Latch Tuner vs M
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Latch Tuner
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Know the note. Get the numbers. Back to the beat. Ordinary tuners are built for long, sustained notes. Play a one-shot through one and the needle jumps around during the attack, then goes blank before you can read it. Latch Tuner is built for how producers actually work: it skips the attack, measures the body of the sound, and holds the answer on screen after the sample has ended. How it works. You chopped a bass note from an old record and it's fighting your track. Insert Latch Tuner on the channel, trigger the pad once, and it reads: E3 ā26.5 Ā¢ Ā· 324.6 Hz Ā· MIDI 64 Set TARGET to the note you actually want ā say C3 ā and it does the conversion for you: SEMI ā4 Ā· FINE +27 Those are the two numbers your sampler's pitch controls take. Type them in, retrigger, done. No looping the sample into a phone tuner, no guessing against a piano. Two modes. ⢠LATCH ā for one-shots, chops, plucks, vocal stabs and 808s. Transient-aware capture holds the reading until you clear it. Capture history keeps your last few results on screen, so you can work through a whole kit without writing anything down. ⢠LIVE ā stop switching apps to tune. A straightforward in-line tuner for guitar, synth and voice, docked in a corner of your session. It tells you when it isn't sure. A gliding 808 or a weak fundamental reads as low confidence rather than a confident wrong answer. A chord reads as its root, flagged rather than asserted. Noise and washed-out chops report no clear pitch, because there isn't one. Tap PLAY to hear a reference tone against the sample and decide with your ears ā below ~80 Hz the tone adds an octave-up partial so you can hear it on a device speaker. Speaks sampler. Note name, cents, frequency and MIDI note number, plus the SEMI/FINE correction to your chosen target. Samplers disagree about octave numbers, so the readout shows its convention next to every answer ā and a C3/C4 toggle matches it to yours. It can't silently put you an octave off. Adjustable reference pitch (440, 432, 442ā¦). Runs where you work. An AUv3 audio effect ā use it in AUM, Koala, GarageBand, or any other AUv3 host. Plus a standalone app that listens through the mic. Audio passes through untouched. One-time purchase. No subscription, no ads, no account. Everything is analyzed on-device; nothing is recorded or uploaded.
M
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That 8-bit sound ā with the real mechanism behind it. M-NES is a chiptune workstation that recreates the RP2A03 APU, the sound chip of the classic 8-bit game console, at the register level. Two pulse channels, a triangle, a noise channel, and 1-bit DPCM samples: the five channels the hardware actually has, laid out on a piano roll. You are not composing with presets that sound "close enough" ā you are driving the chip itself. FIVE-CHANNEL APU SOUND ENGINE ⢠Two pulse waves with four duty cycles, hardware sweep, and envelopes ⢠Triangle with the linear counter ā that round, fat bass ⢠Noise with 16 periods plus the 93-step short mode; pick the period by note pitch ⢠DMC channel playing 1-bit DPCM samples ⢠Switchable NTSC, PAL, and Dendy clocks and frame rates ⢠48 kHz mono output, just like the hardware A PIANO ROLL THAT FEELS RIGHT ⢠Tap to write, drag to move, pull the edge to resize ⢠8th, 16th, and 32nd quantize ⢠Note velocity maps straight to the APU volume registers ⢠Per-track mute and solo, undo and redo, autosave BUILT-IN NSF PLAYER ⢠Open .nsf or .nsfe and the built-in 6502 CPU and APU emulation play the original ⢠Multi-song files show a track list with titles and durations ⢠Single, repeat, and play-all modes TURN A SONG INTO EDITABLE NOTES ⢠Re-emulates the selected song and tracks every APU register write, frame by frame ⢠Recovers pitch, timing, velocity, duty cycles, and noise periods into five editable tracks ⢠Use it to study, remix, or continue a track ā transcribed songs play back immediately DPCM SAMPLES ⢠Import raw 1-bit .dmc data ⢠Convert WAV, AIFF, and CAF to hardware-spec 1-bit DPCM automatically ⢠Place drums and voice clips with a waveform preview HARDWARE-ACCURATE EXPORT ⢠NSF and NSFe export with a built-in 6502 driver and APU register stream ⢠48 kHz mono WAV master ⢠.nesseq project files containing all editing data PRIVACY ⢠No account, no ads, no tracking ⢠Composing, playback, and export all happen on your device, fully offline MADE FOR ⢠Chiptune musicians who want the real sound, not an imitation ⢠Game developers preparing hardware-spec music and sound effects ⢠Anyone who wants to learn how 8-bit sound actually works ā duty cycles, DPCM, noise periods ā hands on --- M-NES is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any video game console manufacturer. NSF and NSFe are community file formats used to preserve 8-bit game music. NSF files may contain third-party copyrighted material; import and export only within the rights you hold.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: M at every 4 days against Latch Tuner's every 3 weeks. Latch Tuner's advantage is price ($4.99 vs $6.99). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Latch Tuner costs $4.99 and M $6.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Latch Tuner ships an update every 3 weeks, M every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Latch Tuner | M |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 ā better | $6.99 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 4 days ā better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 ā better | 17.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bruno Santos Marinho | Code and DESIGN inc. |
In-app purchases
Latch Tuner
No in-app purchases
M
No in-app purchases









