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Sound

The tuner locks in 44 ms.

A guitar tuner for your browser and the pedal.

Open the tuner full screen

The Squatch Tuner, a strobe display reading a guitar stringLive

What it does

It locks onto a note in 44 ms, fast enough that you are tuning instead of waiting.

Who it’s for

Guitarists, at the amp or on stage.

Why we built it

The usual methods are slow or jumpy on a real guitar.

What we’re proud of

Three standard methods took 471 to 1,484 ms on the same test.

How it works

Which note, then how far off.

  1. The input is thinned to a work rate the tuner can afford, so it runs on a phone or a pedal as easily as a laptop.
  2. A fast note finder decides which note you are playing.
  3. A strobe bank follows each partial of the string, and a fit across them says how far off you are, allowing for a stiff string's stretch.
  4. All of it runs inside the page: the sound never leaves your device.

Get it

The latest signed release.

Use it in your browser

Nothing to install. Allow the microphone, or play the built-in sample note first.

The web tuner, to host yourself (.zip)

squatch-tuner-web-v1.0.2.zip · 2.6 MB · v1.0.2

The same page, to serve from your own site or open offline.

SHA-256 38c1312b86c9ce6a644863f4fe70c4686ad161af948d8856c2270320bcd69d25

The command-line tuner for Mac (.zip)

squatch-tuner-live-v1.0.2-macos-arm64.zip · 52 kB · v1.0.2 Signed and notarized by Apple

For Apple silicon. It needs JACK installed for now (brew install jack); a build that talks to the Mac's own audio is on its way.

SHA-256 753f551557cd7f809a12d56e1480b4d22a8062ee7bafd5766f0bb75e61614460

Read the code: github.com/Squatch-Stack/squatch-tuner

Every release, with its notes: squatch-tuner releases

Check your download

Trust it because you checked.

Two lines in Terminal. Each one checks something different, and none of them needs to trust this page.

  1. Its fingerprint matches
    shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/squatch-tuner-web-v1.0.2.zip
    It should print 38c1312b86c9ce6a… (the whole value is above, and in SHA256SUMS on the release page).
  2. GitHub built it from our source
    gh attestation verify ~/Downloads/squatch-tuner-web-v1.0.2.zip -R Squatch-Stack/squatch-tuner
    Needs GitHub’s gh tool. It checks the build record our release workflow signed.

Try it

The live piece

Tune with it

LivePress Start tuner for a microphone, or Play a sample noteOpen full
Text version: how to use the tuner
  1. Press Start tuner and allow the microphone, then play a string. The tuner shows the note, how many cents sharp or flat it is to a tenth, and a strobe.
  2. No instrument? Choose a string and whether it is in tune or a few cents off, then press Play a sample note. The tuner reads the note it hears.
  3. The strobe bands drift right when the note is sharp, left when it is flat, and stand still when it is in tune. If your device asks for less motion they stay still and sit shifted to one side instead.
  4. The whole tuner works from the keyboard. Everything is a real button, list or slider: Tab moves between them, Space or Enter presses. The reference pitch (A4) can be set from 430 to 450 Hz. A polite status line says the note and how far off it is whenever it changes.
  5. The sound never leaves your device: the tuner runs in the page.

The tuner, against three standard methods

LiveTime to lock within a tenth of a cent on a clean tone · median, msOpen full
Text version: Time to lock within a tenth of a cent
Measured: time to lock within ±0.1 cent on a clean tone (median, ms) (milliseconds)
bar 1
YIN1,484
MPM471
MPM + phase vocoder1,457
Squatch Tuner44
LiveReading error after a note starts · cents, real guitar DIOpen full
Text version: Reading error after a note starts
Squatch Tuner: reading error after a note starts (cents, real guitar DI) (error, cents)
ms after onsetp90medianp10
50155.22-0.76
1007.852.06-2.82
2005.250.85-3.62
3004.160.22-3.21
5002.23-0.06-2.36
7501.59-0.17-1.77
LiveFour pitch trackers on the same real DI · speed, accuracy, jitterOpen full
Text version: Pitch trackers compared on real guitar DI
Pitch trackers on real guitar DI: speed, accuracy and jitter
Methodstable within 1 c, p50 (ms)abs error p95 (cents)
YIN7760.505
MPM7040.25
MPM + PV1,2160.293
Squatch hz8640.176
Squatch steadyHz7150.131

Our sound tools

Where each one runs.

One open sound engine under all four. Each is free, with its source on GitHub.

The Squatch plug-ins

Ten effects for your DAW, as Audio Unit, VST3 and CLAP.

  • MacOut nowSigned by us and notarized by Apple.
  • WindowsComingx64 and ARM64 in v0.3.0, unsigned at first. Tested offline in a Windows DAW on a Windows 11 ARM64 virtual machine; not yet tried live or on real audio hardware.
  • LinuxPartlyThe core sound library, no plug-ins yet.

Squatch Tuner

A strobe tuner that reads a string to a tenth of a cent.

  • BrowserOut nowtuner.squatch.cc, on a computer or a phone.
  • MacOut nowA command-line tuner, notarized, for Apple silicon.
  • LinuxOut nowThe command-line tuner for x86 and ARM.
  • WindowsComingThe command-line tuner, in the v0.3.0 release with the plug-ins.

The DSP engine

The sound blocks under all of these, in one small C++ library.

  • MacOut nowA static library for Apple silicon.
  • LinuxOut nowA static library for x86-64.
  • BrowserOut nowAs WebAssembly, inside the rig.

Technologies used

What it’s built with.

More work

Keep looking.

A flow diagram from a circuit netlist to a plugin, compared against a simulator referenceMeasuredCaptureInteractive

A circuit model held to its reference.

Our sound models, compared against a circuit simulator.

A bar chart of the processor cost per sample of each DSP blockLiveCaptureInteractive

The DSP engine.

One small library of sound blocks: gate, EQ, limiter, cabinet and tuner.

The Squatch Rig web page: a chain of amps, pedals and a cabinet connected on a canvasLiveInteractive

Squatch Rig.

A whole guitar rig on a web page: amps, pedals and a cabinet.

All the work

Get in touch

Want something like this? Say hello.

A person reads every message.

Email [email protected]
Text us

Text us: +1 888-344-3607. You text first; we reply only in that conversation, about your question. No marketing. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. SMS program

Our goods: store.squatch.ccThe studio: squatch.cc