Poor man's tune bot.... using your phone (not the Drum Tune Pro app)

[BertTheDrummer]

Just an FYI, I used to own a tune bot but eventually just got fed up with it and sold it. Recently I found this little thing that kinda works as a poor man's tune bot.

$9.99 for the Peterson Stobosoft Tuner App + Your Phone

I know the drum tune pro app is out there as well, but for some reason I could never get it to work out right for me.

You can download the Tune Bot calculator and get the pitches you want from there. Load up the Strobosoft tuner app, hold your phone to head while you tap the head... voila instant Tune Bot.

Pros: I found that it seemed to pick up the pitch better than the 1st gen Tune Bot I had, but I haven't tried the new gig/studio ones.

Con: Not as hands free since you have to hold up your phone.

I've had this app for a while and use it all the time for my saxes but for some reason I just decided to see what would happen if I used it on the drums. It worked out great.

Disclaimer: Admittedly, tuning by ear I was actually already really close to the pitches I was trying to achieve anyway so it might not work as well if you are just trying to go completely from scratch.

 

[Old Dog new Cans]

Thanks Bert. Considerably cheaper than the Bot. I don't know if I would've bought that sucker anyway.

 

[beyondbetrayal]

Interesting. I love my tunebot, but that is a good idea if you are willing to hold your phone and tune.

 

[jdavis]

I use the Strobosoft for guitars and it works well. However, when I tried it on drums, it just didn't cut it for me. I've got the Tunebot too (gig version) and it works really well. Especially because it has a clip so I don't have to hold it over the drum.

If you're going for an iPhone app, iDrumTune is good and so is DrumTune Pro. In fact, there's an EZ version of DrumTune Pro that was just released and it looks pretty good and simple to use. Plus, it's cheap at $2.99:

Drum Tuner EZ. Drum Tuning Made Easy!

 

[BertTheDrummer]

I use the Strobosoft for guitars and it works well. However, when I tried it on drums, it just didn't cut it for me. I've got the Tunebot too (gig version) and it works really well. Especially because it has a clip so I don't have to hold it over the drum.

If you're going for an iPhone app, iDrumTune is good and so is DrumTune Pro. In fact, there's an EZ version of DrumTune Pro that was just released and it looks pretty good and simple to use. Plus, it's cheap at $2.99:

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have DrumTune Pro app and never could get it to work right. The original tune bot I had was very finicky as well and sometimes didn't want to clip on to the hoops right, though they it looks like maybe they fixed some of that with the newer version. For me the Strobosoft seemed to find the pitch and work out better. I might try those other two apps you mentioned.

Edit 2/16/2019: I just wanted to update this without bumping the thread. I found the Strobosoft worked really well with single ply heads, but didn't work so well with more muffled heads as I noticed when I put Hydraulics on my Acrylic kit. That being said, I ended up trying the DrumTunerEZ App and it worked really well, so this is what I have been using lately to fine tune.