Five apps promise to name an Irish tune by ear. We played the same 539 real recordings to each one we could test: YouTube performances, album tracks and full bands, with fiddle, flute, whistle, pipes, concertina, accordion and banjo. Then we counted how often each named the right tune.
We make one of the apps, Tune Companion, so we’ve published every clip and every answer on the full benchmark page. Check any of them.
Updated
| App | Right first time | Right after 10 s | Tunes it knows | Price | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tune Companion | 76% | 54% | 23,305 | Free | Web, on any phone, tablet or computer |
| JigRipper | 72% | 55% | 22,410 | €7.99 on iPhone; free on the web | iPhone, web |
| FolkFriend | 65% | 59% | 23,385 | Free and open source (GPL-3.0) | Web |
| Tunepal | 35% | 32% | 12,241 | Free | iPhone, Android |
| Little Session | – | 23,000+ | Free app; recognition needs Premium (€19.99, one-off) | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Windows |
“Right first time” is the share of all 539 recordings where the app’s top answer was the right tune, with its 95% interval. “Right after 10 s” is the share named correctly after hearing only the first 10 seconds. Tunes it knows is the size of each app’s tune index; Little Session’s is as its makers state it.
The fairest test is the 166 YouTube performances we added after Tune Companion’s settings were fixed, so it couldn’t have been tuned to them.
YouTube performances added after Tune Companion's settings were chosen. The fairest test. Tune Companion’s lead over JigRipper here is too small to call with this many clips (exact McNemar test, p = 0.11).
Ours. The most accurate once it has heard a whole clip, though FolkFriend names a few more in the first ten seconds. Then it helps you learn the tune: score, play-along and a tunebook.
Close behind on most recordings and level on full band recordings. A strong, private, well-made app.
Free and open, and good on a clear solo instrument. Backing and ensembles trip it up more.
The original trad tune finder, from Bryan Duggan's research at DIT (now TU Dublin). Its note-matching method struggles with anything but one clean instrument.
Not benchmarked yet: recognition is a paid feature with no web version, so it needs playing through the real app. Its makers report 64% top-1 on their own clips.
Every app heard exactly the same audio. JigRipper ran its own published web model and front end offline; FolkFriend ran its open-source command-line build; Tunepal ran its published search over its own tune index from its author’s open-source rebuild. Tunepal’s own pitch tracker isn’t public, so a standard one stands in for it, which may make it look slightly better or worse than the app. Little Session will be added once we’ve played the clips through the app itself.
The YouTube clips’ tunes were checked by ear. A tune an app doesn’t know counts against it, as it would at a session. Numbers are rounded; the benchmark page has every clip, the answers, and splits by instrument and by how popular the tune is.
On our benchmark of 539 real recordings, the right tune came first for Tune Companion on 76%, JigRipper on 72%, FolkFriend on 65% and Tunepal on 35%. On full band recordings, JigRipper is level with Tune Companion.
Yes. Tune Companion, JigRipper, FolkFriend, Tunepal and Little Session all name trad tunes by ear. Shazam itself only knows commercial recordings, so it can't name a tune played live at a session.
Tune Companion, FolkFriend and Tunepal are free, and JigRipper has a free web version. Little Session's recognition is part of its paid Premium upgrade.
Yes, Tunepal is still on the App Store. Its method of matching note letters works best on one clean instrument; with backing or several players it often misses.