Online Tuning Fork: 415, 432, 440, 442 and 444 Hz
Tuning Fork Settings
Strike it and it rings 🔔. The online tuning fork above from OnlineTuner.org behaves like the real thing: click the fork to sound it, click it again to damp it, or let it ring down on its own. It works in any browser, on a phone as readily as a laptop, and there is nothing to install. Unlike a steel fork it is not stuck on one note: the presets run from baroque pitch at 415 Hz through concert pitch at 440 to 450, and the slider reaches anything between 50 Hz and 800 Hz. It needs no microphone — this fork only makes sound, it never listens.
How to use our online tuning fork
- Click the fork to strike it. It rings for about nine seconds and fades away, exactly as a struck fork does.
- Click it again to damp it early, the way catching a real fork in your hand silences it. The Damp button does the same thing.
- Choose a pitch from the presets, or set your own with the slider or the number box.
- Turn on continuous sound if you would rather it held the note than let it decay.
The reading above the fork always tells you exactly what you are hearing — the frequency in hertz, the nearest note, and how far that pitch sits from concert pitch in cents.
Understand our online tuning fork's settings
A real fork is cut for one pitch and cannot be persuaded to give you another, which is why a musician who works at both baroque and concert pitch needs two of them. Our online tuning fork retunes, and the three settings below are how.
The pitch presets of our online tuning fork
The presets are the references musicians actually own forks in. One tap and the fork is retuned.
| Pitch | Who uses it |
|---|---|
| 415 Hz | Baroque pitch — roughly a semitone below modern concert pitch. Standard for historically informed performance. |
| 432 Hz | Sometimes called Verdi tuning. A small but committed following. |
| 440 Hz | Modern concert pitch, the international standard since 1955. If you are unsure, this is the one. |
| 442 Hz | Common across European orchestras, which tend to sit slightly sharp of 440. |
| 444 Hz | Sharper still — some ensembles and soloists prefer the extra brightness. |
| 450 Hz | Unusually high, but occasionally called for in period and regional practice. |
Set any pitch on our online tuning fork
Beyond the presets, the slider and the number box cover 50 Hz to 800 Hz, so you are not limited to references someone has thought to name. The − and + buttons move in single hertz for fine work.
You can retune while the fork is ringing: drag the slider and the pitch glides to follow you rather than stopping and starting, so the sound and the reading never disagree. That is what makes it possible to hunt for a pitch by ear instead of striking again after every adjustment.
A pitch can also go straight in the address. Three digits followed by -hz anywhere in the URL set it, so /415-hz-tuning-fork opens ready at baroque pitch and /442-hz-tuning-fork at 442. Bookmark whichever your ensemble works at and it is one tap away with no settings to touch.
Continuous sound
A real fork rings for a few seconds and dies, which is fine for taking a pitch and awkward for tuning a whole instrument — you end up striking it again every nine seconds. Switch on continuous sound and the fork holds its note until you damp it. The sound is identical; only the decay is removed.
Tuning by ear: listen for the beats
Tuning against a fork is not a matter of deciding whether you sound higher or lower. It is easier than that, and far more precise.
When two pitches are close but not identical they interfere, producing a slow pulsing in the volume — beats. The further apart the two pitches, the faster the pulsing. As you bring your instrument closer to the fork the beats slow down, and when the two pitches match exactly the beating stops altogether.
That is the whole technique, and it is remarkably sensitive: a trained ear can hear a beat rate of one per second, which at A440 means hearing a difference of a single hertz. Switch on continuous sound so you have a steady reference to work against rather than one that fades while you are still adjusting.
Why a tuning fork rather than a tuner?
An electronic tuner tells you what you are playing. A fork tells you what you should be playing. They are different tools for different moments.
- Singers need a pitch to take, not a readout. A fork gives you the note to start on.
- Ensembles tune to one another, and one shared reference sounding in the room does that better than everyone staring at their own screen.
- Ear training only happens when you are listening rather than reading. Tuning to a fork trains your ear; watching a needle does not.
- Instruments that defeat tuners — bells, bowls, anything with a complicated overtone series — are often easier to match by ear against a clean reference.
If you do want a readout, our online pitch detector shows the exact frequency of whatever you play, and our instrument tuners handle tuning string by string. If you need a pitch the fork cannot give you — a different waveform, a longer note, a frequency outside its range — use our online tone generator.
