Bagpipe Tuner vs Bagpipe Player
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bagpipe Tuner
This application provides precise tuning for Highland bagpipes. It accurately detects chanter notes and drones, displaying their frequency and pitch position. Ideal for pipers and those assisting with tuning, it simplifies the complex process of achieving good tone.
- Auto note and drone detection
- Frequency and pitch display
- Analog and digital meters
- Waveform input monitor
- External microphone support
- Large horizontal display
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The Bagpipe Tuner App allows precision tuning of Highland bagpipes. Simply sound a note and start tuning. It's easy and accurate. Bagpipe Tuner App for Highland Bagpipes accurately detects your pipe chanter notes, drones and displays the note, frequency and pitch position. Detection is via the inbuilt microphone, or in noisy environments an external microphone like the HBT clip mic can be attached. Bagpipe Tuner features both digital and analog style meters, waveform input monitor and auto gain limiter. Simply press the Learn button and start tuning, or turn horizontal to access a larger meter display. Using a Bagpipe Tuner can really make tuning less stressful, listening more pleasant and playing more enjoyable. You can quickly check your pipes at anytime to maintain good tone– before a gig, practising or competition. And, non-pipers can easily use it to help out with tuning. Why a Bagpipe Tuner? Highland bagpipes are incredibly hard to tune and unlike standard chromatic instruments, the intervals between each note continue to vary. Bagpipe Tuner correctly displays the scale and takes the guesswork out of using a chromatic tuner. Bagpipe Tuner compliments the standalone BLAIR tuners and Bluetooth clip. Features: • Auto detection and display of notes and drones • Analog style meter • Large horizontal display • Frequency display meter • Input waveform meter • Frequency position bar • Learn function for calibration setting • Auto input limiter • Internal microphone • External microphone support (HBT clip mic) • Large frequency detection range • Special Bluetooth mic/ sensor for Bagpipes supported
Bagpipe Player
Learn, play, and compose bagpipe music with this app. It supports popular music file formats, offers authentic sounds, and provides tools for practice and creation. Manage your tunes, export them, and sync across devices.
- Play bagpipe music with authentic sounds
- View sheet music for BWW, BMW, ABC files
- Compose new tunes with a graphical editor
- Practice tools: section repeat, playback delay
- Export music as PDF or MIDI
- Organize tunes with folders
- Sync files via iCloud
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The Bagpipe Player is app for IOS uses very popular format BWW, BMW, ABC files for writing music of the bagpipe . Basic functions: show bww file as musical notes sheet, for playing and printing. The app useful for learning a new tunes and writing a new tune. Bagpipe Player play tunes like Great Highland Bagpipe with drones and embellishments. Authentic sound sampled from real GHB and Practice chanter. Ability to choose: - sound of the practice chanter or bagpipe ; - sound of the drones; - volume sound of drones and chanter; - duration of grace notes; - tempo change; - tone of sound on +- 5 halftone; - height of the music staff; - background for the sheet of notes; There is an ability: - create PDF, print it, send it email ; - create folders in main folder to store certain tunes; - to delay begin of playback for training; - highlight a section of the tune and repeat it; - turn on sound of the metronome; - use demo tuner; - create midi file of the tune and to send it to the email; - create own bww file in the graphical editor. The Bagpipe Player contains some .bww files for demonstration purpose. This is tunes from Tutor 1 and Tutor 3 The College of Piping and also my favorite tunes. Remember tap on button (i) you get info about control in the app. Your files can to download to iPad from a PC using iTunes file sharing or download from DropBox, attachment email, websites and etc. Posibility to sync files between devices using iCloud. Can to upload files from the app to the DropBox folder. Count of files is not limited. The preferred source to produce files .bww is a lot of network resources. I think, app Bagpipe Player will be useful for beginners and professional bagpipers for purposes learning new tunes and writing new tunes. The Bagpipe Player created for everybody who want, learn, plays and to loves sound of the bagpipe.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bagpipe Tuner at none against Bagpipe Player's 4. Bagpipe Tuner also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 62%) and price ($11.99 vs $14.99). Bagpipe Player's advantage is rating (4.0 vs 3.6) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On ratings volume, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Bagpipe Tuner costs $11.99 and Bagpipe Player $14.99 up front. Bagpipe Player sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Bagpipe Tuner asks for nothing beyond the download.
Bagpipe Player holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 25 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 84% of Bagpipe Tuner's written reviews are positive against 62% of Bagpipe Player's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Bagpipe Tuner ships an update every 7 months, Bagpipe Player every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bagpipe Tuner | Bagpipe Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $11.99 — better | $14.99 |
| Rating | 3.6 (14 ratings) | 4.0 (25 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.4% of reviews — better | 61.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 14 | 25 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #188 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Murray Blair | Aleksey Vasilyev |
Customer experience
Bagpipe Tuner
Bagpipe Player
Bugs and requests
Bagpipe Tuner
Reported bugs
5 issues- App won't open
- App crashes on launch
- App crashes when using tuning clip
- App not working on latest iOS versions
- App not working on iPhone X
Requested features
9 requests- Add documentation/help file
- Implement manual calibration option
- Improve learn mode functionality
- Add watch app support
- Allow manual pitch setting within app
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Re-center analog meter on set pitch
- Add screen lock button
- Improve readability of help window font
- Rename 'learn' button to 'calibrate' with reset option
Bagpipe Player
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bagpipe Tuner
No in-app purchases
Bagpipe Player
- Unlock save$0.99
- Tip Jar 1$0.99
- Tip Jar 2$1.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Tip Jar 3$2.99
Questions
Is Bagpipe Tuner free?
Is Bagpipe Player free?
Which has better reviews, Bagpipe Tuner or Bagpipe Player?
Do Bagpipe Tuner or Bagpipe Player have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bagpipe Tuner or Bagpipe Player?
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