The tuner

The tuner isn’t on the web: the web app has no audio input.

Opening the tuner

Choose Tuner (⌥⌘U)Tuner (Ctrl+Alt+U)Tuner (not on Web) (the View menu—). A card opens at the upper right of the pane you’re working in (on a phone, a sheet along the bottom of the screen); its ×, or the command again, puts it away. While it’s open, the audio input runs; the first time, you may be asked to allow the microphone (see The audio input).

The card’s title says what it tunes: “Tuner · Lead Guitar”, the track you’re working in (the caret’s). Put the caret on another track to tune its instrument.

Reading it

1. Play one note, an open string on a guitar, and let it ring.
2. The card shows the note in large letters, how far off it is in cents (“−12 ¢ flat”, “+5 ¢ sharp”) and its frequency in hertz. The needle sits on a scale of ±50 cents, a tick every 10.
3. Tune until it says in tune, in green: within 3 cents.

On a fretted track, the card shows the track’s open strings from low to high. When the note you play is within 50 cents of one of them, that string is lit and the reading is against it: a guitar in drop D reads its low string against D, not E. A string in tune gets a ✓. On a keys or drum track, it tunes any note against the nearest semitone. It tunes to A = 440 Hz.

The tuner follows the track’s tuning: change it in the track’s Tuning submenu, in its menu, and the strings it shows change with it. A capo doesn’t change them: tune the open strings, then put the capo on.

If it hears nothing, the card says why: “Play a string”, “The input is off (the Audio & MIDI pane’s Audio tab)”, “Allow the microphone in Settings to tune”, “No audio input”, or “The input wouldn’t start”. A bar along its foot shows the input’s level.

Better readings

• Use the input your instrument is on. With an audio interface, pick the channel your guitar is plugged into in the Audio tab of the Audio & MIDI pane, so the tuner doesn’t hear the other inputs.
• One string at a time, ringing steadily: the tuner reads one note, not a chord.

Tuning for practice by microphone

Practising by microphone checks your chords against your guitar as it’s actually tuned. With the tuner open on a fretted track, play each open string: the card counts them (“Practice by ear: play each string (3 of 6 heard)”), then says “Practice by ear: set to your guitar”, with how far your guitar sits from A = 440. See Practising by microphone.