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. 1.6.2

    · macOS 14.0+

    Version 1.6.2 opens new installs on the analog needle.

    • Needle first — new installs start on the analog needle display, and the display switcher in the toolbar now leads with it, the same as ChromTuner on iPhone. If you already use ChromTuner, your display stays as it is.

    On 1.6.1, this update installs itself. On an earlier version, use the button below to download it, then drag Chromatic Tuner into your Applications folder, replacing the old copy — after that, updates install themselves. Your tuning, calibration, temperament and input settings are unchanged.

  2. 1.6.1

    · macOS 14.0+

    Version 1.6.1 lets ChromTuner live in the menu bar only — and it's the last update you need to install by hand.

    • Menu-bar-only mode — a new show in Dock setting. Turn it off and ChromTuner has no Dock icon and stays out of ⌘-Tab; it lives entirely in the menu bar. Turn on hide window on launch as well and it stays out of sight until you click the tuning fork.
    • Quit from the menu bar — with the Dock icon hidden, the menu-bar tuner gets its own quit button.
    • Updates install themselves from now on — from 1.6.1, new versions download, install and relaunch automatically.

    This one update has to be installed by hand. Use the button below to download it, then drag Chromatic Tuner into your Applications folder, replacing the old copy. After this one you won't need to. Your tuning, calibration, temperament and input settings are unchanged.

  3. 1.6.0

    · macOS 14.0+

    Version 1.6 adds a metronome and brings the tuner's controls up front.

    • Metronome — a new window sharing the tuner's LED display: 40–240 BPM, meters from 2/4 to 7/8, tap tempo and an accented downbeat. Open it from the tuner's toolbar or with ⇧⌘M, and press space to start and stop. Its toolbar icon lights up and pulses on the beat, so you can see the tempo even when the metronome window is behind the tuner — and both windows can sit side by side.
    • Display switcher in the main window — meter, strobe, needle and wave now switch with a single click in the toolbar, instead of two clicks inside Settings.
    • New tuning: Open D (D A D F♯ A D) joins the collection — 17 tunings in total.
    • Smarter calibration — "detect" now works with any held note, not just an A.
    • High-sample-rate interfaces — audio devices running between 48 and 72 kHz are now handled correctly.
    • Menu-bar tuner — the flyout header option in Personalize now actually changes the flyout, matching what its preview always showed.

    The input-device picker moved from the toolbar into Settings, where the menu-bar tuner can reach it too — it never had a way to change input device before. Your tuning, calibration, temperament and input settings are unchanged.

    This one update has to be installed by hand. Click Learn More to download it, then drag it into your Applications folder, replacing the old copy. Automatic updates resume from the next release on.

  4. ChromTuner 1.2 for iPhone: Practice, Not Just Tuning

    ChromTuner: Guitar Tuner 1.2 turns the iPhone app into a practice kit. Three tabs now — Metronome, Tune, Strings — with the tuner still in the middle and still the default:

    • Metronome — 40–240 BPM, time signatures from 2/4 to 7/8, tap tempo and an accented downbeat, sharing the tuner's LED display. Free for everyone, on iPhone and Apple Watch.
    • Strings — string-life tracking that counts both how long a set has been on and how much you've actually played, crediting a session only when you genuinely tune. One instrument free; Pro tracks a whole collection.
    • On the wrist — the metronome is on Apple Watch too, clicking in time and tapping the beat, and it keeps running with your wrist down. The Digital Crown sets tempo on the metronome page and switches tunings on the tuner page.
    • A bigger display — meter, strobe, needle and wave now fill nearly two-thirds of the screen, with note and cents tucked into the bottom corners and the display switcher moved up into the top bar.

    Also fixed: the Apple Watch no longer plays a confirmation tone when a string locks in — it was loud enough for the watch's own microphone to hear, which disturbed the reading at exactly the moment you'd landed the note.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.