Shruti - Musical Tuner
Tuner for Indian music
Only for iPhone
Free · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
The only tuner built for Carnatic and Hindustani musicians. Tune any of the 12 swaras to your own tonic — in real time, with no guesswork.
Shruti is a real-time pitch tuner built from the ground up for Indian classical music. Whether you are a Carnatic vocalist, a Hindustani sitarist, a violinist checking intonation, or a student learning to hold Sa, Shruti tells you exactly where you are — instantly.
WHAT MAKES SHRUTI DIFFERENT
Most tuners are built for Western chromatic scales. Shruti speaks the language of Indian classical music. It maps every detected pitch to one of the twelve swaras — S, R1, R2, G2, G3, M1, M2, P, D1, D2, N2, N3 — relative to your chosen tonic. The note name displayed is always a swara, never a generic C# or Eb.
Whether you follow the Carnatic or Hindustani tradition, the swara system is universal — and so is Shruti.
YOUR TONIC, YOUR WAY
Set your tonic to any standard note, or hum your own Sa and let Shruti capture it. Tonic is stored as a raw frequency — not rounded to the nearest semitone — so the app works perfectly even if your shruti box, tanpura, harmonium, or drone is slightly off standard pitch. Once set, every swara is measured relative to that exact frequency.
Changing tonic is as fast as a single swipe: drag left or right on the tonic button to cycle through notes instantly.
PRECISION YOU CAN SEE
The analog dial shows you the signed cents deviation from the nearest swara with a color-coded arc:
· Green — within ±10¢ (in tune)
· Yellow — within ±25¢ (close)
· Red — beyond ±25¢ (needs work)
Prefer a different view? Switch to the horizontal bar meter or the strobe display in Settings.
HOW IT WORKS
Shruti listens through your iPhone's microphone using a time-domain YIN pitch detector — no FFT, no black box. The algorithm runs on a dedicated audio thread with hysteresis smoothing to prevent the display from flickering at semitone boundaries. The result is a reading that is fast, stable, and accurate to within a fraction of a cent.
PRIVACY
Shruti uses the microphone only for real-time pitch detection. No audio is ever recorded, stored, or transmitted.
DESIGNED FOR PRACTICE
· Large swara display — readable across a room
· Color-coded zones consistent across all three meter styles
· Swipe the tonic button to change notes without breaking your flow
· Works with the built-in mic or any connected audio interface
· Recovers automatically from Bluetooth route changes and interruptions
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
The developer, Ramachandra Mallappa, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Ramachandra Mallappa
- Size
- 535.6 KB
- Category
- Music
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Ram Mallappa