Chord Tracker vs Tone Scan
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chord Tracker
This app analyzes audio songs from your device's music library to display chord symbols on screen. It offers graphical piano keyboard and guitar tab views to aid practice and performance. It's designed to help musicians play along with their favorite tunes.
- Audio song analysis
- Chord symbol display
- Graphical piano keyboard
- Guitar tab display
- Practice and performance aid
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The Yamaha Chord Tracker app for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad helps you practice and perform songs by analyzing the audio songs stored in your iOS device and then displaying the chord symbols for you. ■Features Chord Tracker analyzes the audio songs stored in your iOS device's music library and then displays the song's chords on the screen, allowing you to play your favorite songs. And now, with both graphical piano keyboard and guitar tab display options, Chord Tracker is even more powerful. ■Note 1. The chords displayed by this application will match the mood of the original song very closely, but may not be an exact match for the original chords used. 2. Chord Tracker will not work for songs in iCloud or protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). 3. Chord Tracker will not work with Music Streaming services such as Apple Music.
Tone Scan
Analyze live or recorded audio to reveal musical details like pitch, timbre, and tonal balance. This app offers three live scans to help you understand sound more deeply, simplifying tasks like instrument tuning and learning songs by ear.
- Chromatic spectrum analysis
- Polyphonic tuner
- Note mix for tonal balance
- Pitch recognition
- Timbre analysis
- Instrument tuning
- Chord and key spelling
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Discover musical secrets in any live or recorded audio. Elevate your perception of sound with this unique app. You’ll be amazed. See what you hear — and can’t hear — with three live scans: 1. A chromatic spectrum to see sound partials and pitch 2. A polyphonic tuner to see the pitch accuracy of select notes 3. A note mix to see changes in tonal balance Simplify tasks like: • Pitch recognition • Timbre analysis • Instrument tuning • Chord and key spelling • Tonality analysis • Learning a song by ear Ready to explore? Try the app for free.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chord Tracker at none against Tone Scan's 4. Chord Tracker also leads on rating (3.6 vs 3.2) and ratings volume (171 vs 6). Tone Scan's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Tone Scan sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Chord Tracker asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chord Tracker holds the better App Store score, 3.6 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chord Tracker has 171 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 49% of Chord Tracker's written reviews are positive against 50% of Tone Scan's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Chord Tracker ships an update every 5 months, Tone Scan every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chord Tracker | Tone Scan |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (171 ratings) — better | 3.2 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 48.7% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 171 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 175 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yamaha Corporation of America | Openchord Inc. |
Customer experience
Chord Tracker
Tone Scan
Bugs and requests
Chord Tracker
Reported bugs
13 issues- App crashes when detecting chord sections
- Audio playback out of sync with score on iPad Pro
- Black screen with only alphabet visible on some devices
- Songs disappear from User Songs after import
- Cannot load songs from local device files
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- Dropbox connection fails to display songs
- Apple Music songs show as 'This data cannot be selected'
- Playback produces artifacts when slowing tempo
- VoiceOver doesn't follow chord tracking
- Bluetooth headphone playback not working
- Only 2 songs displaying from library
- License recognition failure for newly downloaded songs
- App incompatible with iOS 13 and later versions
Requested features
16 requests- Restore real-time microphone chord detection
- Support for Spotify and Google Play Music
- Local file import from device storage
- Bluetooth speaker output support
- Print or export chords as PDF
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- Ukulele chord display
- PC/Web version of the app
- iCloud Drive support for file imports
- Auto-metronome feature
- Save edited versions (transposed, etc.) to favorites
- Sync favorites across multiple devices
- Support for Bb and Eb instruments
- Negative capo/pitch shift options
- Advanced chord detection (7th, 9th, 11th, 13th chords)
- Playback of chords-only instrumental version
- Direct contact/support channel with Yamaha
Tone Scan
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Chord Tracker
No in-app purchases
Tone Scan
- Audio Free Trial3 variantsFree
- Unlock Audio$4.99
