Comparison

Chord Tracker vs Chord Detector

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Audio song analysis
  • Chord symbol display
  • Graphical piano keyboard
  • Guitar tab display
  • Practice and performance aid
Read full description

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.

About

Chord Detector

This real-time music recognition app uses your device's microphone to identify chords and individual notes. It displays detected chords prominently and offers an experimental MIDI recording feature for solo instruments.

Highlights
  • Real-time chord detection
  • Displays individual music tones
  • Experimental MIDI recording
  • Supports major, minor, 5th, and 7th chords
  • Audio to MIDI conversion
Features
Read full description

Chord Detector is closer to science than just an app. It is an experimental music recognition method that I have made according to my understanding about the mechanics of sound perception. The app is real time chord tracker that uses the microphone of the device. The found chords are displayed with big letters on the screen but you can also see individual music tones with small letters at the bottom. MIDI recording is an experimental feature. I do not know of any 100% successful audio to MIDI converter yet but this one I have made works relatively good for solo instruments. However full songs with drums and noises are not so good :) Audio to MIDI conversion is also real time so some tones may be missed because the CPU may not catch up (depends on the device) At the moment chord detection is limited to major, minor, 5th and 7th chords.

Screenshots

Chord Tracker4 screens
Chord Detector3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chord Tracker at 49% against Chord Detector's 0%. Chord Tracker also leads on price (Free vs $1.99) and rating (3.6 vs 2.0). Chord Detector's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 16.0). On in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Chord Tracker is free to download; Chord Detector costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chord Tracker holds the better App Store score, 3.6 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chord Tracker has 171 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 49% of Chord Tracker's written reviews are positive against 0% of Chord Detector's.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Chord Tracker versus Chord Detector: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChord TrackerChord Detector
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating3.6 (171 ratings) — better2.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews48.7% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings171 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 months—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supported — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size175 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYamaha Corporation of AmericaAleksandar Mlazev

Customer experience

Chord Tracker

All ratings165 ratings
Positive63.6%
Neutral9.1%
Negative27.3%
Written reviews78 reviews
Positive48.7%
Neutral10.3%
Negative41.0%

Chord Detector

All ratings3 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral33.3%
Negative66.7%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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
Show 8 more
  • 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
Show 11 more
  • 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

Chord Detector

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Chord Tracker

No in-app purchases

None

Chord Detector

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chord Tracker free?
Chord Tracker is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chord Detector free?
Chord Detector costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chord Tracker or Chord Detector?
Chord Tracker is rated higher. Chord Tracker averages 3.6 out of 5 from 171 ratings, while Chord Detector averages 2.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Chord Tracker or Chord Detector have ads?
Chord Tracker shows ads; Chord Detector does not.

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