See Update Below
I seemed to have lost the ability to add a custom temperament in the Cleartune tuner app on my Galaxy S6 Android phone. This app is probably the most popular tuner app for early music performers and is available on both Apple and Android platforms. The ability to add custom temperaments to the already robust list of available ones is a huge plus. But on the temperament screen there was no button to add a new one. Steve at Bitcount support told me this: “Unfortunately the old Android menu button is how you’d enter a custom temperament on Android. Since they did away with it, users are left to either map one of their existing buttons to activate a menu click, or use a third-party app to generate the click. We’ve got an update planned, but it’s pretty far down our list and no idea when we might be able to get to it.”
It only took a little searching on the web to find that a long-press on the back button brings up the menu containing the option to add a custom temperament. Once you are on the temperament screen hold down the back button until the menu appears. This trick should work with any “legacy” app that used to rely on the old three-dot menu button.
Update 2020:
Unfortunately I had to stop using Cleartune as the app store version was not being updated to accommodate Android updates and the app kept crashing on my Galaxy S7. I had also noticed that the fix I mentioned for adding custom temperaments no longer worked (guess I should update my post about that – thanks for reminding me!). My iphone friends still all seem to be using Cleartune without any problems so apparently it’s just an Android issue.
In Google Play the last update to the app is listed as 2012. I had been in contact with the developer several times over the years that I used the app and he had been very helpful and had been providing me with beta versions to solve various problems I had been having but at some point he stopped communicating and it also appears he stopped development on the app.
I’m very happy with the current tuner app I’m using and it does support custom temperaments.
gStrings Tuner
This is the paid version – there’s also a free version but I think it had ads – can’t remember. I usually am happy to pay for an app that does what I need.
The reviews are slightly misinformed. The app lists various instruments for tuning but in reality it is a automatic chromatic tuner just like Cleartune. The instrument selection merely highlights the note names of the instrument you’re tuning so you don’t accidentally tune your G string to a G#. In other words – tuning for dummies.
The interface for changing temperament and base pitch (I need to set it for A415 frequently) is a little clumsy but it’s just as versatile as Cleartune and on my phone I find the sensor to be more stable. The tuning needle in Cleartune tended to jump around a lot on my phone.
My only complaint is that it tends to hold on to a pitch until the instrument has completely stopped vibrating so when tuning from one string to another I usually have to stop the previous string before striking the new one.
Another app some friends of mine really like is Pano Tuner
The paid upgrade also allows custom temperaments. I just didn’t like the appearance of the app but everything else about it appears to be excellent.