Flute tuner
Play a note, read how sharp or flat it is, and adjust the headjoint, with the sound kept on your device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first visit
- Open source
- Free, no account. The microphone is on only until you press Stop
Play a long note on your flute and see its name and how many cents sharp or flat it is, so you can set the headjoint. There are no open strings to aim at: the tuner names the note you play and reads it against the reference pitch, A 440 or 442. It is free, and the sound from your microphone is not uploaded: everything runs in your browser on your device.
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Play one string or note
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Done
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A flute has no open strings, so this page is a chromatic tuner set for wind players: it names the note you play and shows with a needle how far from that note it is. Press Start the tuner, warm the flute up, and play a long, steady A. Many flutists tune that A, or a B♭, against the group’s reference.
A worked example: you play the A and the tuner shows A with the needle to the right and “17 cents sharp: tune down”. Pull the headjoint out a little, which lengthens the tube and lowers the pitch, and play again. If it says flat, push the headjoint in. Move it a small amount at a time, because a couple of millimetres is a lot of cents.
Set the reference to 440 or 442 in the Reference pitch field to match your ensemble. The note names and the needle both move to it. A cold flute plays flat and rises as it warms, so play for a minute before you set the headjoint, and check again later.
Setting the headjoint
- Flat: push the headjoint in to shorten the flute and raise the pitch.
- Sharp: pull the headjoint out to lengthen the flute and lower the pitch.
- Reference: the usual reference is A4 = 440 Hz, and many orchestras use 442.
- Long notes: hold each note for a second or two, because the page shows the middle of its last five readings.
What this page does not do
- It names the nearest note in equal temperament and how far from it you are. It does not tell you which note you were meant to finger.
- It listens between about 30 Hz and 1,500 Hz. Notes above that, the top of a flute’s third octave, are not read.
- It hears one note at a time. A chord, a duet or several players at once will confuse it.
- It listens through the microphone, so in a room of players it hears all of them. Tune somewhere quiet or away from the group.
- It reads the pitch of your flute at the moment you play. Breath, the angle of the embouchure and temperature all move it, so you still adjust by ear in the piece.
How it works
- Press Start the tuner and allow the microphone. Chromatic is already chosen.
- Play a long, steady note, such as A, and read the note name and the needle.
- Pull the headjoint out if it says sharp or push it in if it says flat, until it says In tune.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser opens the microphone (getUserMedia) with its noise suppression and automatic gain turned off, and the Web Audio API hands this page about 85 ms of sound twenty times a second. Each slice is compared with delayed copies of itself (the McLeod pitch method) to find the period of the note, which gives its frequency to a fraction of a hertz; the reading is then dropped. The string buttons play a tone from a Web Audio oscillator.
Compared with upload-based tools: Tuner apps ask for an install and access to much more than the microphone, and many tuner websites are buried in ads and trackers. Here the sound goes from your microphone to this tab and nowhere else, and nothing is kept.
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
What note should a flute be tuned to?
Most players tune a long A, or a B♭, against the ensemble’s reference, usually A 440 Hz and in many orchestras 442 Hz. Set the Reference pitch field to the number your group uses, play the note, and move the headjoint until the needle sits in the middle.
Should I pull the headjoint out or push it in?
Out lowers the pitch and in raises it. If the tuner says sharp, pull it out a little; if it says flat, push it in. Make small moves and play again each time.
Why does my flute read flat at first?
A cold flute plays flat, and the pitch rises as the air inside warms. Play for a minute or two before you set the headjoint. The reading you get on a long, even note is more useful than one from a note that has only just started.
Can this tune every note on the flute?
It names the note you play and its cents from that note, between about 30 Hz and 1,500 Hz. It cannot say which fingering a note should have, and it does not read notes above that range.
Is the sound from my microphone recorded or uploaded?
No. The pitch is measured by code running in this tab, about twenty times a second, and no sound is recorded or stored: only the last few pitch readings are held in memory while the tuner listens. Press Stop using the microphone to turn it off. Like any website, the host sees your connection’s IP address when the page loads, and the site counts visits with anonymous usage events that never include sound; the privacy page lists them field by field.
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