Real-time pitch detection
Uses the McLeod normalized square difference method on Accelerate with parabolic interpolation, covering roughly 30 Hz to 2 kHz. A noise gate and a five-reading median filter keep the needle steady.
Open source · macOS 14+ · Universal binary · Audio
A tuner that lives
in your menu bar.
Click the tuning fork, play a note, and see its name, frequency and how many cents sharp or flat it is. Free, offline and built natively for macOS.
Free & MIT licensed · Apple Silicon & Intel · Latest release
Features
Everything a tuner needs.
One small window with the controls musicians actually use, and nothing that phones home.
Needle gauge in cents
A semicircular gauge spans -50 to +50 cents beside the note name, octave and frequency in Hz. The needle turns green within 5 cents, and so does the menu bar icon.
Reference pitch and transposition
Set A4 anywhere from 415 to 466 Hz, with 440 as the default. Transpose for C, B-flat, E-flat, F and A instruments.
Reference tone generator
Pick a note and play a sine wave to tune by ear. The mic pauses while the tone plays through built-in speakers to avoid feedback use headphones to tune along.
Hold and input selection
Freeze the current reading with Hold, or choose which microphone to listen to. If the chosen device disappears, the app falls back to the system default and tells you.
Light on battery
By default the app listens only while the tuner is open. Settings also cover launch at login and a noise-gate sensitivity slider.
Screenshots
See it in action.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
PitchNeedleBar is open source and not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID, so macOS needs one extra step the first time.
- Download PitchNeedleBar-macOS.zip and unzip it.
- Move PitchNeedleBar.app to your Applications folder.
- Clear the quarantine flag once, then right-click the app and choose Open:
xattr -cr /Applications/PitchNeedleBar.app
- Allow Microphone access when macOS asks the first time you open the tuner you can change it later in System Settings Privacy Security Microphone.
Download
Get PitchNeedleBar for macOS
Free, forever. Built for macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Not notarized: on first launch right-click PitchNeedleBar.app → Open.
- macOS 14 Sonoma+
- Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- MIT licensed · open source
- No ads, no accounts, no telemetry
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is PitchNeedleBar really free and open source?
Yes. It is released under the MIT license, with no account, subscription or ads. The source is on GitHub, and an optional Support button opens a Ko-fi page in your browser if you want to chip in.
What permissions does it need?
Only Microphone access, so it can detect the pitch of what you play. Launch at login is optional and only used if you turn it on. It does not ask for Accessibility or Screen Recording, and it makes no network connections.
Where is my data stored?
Audio is analysed locally and is never recorded or sent anywhere. The only thing saved is your settings, such as reference pitch, transposition and chosen input device, in the app's standard macOS preferences on your Mac.
Why isn't the app notarized?
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account, and this is a free project. Right-click the app and choose Open once to launch it, or build it yourself from source with Xcode.
Support ❤️
Built by one person, given away for free.
PitchNeedleBar is a free, open-source alternative to paid utilities. If it earns a spot on your Mac, a coffee keeps the updates coming.
☕ Support Or on Ko-fi