Mandolin tuner
G, D, A and E, one string of each pair at a time, 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
Tune your mandolin to G, D, A and E with your microphone, or press a string button to hear each note and tune by ear. The tuner shows which string it heard and whether it is sharp or flat; tune one string of each pair, then match its partner by ear. 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
– Hz
Done
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Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
A mandolin has eight strings in four pairs, called courses, tuned G3, D4, A4 and E5 from the thickest pair to the thinnest. The two strings of a course are tuned to the same note. Press Start the tuner, pick one string, and the tuner lights the course it is closest to and shows how far off it is.
A worked example: lay a fingertip lightly across one string of the A course to mute it and pick the other. The tuner shows A with “13 cents flat: tune up”. Bring that string up until the needle sits in the shaded middle and the A button fills in. Lift your finger and pick the partner on its own, and tune it until it sounds as one with the first.
The tuner hears one pitch, so when you play a pair together it cannot tell which of the two is out. That is why you tune a string at a time. When the pair is right, there is no slow wobble when you play both. Work up the courses, G, D, A and E, and go round once more at the end.
The four courses
Each is a pair of strings tuned to the same note. The frequencies use A4 = 440 Hz in equal temperament, the same numbers the page shows as a tooltip on each string button.
- 4th course, G: G3, 196.00 Hz
- 3rd course, D: D4, 293.66 Hz
- 2nd course, A: A4, 440.00 Hz
- 1st course, E: E5, 659.26 Hz
What this page does not do
- It does not tune the two strings of a pair against each other. The microphone hears one pitch; matching the partner is done by ear, by listening for the wobble to slow and stop.
- It does not know which of two strings is out when both ring. Mute one with a fingertip.
- It is for a standard mandolin. An octave mandolin or a mandola is tuned differently; choose Chromatic for those.
- It does not set the bridge position. If each open pair is in tune but fretted notes are not, the bridge is the thing to look at.
How it works
- Press Start the tuner and allow the microphone. Mandolin is already chosen.
- Mute one string of a pair and pick the other. The nearest of G, D, A and E lights up and the needle shows sharp or flat.
- Turn the peg until it says In tune, then un-mute the partner and tune it to match. Move to the next pair.
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 is the wobble I hear when I play a pair?
Two strings that are close in pitch but not equal make a slow pulse, called beating. The further apart they are, the faster it pulses. As you bring the second string toward the first the pulse slows, and when it stops the pair is in tune.
Is a mandolin tuned like a violin?
Yes, the four pitches are the same: G3 196.00 Hz, D4 293.66 Hz, A4 440.00 Hz and E5 659.26 Hz. The mandolin has pairs of steel strings and a fretted neck. The violin tuner shows the same notes.
Can I tune an octave mandolin or a mandola?
Choose Chromatic and tune each string to its note. An octave mandolin is G2 D3 A3 E4 (98.00, 146.83, 220.00 and 329.63 Hz); a mandola is C3 G3 D4 A4 (130.81, 196.00, 293.66 and 440.00 Hz). Chromatic has no string buttons, so there are no reference tones.
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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