Tuners & Metronomes
Quick and Dirty
These sorts of things are worth money. Tonal Energy is $5.
- The most popular standalone tuner I know of is $20 (Snark, and I don’t believe it can produce reference pitches/drones, nor adjust between “just” and “equal” temperament tuning
- A decent standalone metronome (also a tuner) is $32, which still can't adjust its temperament, and lacks metronome features like training and beat omissions, has a limited set of sounds, and has a limited set of subdivisions
- Direct link for iOS, direct link for Android.
- Information for “Family Sharing” on iOS to be able to share the purchase, and "Family Library" on Android.
Tuners & Drones
The gold standard of all tuner apps is Tonal Energy, available for iOS or Android for $3.99. Its feature set is comprehensive, including great drones, an advanced subdividing metronome, analysis tools – any feature you'd ever realistically need, and many you will never need.
Bandmate Chromatic Tuner is a free app aimed at band students and is also available for iOS or Android, but lacks the sort of drone features that are critical for learning wind intonation (unless you pay for the $3.99 version of the app.) Tonal Energy is preferred for the same price.
insTuner for iOS offers a free version that has a decent drone feature. While I’m sure free drone tools exist on Android, I’m not on the platform. For any platform, you can always load up the Drone Tone Tool in a web browser (AKA Droney).
For reference pitches (with minimal review by me) primarily for percussionists to use with timpani, some free options include Pitched Tuner and Pocket Pitch. Neither are perfect, but they both do the job.
Metronomes
Anymore, Mr. Ehler is using Tonal Energy as the metronome day-to-day.
Mr. Ehler’s former metronome app of choice is the Frozen Ape Tempo app, which runs for $2.99, and offers a separate free version missing some features, with in-app purchases to add them on. There is a counterpart app for Android with a similarly free version.
The compromises on Frozen Ape’s free app might be too great for some subdividing features, and for iOS, this may make a nice backup for those trying to go all-free. I’m sure there are other decent, free, subdividing options on Android, but I’m not on the platform.
I have not personally tested any of the Android versions of these apps, and can not attest to their quality.
For Chromebooks, the web app “Dr. Beat” is the best option I have found, but it’s…lacking.