# Karunattu — Carnatic music buddy

> Carnatic music buddy (iPhone/iPad app by Prabaharan Manoharan.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/karunattu/id6776433728 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Prabaharan Manoharan](https://appshunter.io/developer/1884976027)
- Category: Music, Education
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 18.0 · 25 MB
- Languages: American English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu
- Released: 2026-06-19
- Data updated: 2026-08-25
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/karunattu/id6776433728/reviews.md

## What is Karunattu?

The only Carnatic music app with real-time pitch detection across all 22 Indian microtones (shrutis), an authentic 11-instrument synth engine calibrated against historical recordings, and a full studio for composing your own krithis.

WHAT EVERY USER GETS (FREE)
• Tune. Pick your Sa and start the tampura drone in any of 23 semitones. The drone follows you across every screen.
• Learn. 107 catalogued ragas across the 72-melakarta scheme, with audio examples — hear the arohana/avarohana, see the swaras on a 22-shruti grid, learn how parent ragas relate to their derivative ragas.
• Practice. Sarali varisai, janta varisai, dhattu varisai, alankara drills — with real-time cents feedback on every swara. Carnatic-aware, not 12-TET.
• Compose. The Compose Studio lets you arrange your own krithis. Choose a raga, a tala, an instrument; generate phrases; export to MIDI.
• Track. Practice streaks, XP, and the Riyaz Journal — see exactly what you practiced and for how long.

PLUS — $4.99/MONTH OR $24.99/YEAR, AUTO-RENEWABLE
For the serious student:
• Voice Coach — sing any 8 notes; get 29-dosha feedback (Sangeet Parijat voice analysis) tuned to your voice's natural temperament.
• Dosha Coach — sing freely; live pitch accuracy, vibrato, nasality, breathiness, phrase-shape fault detection.
• Tuner — live cents feedback on whatever you're singing or playing.
• Curriculum — Tyagaraja varnams, geethams, and the Eleven Krithis, with step-by-step lesson plans.
• Self-Review — record yourself, hear the difference between your pitch and the target.
• Svara Lane — visual feedback lane for live practice.

PRO — $19.99/MONTH OR $99.99/YEAR, AUTO-RENEWABLE
For the producer:
• Studio — chain alapana to kriti to niraval to kalpana to tani to tillana to mangalam.
• Pallavi RTP Builder — 8-section RTP scaffold with anuloma and nadai cycle.
• Film Composer — score for picture with raga-constrained melody. Export MIDI.
• Broadcast Master — Spotify/YouTube-ready loudness target (-14 LUFS +/-1).
• Raga Builder — design your own raga with custom arohana/avarohana. Validates Lakshana grammar.
• Tala Builder — design any of 175 parametric tala forms.
• Plus everything in Plus.

Plus and Pro are auto-renewable subscriptions billed to your Apple ID. Payment is charged at purchase confirmation and renews automatically for the same period and price unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel any time in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions.

PRIVACY
No account and no personal-data collection. Audio is processed on your iPhone; practice history, recordings, and preferences stay on your device. Subscriptions are managed by Apple StoreKit. Delete local app data using the app's reset controls or by uninstalling Karunattu.

CULTURAL CREDIT
Built on the Sangeet Parijat backbone — 107 catalogued ragas across the 72-melakarta scheme, 26 gamakas, 175 tala forms, 22-shruti just-intonation. Calibrated against real masters: Chitti Babu (veena), Lalgudi Jayaraman (violin), T. R. Mahalingam / Mali (venu), M. S. Subbulakshmi (voice), Sheik Chinna Moulana (nadaswaram), T. N. Rajarathnam Pillai (nadaswaram), Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman (mridangam).

Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy Policy: https://karunattu.com/privacy

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Karunattu Plus | $4.99 | per month |
| Karunattu Plus Yearly | $24.99 | per year |
| Karunattu Pro Monthly | $19.99 | per month |
| Karunattu Pro Yearly | $199.00 | per year |



## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.4.1 — 2026-08-20

Karunattu 3.4.1

• Curated sancara library with idiomatic phrases for Mohanam, Varali, Natakurinji, Arabhi, and nine more ragas.
• Thirteen hand-curated concert ragas, including Desh, Punnagavarali, Shanmukhapriya, and Kambhoji.
• Corrected Gamaka Lab targets for Kalyani Ni, Mohanam Ga, Bhairavi Dha, and more.
• Kalpana-swara and tanam generators with studio project ZIP export.
• Five instrument studios - veena, violin, mridangam, flute, and ghatam - with raga-aware 22-shruti practice.
• Jhanta Varisai, Sa tuner diagnostics, karaoke sahitya, and clearer tala/eduppu learning feedback.
• Practice and Featured Tools now respond correctly on the Free tier.
• Accessibility, localization, stability, and StoreKit subscription-link improvements throughout.

### 3.4.0 — 2026-07-29

Karunattu now speaks seven languages.

• Seven app languages — English, தமிழ், हिन्दी, తెలుగు, ಕನ್ನಡ, മലയാളം and اردو. Every screen, every setting, every practice prompt. Urdu reads right-to-left throughout, while the notation strip stays left-to-right so a rāga always reads as itself.
• Honest instrument practice — the veena and violin drills now score the notes you actually played instead of counting microphone frames, so a held note is one note and your progress means what it says.
• Links that open the app — tapping a karunattu.com rāga, composer or practice link now opens it right here instead of in the browser.
• Clearer yearly pricing on the Plus and Pro plans.
• Fixes throughout, including a broken "Help translate" link in Settings.

Reverent, precise, joyful — one svara at a time.

### 3.2 — 2026-07-13

Karunattu now speaks to the beginner, not just the engineer — and the instruments sound alive.

• Ask the Guru — a new free tool that answers your questions about rāgas, tālas, gamakas and śrutis in plain language. Every answer comes from Karunattu's own verified library and names its source; if we don't have a verified answer, the Guru says so instead of guessing. No generative AI.

• Practice any instrument, free — Veena and Violin practice now live in the Tools tab for every listener, alongside Mridangam. Pluck or bow a note and watch your cents drift against the 22-śruti target in real time.

• Your practice plan now explains itself — the AI Practice Plan tells you why it recommends today's rāga and drills, in your own numbers ("Your Ga has slipped to 42% — today's drills target exactly those notes").

• Share your riyāz — finish a practice session and share a beautiful milestone card straight to WhatsApp or anywhere, in one tap.

• Richer, more lifelike instrument tone — flute, nadaswaram, veena, violin, voice, and tambura now breathe and evolve through a note like real instruments, with a truer jīvā buzz on the tambura drone, instead of a static synth tone.

• Studio completion feedback — generated compositions now surface a concise "Composition ready" card with rāga, gīti, note count, duration, and Play/WAV/MIDI next actions.

• Practice accuracy fixes — Sarali Varisai now requires the correct octave before marking a swara in tune, and practice summaries load more deterministically.

• Paywall and StoreKit cleanup — yearly savings are derived from displayed prices, and only Plus Monthly carries the 7-day intro offer.

Reverent, precise, joyful — one svara at a time.

### 3.1 — 2026-07-02

Version 3.1 is the post-launch musical polish update: clearer learning flow, a richer raga library, faster Compose previews, stronger Library stability on device, and submission-safe StoreKit behavior.

- Refreshed swara-led interface across Home, Practice, Studio, Compose, kriti, and Tools.
- Better first-week learning path with Getting Started, a 30-day foundation journey, Sa setup, lesson gates, streak CTA, and progress.
- Raga library listening examples now use external Apple Music and Spotify HTTPS search links without music-library access.
- More stable Library opening on device.
- Compose Studio previews are more responsive, with visible swara labels, clearer Tampura controls, and timeout messaging.
- Studio completion feedback now shows raga, giti, note count, duration, and next actions.
- Practice accuracy fixes for Sarali Varisai octave matching and more deterministic practice/journal summaries.
- Clearer practice language in Dosa Coach and Resonance Lab, using nyasa, gamaka motion, shruti, tala, and swara terms.
- Paywall and StoreKit cleanup for yearly savings, percent signs, and intro-trial behavior.
- Audio and performance hardening around local WAV rendering, preview timers, diagnostics, and release regressions.

### 3.0 — 2026-06-19

No release notes.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-25.*