Itanpura App Reviews

I have played sitar professionally for 22 years & shehnai for 9 years. I just used the app for the 1st time & the app performed wonderfully! Any chance of a tavil app? Peace & Love

Ever since I purchased this app, My Raagini Digital has been collecting dust. This is a pleasant surprise.

Addendum to 4.5: As an iTanpura user since version 1.0, I am amazed at the frequency of updates and useful improvements. ITanpura is a steal at its current price, but I appreciate that it remains any easy choice for Indian musicians both student and professional, and also for crossover musicians who want a superb and flexible tanpura sample, and for meditators, massage practitioners, or even as a sleep aid -- although for me, it would just keep me singing all night. --- This application literally changes my life as a student/practitioner of Indian music. It is the application I've been waiting for since it occurred to me that something like this might be possible on the iPhone. Better than the electronic tanpuras I've heard for 1/10th of the price. And available any time; in the car, for instance. Hard to believe, but it's really a performance-quality instrument. If you perform music that would require a tanpura, and have an iPhone or iPod Touch, this application is 1000% worth the dinner out it will cost you. It produces the sound of two 4-string tanpuras (or one), sampled from good, well-tuned Hemraj tanpuras, with well-set jawari, tunable from male B to instrumental Eb (an octave and a third), with one-cent microtuning adjustments. It sounds superb through speakers or headphones, and not too bad just out of the iPhone speaker. The developer also seems very responsive to user input. Definitely a winner!

Don't get wrong, I'm not saying this is not a recommended app, but based in reviews, u expected it to substitute my real tambura, or my Radel. It doesn't. I'm a professional Carnatic vocalist and I was really looking forward for an app like this so that I could use it in concerts. Although i'm (still) impressed with the software part of the app, the tonal quality is just not good enough to make it as my primary tambura source. When you've done an app as good as this one (and paying as much also), I really expected it to have uncompromising tonal quality. Just because it is not as good as it could have been, I cannot rate this beyond 3 stars, which makes it a novelty item. And it's too pricey for a non-serious app.

This is a great device to have if your a muscian. Highly recommend it.

This is truely great app. My old electronic tanpura broke so I tried it out. The quality of sound is truely close to the real thing. The swarmandal is great. I recommend this app to anyone who needs to practice music.

It is absolutely great! Must get for singers. You can play it whenever and wherever! Great

Saves lugging around large machines. Looking forward to tabla version.

With it's flexibility of "on the fly" tuning capabilities, I see this app as a permanent member for future recordings. Fantastic!

I like the tone and voice of it. I just love playing and listening to it. Continuous updates are also very useful. More raga presets would be appreciated.

I have loved this app forever. Today when I went to demonstrate it, nothing. I can’t turn either tanpura on and I can’t find any way to get support from the developer or upgrade to the paid version. I’m on an iphone 6 running a fully updated ios. What happened, Prasad?

I'm a long-time student of Indian classical music; I have a Raagini electronic tanpura, like many folks, but a) there are times when it's too bulky to pack along with my instrument, and b) there are limited options on it for alternate tunings to the non-Sa string (just Pa, Ma and Ni.) THIS, on the other hand, gives you all the tempo, tuning and fine-tuning features of a Raagini, x 2 (TWO tanpuras, pan-able in stereo), with the option of any other note for the non-Sa. With the latest version, the two tanpuras, whose sample quality also is superior to the Raagini, the tempos of the two can be varied relative to each other, giving it a more realistic playing style, as two actual players would be unlikely to be in sync (and indeed, would try not to be, as the point with tanpura is to NOT draw attention to it with too distinct a rhythm.) Additionally (wait, there's more! it slices! it dices!), you get a tunable swarmandal (surmandal), with independent volume, and with the latest version, a surpeti Sa drone, also with its own volume. Prasad is equally knowedgeable in Indian music (as a performer) and in app development; this shows through in the design: it's one of the best uses of the iPhone Os's API I've yet seen. The UI is well thought out. I highly recommend this app to any student or performer of Indian music.

This is an amazing app for Indial classiscal music learners and professionals. Thanks for creating such a wonderful app. The inclusion of sruthi box helps young leaners to stick to the swaras when they do the alapana. I would appreciate very much if you could also please and please and please include the carnatic notes in the sruthi. If possible, please also provide some presets for carnatic ragas. My 11yr old daughter became crazy of these presets and overall with the app since I purchased it.

UPDATE: Now there are additional components. The one I used instantly is the extremely accurate tuner. I tuned my guitar and it is easy to read and to tune. Can also tune exactly to the tamboura. I checked it to my other tuners and of course, it is precise. Actually this is one of the best made apps I have, and I have over 90. This truly is a most exquisite and well conceived and functional app. The tanpura sounds like the authentic instrument we play in our kirtans. The other instruments are luxurious layers of sound. They play so harmoniously together. It took me about 10 or 15 minutes to find my first great sound. I put the auto loop on and it took me into meditation. Thank you, Sir, for this valuable tool.

A billion billion Thanks for this wonderful app! It has changed the way I perform. However, now a days, after I got the update, the app suddenly exits when I try to adjust the volume or panning & it's quite frustrating when this happens on stage. Is there a way this could be rectified?

The sound is fantastic, but I am giving this 3 stars instead or 5 because I cannot multitask. I would like this app to run in the background while I check email, etc. Now with ios 4, please enable multitasking.

Sounds exactly like a real tanpura. Absolutely lovely!

this is wonderful, simple yet professional quality- please, consider making a tabla as well!

This is my favorite app. Extremely useful. A bit over priced but that is fine. Keep improving it. By the way when are u coming up with i tabla. Waiting....... Come on. At least the basic thekas to start with...

Excellent app. Sound quality is superb. Similar software costs 100s or dollars but this has better sound quality. And thanks a million for all the updates! The swarmandal -- perfect, the tuner -- perfect! It helped me finally realize what's the right pitch for a swar! Thanks!

This is a fantastic application. Sound quality is exceptional, it's user friendly, comes with great features and is easy to navigate. I use this for my yoga classes and vocals. Yoga students love the sound and you don't have to understand indian music to use this app. The presets make it so easy. Love it!

This is a great sounding, easy to use ap. Almost makes the Raagini obsolete. Samples are great and the many tuning options are invaluable. Both manual and presets allow proper tuning for different ragas. The swar mandal is pretty good, though not quite as convincing as the tamboura. Well worth the cost.

This is awesome! Best sound coming out of an electronic! I use it wherever I go! It is a very useful app!

Thanks to Prasad Upasani for making continuous improvements. One of the best.

This is by far the best electronic sound of the Tanpura I have personally experienced. I had been wanting to buy a real tanpura (tambura in South India) for sometime now, and after buying this app, I decided to postpone my purchase :) I would readily recommend this application to any classical indian music lover. It is a bit pricier than some of the other generic music apps. This is not a generic music app. This is a serious effort to bring out the best for everyone! Kudos to Prasad and his team.

Prasad Upasani knows Indian music, and has here created a Tanpura application that will appeal to scholars of raga, new age composers, those who meditate to the tanpura's relaxing voice, and more. This has replaced my $100+ hardware Raagini. I look forward to using iTanpura in my own compositions, chakra and hypnosis backgrounds. No scholar of Indian music myself (though I do play a little sitar), I find the instrument flexible and perfect for my use. It is the most expensive app I've purchased, and a real bargain. Congratulations to Prasad on a rare accomplishment and wonderful use of the iPhone's potential.

Love this app!!!! Use it nearly everyday! Thank you!

This thing sounds incredible! My sitar teacher is here from India and was so impressed that he's going to pick up an ipod touch just to have this app!

This has been one of my most used apps since I bought an iPhone, and in fact one of the main reasons I got an iPhone in the first place. Some of the things I love about it: - Awesome sound! Really, anyone who doesn't like the sound doesn't know what good tanpura sound is or most likely needs better speakers :-) The tanpura sound is just heavenly and the the swar-mandal sound gives it that extra dimension. When I have two tanpuras, surpeti and swar mandal playing through my Bose speakers the effect is just beautiful! - The presets feature is amazing. I love that I can just pick my raag and start singing, and if my raag isn't there then I can just tune everything the way I want and save my own presets. - The new multi-tasking is really well implemented and lets me keep the tanpuras playing in the background while I access my music notes in another app - Love to be able to instantly use the tuner to tune it to a harmonium during a concert. This is a wonderfully innovative and useful feature I have not seen anywhere else

It's hard enough finding tanpura software for the computer that is usable, tunable, and not priced out of this world so to have a product like this for the iPhone/iPod Touch is fantastic! No more portability issues - no more dealing with a computer - no more having to use untunable CDs! Highly recommended and worth every penny!

The sound is very good and clear especially when having 2 tanpuras in stereo. I really ask for the promised upgrade with tempo control and if possible more tuning or transposing possibilities of each tanpura separately. I know this might not be in the rules of classic indian music, sorry, but are we not in a fusion time of all cultures nowadays? Let's open our imagination and creativity ! I'll give it 5 * after such an upgrade.

Thanks for making the best electronic drone to date! And also for making it affordable. I can only pray you all make a tabla accompaniment ap next that can change tals without losing the beat! I hope you make a nice nut from this gem and keep up the good work;)

I had iTanpura Lite for a couple of days before I upgraded to the full version - glad I did! What an amazingly well thought-out design. I love this app and use it all the time - a perfect accompaniment for practicing my Tablas, and when I get together with Sitar players... the closest you'll ever come to a live Tanpura player ; )

Never really written a review for an app before thought this app was well worthy for it! One of the best apps I've ever purchased!! Hands down!!

Very very useful app. Sometimes it sounds a little sharp but I love the app. Portability is a big big plus without having to lug the sruti box. Still have to learn some of the functionality but overall a great app.

A portable Shruthi box. Best Sound!!!!!

It stopped my sound system and suddenly stops working . I have been having issues with this app for months and now my sound system doesn't even work ! Never buy it , it's a waste

Couldn't resist the urge to write a review abiut this beautiful piece of software! Very handy for students who does not have a shruthibox. Connect your ipod to an external speaker and it will sound as good as a RADEL. I rate it 5 stars!

The sound of the tanpura is so pure, and it gives the most accurate shruti I have ever heard!

Beautiful sound with fantastic feature, and all in a small mobile form factor that I can keep with me at all times, makes this a must-have electronic tanpura. Not to mention its much cheaper than the the big shruti boxes I used to carry around. And the Swar Mandal just puts it over the top!

An excellent sounding tanpura. They seem to have thought of everything. Tuning can be changed both by cents and more traditional means. You basically get 2 tanpura, each with 2 strings, all can be set differently and played at the same time if desired. Ability for user presets (thank you!). L/R pan. Loops can be varied by minutes or not at all (continuous). I patch this out of my iPhone and into my Roland and then in to DAW. Works great. And oh -- you can find the master volume under the Harp icon.

This is a great application - one that convinced me to purchase an Iphone! In fact, Apple should be giving the creator of this app some commission, instead of the other way around. The sound quality and attention to detail is simply marvelous. The controls are very easy to use. For instance, I was able to quickly transform a pre-selected Ahir Bharaiv from G# to A# and a C#. The dual Tanpura opens up a whole plethora of options. With this app, one can practice on the go, instead of carrying a tanpura / e-tanpura around. You can now have a music class in a car!

This is an excellent app. Probably better than any electronic tanpura available in India. But I have a suggestion to make. > Enable multitasking facility now that the new iPhone OS has come and make it available in the upgrade.

This app has saved me several times when I was asked to sing and didn't have a sruthi box. Before this app, i use to have hard time singing at my pitch during an adhoc request. Very useful, convenient and life saver for singers. I would highly recommend it. I have tried using other apps, but none as effective

This app works great. Used in several concerts so far. The fine tuning makes it easy to tune with the non standard harmoniums (which is needed a lot of times). The panning also gives a great effect, especially when the first string is tuned to different notes. Prasad, thanks for coming up with such a wonderful product and making it easy to use!

I am a vocalist and tabla player and I use iTanpura and iLehra every day. I was blown away when I saw them in the first place and bought them both immediately as the first apps I purchased on my phone. iTanpura has incredible, sampled real tanpura sound that you can plug into any speakers or just use the phone's speakers. We recorded sarod and tabla with a digital condenser recorder with the iTanpura in the background and it sounds like there is a real tanpura in the room. We even had to turn the phone down, without having it connected to any speakers! ilehra is great for practicing and with future updates will continue to be my most heavily used app. Save yourself the $300 on an electric tanpura by getting this app! It's just as good, maybe better.

Get this app. Practice your ragas and skip over the next few incarnations. This things sounds so nice you'll be at home evolving and not running around doing things to foul your karma. Excellent sound and inviting to use.

I tried the free app for a few months and then got the full app. I love the presets, they make singing in a particular raga so much easier. Also, the sound is very good given the middle of the road electronics of the iPhone.

I use this app every day to play long tones on the trumpet. This drone is the best I've ever found for both intonation and tone quality, because the drone has so many overtones above the fundamental (all perfectly in-tune) so you can match pure intervals above the drone.