner pick up which string you are plucking and tune accordingly or you can tap the tuner of the string you intend to pluck.  As I do prefer a tuner pick up which string I am on, this comes in very handy, especially after changing strings.  Once you are ready, you use the app just like a standard hand held tuner.  The colored meter in the middle uses a "needle" which moves with the pitch of your strings.  The idea is to get the needle in the green and you are tuned up.  Yellow to read means that you are sharp and the blue indicates being flat.  Pretty simple!  The setting button on the right brings up two basic options.  You can set the volume sensitivity and set the reactivity to either low or high.  There is also a button to reset to default values. 

     I just tuned up my Washburn acoustic electric.  I used the default values first and was not too pleased with the result.  I really had to sneak up to the correct pitch as there was some latency in the needle and it tended to jump at times.  Despite this, my guitar did become tuned.  For my second test, I slightly detuned and tried again.  This time turning up the volume sensitivity to about 3/4 and set the reactivity to high.  This produced much better results.  My iPhone was reacting very much like a regular digital tuner.  I was able to tune much quicker and more accurately on the first try.  Actually, I was pleasantlly surprised at how well it worked.  I was able to tune up almost as quickly as I do with my digital tuner.  My guitar sounded great.  One thing I would like the developers to consider is adding alternate tunings.  That would make TyroTuner very complete.  This app will be great in a pinch when no tuner is available or a spontaneous jam breaks out and you aren’t fullly prepared. 

Quick Take:  Very usable and accurate guitar tuner that is always with you.  Very useful in a pinch.  Does a great job. 

Value:  Very High

Would I Buy Again?  Most definitely!

Learning Curve:  Zero if you have ever used a tuner.

Who is it for?  Everyone with an acoustic guitar.

What I like:  Simple, clean, interface.  Accuracy.  Does its job.

What I don’t:  No alternate tunings.

Final take:  This should be in all guitar players’ bag of tricks.  We have all been without a tuner and needed to tune up and tried to do it by ear.  You can get close, but why not do it right?