Pitch Graph app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: Martin Britz
First release : 12 Aug 2013
App size: 2.11 Mb
Pitch graph is a versatile tool for musicians to tune instruments and practice intonation. Use it when practicing the violin, viola, cello, trumpet, singing and much more.
The app monitors the microphone and calculates the frequency up to 40 times a second and plots it on a 3D accelerated graph. It has a maximum detection sensitivity of a thousandth of a cent. The app provides real time feedback while you play your instrument. The blue lines in the background represent the note frequencies. The closer the plotted line is to a blue line the better the intonation. Intonation is also indicated with three colors: Red for notes that are too sharp, orange for notes that are too flat and green for notes that have good intonation. The app automatically monitors the microphone and removes intermittent noise and silence, while keeping the sound and pitch information on the graph synchronised. Tap a location on the graph and it plays the corresponding sound which makes it easier to read the graph. A practice session can be reviewed with the replay feature. This animates the graph while playing back the sound and is a great way to find problem areas in a performance. The clear button resets the app when you are ready for the next take. You can turn the microphone on and off by tapping the microphone icon.
To make the most of the app please be aware of the following limitations: The graph refresh rate is throttled on older hardware to improve pitch detection performance. The app can resolve only one frequency at a time, so bowing double stops on a violin or strumming a guitar will give incorrect pitch readouts. Because the app uses the microphone it may pick up other sounds such as background music. Pitch detection works best in a quiet setting. The app was tested with a number of different instruments, yet each instrument is unique, so performance may vary.
I hope you enjoy this app and find it useful.
Latest reviews of Pitch Graph app for iPhone and iPad
Great app! I love that you can see and hear what youve played afterwards. One very important suggestion! Does this app only work with A=440? I live in Brazil, here we use A=442. It would be great to be able to change that. I couldnt find any settings in the app. Am I correct to assume that there are no settings available? Thank you!
The best app to test and improve your intonation!
I tested this app on my iPad air. I used a common Yamaha portable keyboard for the test. All the notes on the keyboard showed green (which means they are in tune according to the app), but the green pitch lines were obviously above the blue pitch lines provided by the app. I played amazing Grace on the keyboard, and played some triplets between "amaz" ... "Grace", and the Pitch Graph could not keep up, even on a modern iPad air. Instead of rapid changes between notes in the triplet that should have produced near – vertical lines connecting horizontal green lines, I saw a bunch of sloped and curvedlines with red sections in them. This means the app could not keep up with even a slow song like amazing Grace. I dont think it would be useful in anything faster.
If I could ask for one more thing, it would be better bass support. Then again, Im not sure that the onboard microphone would be able to handle it. Still, its great for intonating your instrument.
Very useful. I just wish there were a button to turn the mic off or to stop the app. If Im trying to review the performance with noise in the room it continues to jump to the insertion point and write new data. Playback feature is a nice touch and the simplicity makes it very easy. Please add mic mute.