In this post, we will talk about 5 free mandolin tuner apps for Android. You can use these apps to easily tune a Mandolin using just your phone. These apps can actually detect the current tunings of your mandolin strings and tell you whether they are tuned properly or you need to make some adjustments. For that, you would need to simply play the mandolin strings near your phone and they will automatically analyze the sound/notes. After that, a simple meter/graph will tell you if the tuning is perfect, high, low. Based on that, you can then tighten or lose the real strings.
Most of these tuner apps support the standard tuning i.e. GDAE for 4-strings Mandolin. The accuracy of note detection by these mandolin tuner apps is quite impressive and accurate. Some of them even have additional features like manual mode, A4 reference, pitch changer, fork, etc.
Looking for something similar for tuning your Guitar or Cello, then check out our posts on free Guitar tuner apps and Cello tuner apps.
BOSS Tuner:
BOSS Tuner is one of the best free mandolin tuner apps for Android. Using this app, you can seamlessly tune your mandolin by analyzing how the strings sound in real-time. For that, you would need to simply open this app and play the mandolin strings (one by one) near your phone. After that, it will automatically detect and show the current tuning notes of the strings in a simple meter. It supports the standard GDAE tuning.
This meter will now guide you to the perfect tuning of the strings by letting you know how the notes sound. The sound detection feature of this app is pretty commendable and highly precise like a digital tuner. There are many other features available using which you can use a tuning fork, set reference pitch, multiple key types, and so on.
Mandolin Tuner Free:
Mandolin Tuner Free is another free mandolin tuner app for Android that can assist you to tune mandolin with ease. Similar to “BOSS Tuner”, it can automatically detect and analyze the sound of your mandolin strings. Doing that, it can tell you the current tuning of the strings and accordingly help you do adjustments for perfect tuning (GDEA). All you need is to open this app and pluck the mandolin strings placing your phone nearby.
This app also has a simple meter which shows whether the note of each string is well tuned or is high/low. Apart from that, it will also show the mic level, current frequency, previous/next note, etc. One of the unique features of this app is that it supports multiple tuning sets including Soprano, Alto, Tenor, etc.
DaTuner Lite:
DaTuner Lite is also a free Android app that can help you tune your mandolin strings very easily. It supports the standard mandolin tuning which is GDAE. When you open this app and play your mandolin strings, it will detect the notes automatically to show you the current tuning status. It comes with a digital tuner-like display where it analyzes the sound and displays the notes in real-time as you pluck strings.
By seeing this, you will exactly know what you need to do to get the perfect mandolin tuning. You can tune all the strings individually. You will also find some other useful options in this app such as immersive mode, manually set A4 reference, low frequency, and even tune other instruments like Guitar, Banjo, etc.
Free Universal Tuner:
Free Universal Tuner is also an amazing mandolin tuner app which can help you get your mandolin properly tuned just by using your Android phone. This app can listen to the sound of your mandolin strings (via phone’s mic) and analyze the notes (for GDAE) in real-time. After that, it automatically shows how the strings are tuned on a simple note graph. You can then easily figure out whether you should tighten or lose the strings to tune them perfectly.
One of the best features of this app is that it will play an alarm sound when any mandolin string is tuned correctly. It will also show you the current frequency, next and previous note, environmental noise, etc. There are some other options which you can use to manually select the pitch, enable sharps only, bandpass filter, and more. This app also lets you tune other instruments like Cello, Violin, Guitar, etc.
GuitarTuna:
GuitarTuna is the last Android app in this list which you can use to tune mandolin with ease. The app actually supports the “G3G3D4D4A4A4E5E5” tuning for mandolin. That means it can be used for tuning a 12-stringed mandolin instead of a 4-stringed one. This app is similar to the other apps explained above and can help you tune the strings by analyzing and displaying the notes in real-time.
It has a simple graph where it shows whether a string is correctly tuned or the note is low/high. It comes with a unique feature using which you can switch to a manual mode and listen to the sound of every mandolin string on the app and compare with your own. There are other useful features available like left-handed mode, calibrate at custom frequencies, and more.
Closing Words:
If you have been looking for a solution to tune your mandolin using your Android phone, then the mandolin tuner apps explained in this post can help you do that. They work just like the digital tuner which you buy from any musical instruments store. But, what makes these apps useful is the fact that they are completely free to use. If you’re worried about the tuning accuracy, then let me tell you it is great, as these apps use your phone’s microphone to tune your mandolin.
So, use these mandolin tuner apps and let me know which one you liked or found accurate.