About TuneStand
Practice tools that open instantly and stay out of your way.
Why TuneStand exists
Most musicians just need a steady click, a quick tuning check or a reference pitch, and they need it now, not after an app download, an account signup or a loading screen. TuneStand puts five essential tools one tap away in any modern browser: an online metronome, a chromatic tuner, a tone generator, a tap tempo counter and a note frequency chart.
How it is built
Everything runs on the Web Audio API, the same audio engine browsers use for games and music software. The metronome schedules clicks on the audio hardware clock so the beat does not drift, the tuner analyses your microphone signal locally with autocorrelation pitch detection, and the tone generator synthesises waveforms in real time. Because all of this happens on your device, the tools work the same on a phone backstage as on a laptop in a studio, and nothing you play is uploaded.
Methodology: where every number on this site comes from
TuneStand publishes exact frequencies, so it owes you the method behind them. Every frequency on this site, on the note frequency chart, on the individual note pages and on the instrument tuner pages, is computed at build time from one formula in one file. None of them is typed in by hand, which is why they cannot drift apart or contain a transcription error.
The formula is twelve tone equal temperament: f = 440 x 2^((m - 69) / 12), where m is the MIDI note number and A4 is MIDI note 69. Each semitone multiplies the frequency by the twelfth root of two, about 1.059463, so twelve semitones double it and you land exactly one octave higher.
The reference is A4 = 440 Hz, the modern concert pitch specified by ISO 16. That is a convention, not a law of nature: historically informed performance commonly uses around 415 Hz, the 19th century French diapason normal was 435 Hz, and many central European orchestras tune to 442 or even 443 Hz today. The note pages and the chart let you rebase the whole table onto any of those references, because changing the reference multiplies every note by the same ratio and leaves every interval untouched.
Values are shown to two decimals below 1000 Hz and to one decimal above it. Equal temperament is also not the same thing as just intonation or meantone: an equal-tempered perfect fifth is about 2 cents narrower than the pure 3:2 ratio, and an equal-tempered major third is about 14 cents wider than the pure 5:4. Where that difference matters, the note pages state it rather than hiding it.
Standards and references this site relies on, linked rather than copied:
What the browser can and cannot do
Two honest limits, because claiming precision a browser cannot deliver would undermine everything above.
The tuner needs microphone permission, and the audio pipeline between your instrument and the pitch detector adds latency: the browser buffers input, the operating system adds its own buffer, and the analysis runs on windows of a few tens of milliseconds. That latency does not affect how accurate the reading is, but it does mean the display lags your playing slightly. Very low notes are the hardest case, because a long wave period needs a longer window before a period can be measured at all.
The metronome schedules each click ahead of time directly on the Web Audio hardware clock rather than firing sounds from a JavaScript timer, which is why it does not drift over a long session. What no web page can promise is what happens in a background tab: browsers throttle timers in tabs you are not looking at, so keep the metronome tab in the foreground while you play.
Who maintains it
TuneStand is built and maintained by Jamey Weber, builder and maintainer of tunestand, at FusionStudios. Web developer at FusionStudios. Built and maintains the TuneStand tools and the equal-temperament code that produces every frequency on this site. Not a conservatory-trained musician: the numbers here come from the standard formula and published specifications, not from personal authority. Corrections are welcome and are the fastest way to improve a reference site: mail info@fusionstudios.nl or use the contact form.
Free, with no account needed
TuneStand is free to use and has no accounts to sign up for. The site may show ads and use basic analytics to keep that free, but every tool still runs its actual calculations client-side, in your browser. You can read more about how data, cookies and ads are handled on the privacy page.