Release History

What's Changed.

Every Chromatic Tuner release, newest first. Updates ship to existing customers automatically inside the app — open Chromatic Tuner and choose Check for Updates… any time. Not a customer yet? Pick it up for $6.99.

  1. ChromTuner 1.1 for iPhone: Now on Apple Watch

    ChromTuner: Guitar Tuner 1.1 adds a full Apple Watch app — included free with the iPhone app (watchOS 11+). The same YIN detection engine runs standalone on the watch through its own microphone, so you can tune without taking your phone out:

    • Wrist-sized LED display — live meter, string indicators, and the seven-segment note, readable at arm's length.
    • Haptic lock — a gentle tap the moment a string holds in tune.
    • Digital Crown — turn to cycle through tunings; Pro presets unlocked on the iPhone sync automatically.

  2. Now on the Apple App Store

    Both apps are now also available through Apple's App Stores:

    • ChromTuner: Guitar Tuner 1.0 for iPhone — the free iOS app with the same YIN engine, now on the App Store. A one-time $6.99 Pro unlock adds all 15 instrument presets, the strobe and waveform displays, historical temperaments, and more.
    • Chromatic Tuner 1.5 for macOS — now also on the Mac App Store, at the same price and with the same features as the direct download from this site.

  3. 1.5.1

    · macOS 14.0+

    Version 1.5.1 is a reliability update.

    • Snappier reset — the reading now returns to idle the instant you stop playing, even when there's loud background noise or an unpitched signal on the input, instead of holding the last note.
    • Sturdier audio input — hardened the low-level buffer handling so a wider range of audio interfaces and driver buffer sizes are handled cleanly.

    Your tuning, calibration, temperament and input settings are unchanged.

  4. 1.5

    · macOS 14.0+

    Version 1.5 introduces two brand-new ways to read your pitch, makes the whole interface more tactile, and sharpens the tuning engine underneath.

    • Two new display modes — a vintage analog needle meter with lifelike, physics-driven motion, and an ultra-minimal sine wave that calms to a straight line the instant you land in tune. Switch anytime in Settings → Display.
    • A more tactile interface — buttons, cards and dropdowns now respond to hover and press, segmented controls glide between options, and panels ease in and out instead of popping.
    • VoiceOver support — the tuner reads your note and cents aloud, and every control is properly labeled for assistive technology.
    • A sharper tuning engine — full support for high-sample-rate audio interfaces up to 192 kHz, plus an extended low-end range that comfortably covers 5-string bass and dropped tunings.

    Your tuning, calibration, temperament and input settings all carry over untouched.

  5. 1.4

    · macOS 14.0+

    A top-to-bottom interface refresh. Building on 1.3's Signature Interfaces, version 1.4 rebuilds ChromTuner's controls and settings around a cleaner, more modern design system — and personalizing your tuner is now instant.

    • Redesigned Settings and Personalize windows — organized into tidy cards with clearer typography (a crisp sans for labels, monospace reserved for the numbers).
    • A new control kit throughout — sliding toggles, pill segmented controls, and fully custom themed dropdowns that match the rest of the app.
    • Smarter tuning & input menus — the IN and TUNE dropdowns are custom-built; each tuning previews its notes as lettered circles, with the active one highlighted.
    • Redesigned strings — bold lettered circles that light up as you play them, whether you click them or use the C–B keyboard shortcuts (now far more reliable).
    • Light / Dark / System moved into the main Settings, no longer buried in the editor.
    • Live personalization — pick a preset and it applies instantly; tweak anything and it automatically becomes your own custom interface. Nothing to “save.”
    • Nicer details — capo and transpose get quick sliders with ± steppers, ⓘ tooltips explain every setting, and layouts now size to their content (no more empty space in Chromatic mode).

    All appearance-only — your tuning, calibration, temperament and input are untouched.

  6. 1.3

    · macOS 14.0+

    Make it yours. Version 1.3 introduces Signature Interfaces — a complete appearance system that lets you restyle Chromatic Tuner without ever changing how it tunes.

    • Seven built-in interfaces — ChromTuner Classic, Classic Rack, Boutique Pedal, Luthier Bench, Neon Stage, Minimal Practice and Orchestra Desk — each a complete look you can switch between in a click.
    • Personalize everything — accent colour, font, note display, meter style and glow, corner roundness and layout density.
    • Window backgrounds — solid, gradient, accent-tinted, or real translucent glass with an adjustable see-through slider that blurs your desktop behind the tuner.
    • Your signature — put your name, band or studio right on the display.
    • Light, dark or automatic per interface, applied to both the main window and the menu-bar flyout.
    • Save your own — duplicate any preset, tweak it, and keep it; a live preview reflects every change instantly.
    • Redesigned Settings and Personalization windows — cleaner, more structured, and fully on-brand.

    Appearance is stored separately from your tuning setup, so switching looks never touches your instrument, calibration, temperament or input.

  7. 1.2

    · macOS 14.0+

    Maintenance release that restores Intel Mac support. The 1.1 download was accidentally built Apple-Silicon-only, so it failed to open on Intel Macs with "…is not supported on this Mac." Version 1.2 is a proper universal binary again.

    • Runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs (macOS 14 Sonoma or later) — verified universal (arm64 + x86_64).
    • The release build now guarantees a universal binary and refuses to package an architecture-incomplete app, so this can't regress.

    If you're on Apple Silicon, nothing changes — you can update at your leisure. On an Intel Mac, this is the build you want.

  8. 1.1

    · macOS 14.0+

    In-app update notifications land. Chromatic Tuner now checks for new versions on its own and tells you when one's available — no more wondering whether you're on the latest build.

    • New Check for Updates… command in the app menu.
    • Software-update section in Settings: shows the current version + build, a check now button, and an automatic-checks toggle.
    • Background check runs once a day; when something new is available you're prompted with a Download button that opens the release in your browser.
    • Every update is EdDSA-signed so the binary you download is provably the one we shipped.

    Updating: click Download in the dialog, mount the new DMG, and drag Chromatic Tuner into /Applications, replacing the old version. From this release on, future updates surface automatically.

  9. 1.0

    · macOS 14.0+

    The first public release of Chromatic Tuner for macOS. Built from scratch for guitarists, bassists, bowed-string and folk-instrument players — and for anyone who wants a real tuner that lives on Core Audio instead of in a browser tab.

    • YIN pitch detection — ±0.14 ¢ on pure tones, ±1 ¢ real-world. A0 to C8 (27.5 Hz – 4186 Hz). Octave-error correction for plucked strings. ~22 Hz update rate.
    • Two display modes — 31-LED bar with hardware-accurate ticks and a Knight-Rider intro sweep, or a Peterson-style rotating strobe with a hard ±0.5 ¢ deadband.
    • 15 instrument presets — guitar (Standard, Drop D, DADGAD, Open G, half-step down, 7-string), bass (4 + 5-string), violin, viola, cello, double bass, ukulele, mandolin, 5-string banjo, and pure chromatic.
    • Eight historical temperaments — Equal, Just, Pythagorean, ¼-comma Meantone, Werckmeister III, Kirnberger III, Vallotti, Young II — with movable tonic for non-equal systems.
    • Calibration + transpose — A4 reference 349.0–499.9 Hz (with 415 / 440 / 442 presets), capo through fret 11, ±11-semitone transpose for B♭ trumpet, A clarinet, capo'd guitars.
    • Reference tones — tap any string row to play a clean sine reference; keyboard shortcuts c d e f g a b.
    • Lives in your menu bar — 360 px popover, one click from the macOS menu bar. Or float the main window with always-on-top for stage use.
    • Universal binary — runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs (macOS 14 Sonoma or later).
    • Fully offline — zero outbound network calls, no telemetry, no account, no analytics. Audio is processed in memory and discarded.