sonaTune

Unlike most instruments, a single handpan tone field sounds three partials at once. The maker tunes the field's tension evenly so that one field vibrates in three modes — the tonic, the octave, and the compound fifth. Their frequencies form an exact 1 : 2 : 3 ratio: the three waveforms meet at a common point again and again and ring as one voice, and it is this alignment that gives a handpan its clear, resonant tone and long sustain.

When the alignment drifts, the three partials no longer fuse — the note turns dull and its bloom fades. A handpan is also built so that one note's partials share frequencies with other notes, so striking one field sets the others resonating and the whole instrument blooms. How precisely these harmonics align is what defines a handpan's tone and the quality of its making — and it is exactly what sonaTune measures.

An ordinary chromatic tuner reads one fundamental per note. But a handpan note is three partials ringing together — the tonic, the octave and the compound fifth — so even when the fundamental is right, a drifted partial has already dulled the sound. With no proper tool to check this, players have had to judge their instrument's condition by ear alone.

sonaTune is a multi-harmonic strobe tuner built by a handpan maker to solve exactly this. Three strobe bars track the three partials at once, judging each in Hz and cents against equal-tempered targets. Strike a tone field and the note is recognized instantly; when a bar holds still, it is in tune — no extra gear, just the sona app and your phone's microphone. Checking your instrument is no longer expert work: anyone can do it, easily, right in the app.