Uraha

Why a shamisen-dedicated tuner? The shamisen's distinctive tone — shaped by its percussive attack, rapid decay, rich harmonic overtones, and the characteristic sawari buzz — makes it notoriously difficult for general-purpose digital tuners to detect accurately. Uraha is purpose-built and optimized specifically for the shamisen. Why choose Uraha? ■ Record Your Own Shamisen — Recorded No two shamisen sound alike. Record your instrument at its perfectly tuned pitch, then play that recording back before every performance to tune your strings to it — not a generic reference pitch, but the character of your own instrument. Hear each take before you keep it, add a quick memo, and swipe away any you no longer need. Found in no other shamisen tuner app. ■ [New in Version 4.5] Now on Apple Watch Play reference tones from your wrist, through the watch's own speaker. Turn the Digital Crown to move between 壱, 弍 and 参, and tap to play or stop. The base tone and tuning follow your iPhone, or you can choose them on the watch itself. ■ The Whole Tuning on One Screen Choose your key and tuning from two pickers, then work across the three strings side by side. Each string shows its note, its octave and its exact frequency, and keeps a check mark once you have held it in tune — so you can see at a glance how far through the instrument you are. Hold a string in tune for a second and Uraha advances to the next one on its own. ■ A Tuner That Measures the Right String The needle now reads against the string you selected, not simply the nearest note. Play the wrong string, or catch an overtone instead of the fundamental, and Uraha tells you so rather than reporting a confident match. ■ Ear Tuning with Authentic Shamisen Tone Uraha plays a synthesized tone that closely recreates the resonance and timbre of a real shamisen, so you can tune by ear the way musicians have for centuries. One tap sounds a string; hold to repeat it. Fine-tune the timbre to match your own instrument and preference. ■ Digital Tuner Optimized for Shamisen Calibrated specifically for the shamisen's pitch range and harmonic structure, Uraha detects the fundamental pitch far more reliably than conventional chromatic tuners — use it alongside ear tuning for precision you can see and hear. ■ Instrument-Type Presets Fine-tune the synthesized tone for Tsugaru shamisen, nagauta, jiuta, and more, then save up to three configurations as presets — ideal if you own multiple instruments or switch between genres. ■ Full Support for All Three Traditional Tunings Hon-choshi, Ni-agari, and San-sagari — accurate reference pitches for every standard shamisen tuning, one tap away. ■ Saved Tunings with Memos Save a key and tuning together with a note — the song, the piece, the player — and call it straight back from the saved list. Ideal for teachers tracking students' setups or performers managing multiple pieces. ■ Accessible by Design Every primary control — record, play, save, tune — includes VoiceOver labels, and the app fully supports both Light and Dark Mode. ■ Upgrading from Version 3.0 In version 4.0 the key list was reordered to start at 一本 (A) and climb one semitone at a time to 十二本, the order of a pitch pipe. As a result, 一本, 二本 and 三本 now sound an octave lower than they did in 3.0, and saved tunings at those three keys play an octave lower with them. Recordings still play exactly as recorded, but a recording labelled 一本, 二本 or 三本 now sits an octave above that key. All other keys are unchanged. Who is Uraha for? Anyone who has struggled to tune a shamisen with a standard tuner; players of Tsugaru shamisen, nagauta, jiuta, or other specific styles; those who play multiple instruments or switch between genres; performers who need to match pitch with others in an ensemble; and anyone who needs reliable, repeatable tuning at rehearsal or on stage. A tuner built for the shamisen, by a shamisen player. Uraha supports your performance.