SCOUT for iPhone and iPad
SCOUT Support
Point your phone at the music and SCOUT locks its key and tempo. Below are the questions we are asked most. If yours is not here, email us and a person will answer.
It is not detecting anything
If the Sweep the room panel is covering the screen, SCOUT is not listening yet — tap TAP TO LISTEN. If the microphone was refused, that button reads OPEN SETTINGS instead and takes you straight there. Once it is running, the status beside the SCOUT mark reads SCANNING…, and the dot turns amber while it hunts; it only goes green once the key locks. The centre of the scope should read HEARING · HUNTING… rather than NO SIGNAL. Detection needs a few seconds of music: key and tempo appear as confidence builds, and a LOCKED banner drops in once both are sure.
Can it read a track playing on this phone?
Not through the microphone — SCOUT takes the audio input for itself, so music playing in another app stops when SCOUT starts listening. Play the track on a speaker and point the phone at it, or use +FILE in SCOUT Pro to analyse the file itself.
The tempo reads half or double what I expect
Tap ½× or 2× beside the tempo to pull the reading to the metrical level you want, and tap the lit chip again to clear it. While SCOUT is detecting, ½× only halves a reading of 120 BPM or more and 2× only doubles one of 100 or less, so outside that range the chip lights up but the number stays put. On a tapped tempo they always halve or double. The chip beside them shows where the tempo is coming from: it reads AUTO while SCOUT is detecting and TAP once you have used the tap pad, so tap it when it reads TAP to hand the tempo back to SCOUT. Tap the TAP pad in time with the music if you would rather count it yourself — a number appears from the second tap, and pausing for more than two seconds starts the count again.
A red LOW-QUALITY MIC INPUT bar appeared
Something has taken the input down to a narrow, processed signal — usually a Bluetooth headset or an external mic. Disconnect it so SCOUT hears the room through the phone's own microphone at full range; key detection in particular needs the top octaves.
The key looks wrong
Give it longer on a section with clear harmony — intros, breakdowns and drum-only passages carry little pitch information. Switch the analysis window to LONG so it weighs more of the track, and tap RESET when the song changes so the old harmony is not still in the average. While SCOUT is unsure it prints its second choice under the key as OR Bm?; CONF in one corner of the scope tells you how much to trust the current call, and TUNE in the other shows in cents how far the track sits off A440.
Everything has frozen on one reading
Tap HOLD so it reads HOLD rather than HELD. HOLD freezes the key on the wheel so you can write it down — the HOLD button on the LOCKED banner turns it on too — and nothing reaches the LOG until you turn it off.
Where are chords and the progression?
Chords, the progression strip, the LOG and its COPY button, and +FILE analysis of an audio file you pick from Files are all part of SCOUT Pro. The chord readout is on screen from the moment you open SCOUT, blurred behind a PRO badge; the progression and the LOG appear the same way once there is something to show. Tap any of them, or the +FILE button, to see the price.
I bought Pro but it is locked on my other device
Tap the blurred chord readout at the top of the scope, or the +FILE button — both are there the moment you open SCOUT — and choose RESTORE PURCHASE. SCOUT Pro is a one-time purchase tied to your Apple Account and restores on every device signed into it.
Does SCOUT record or upload anything?
No. Audio is analysed on the device and discarded. A file you pick gets a temporary working copy that is deleted when playback stops. See the privacy page for detail.
Which devices are supported?
iPhone and iPad running iOS or iPadOS 16 and later.
Contact
Email info@echelonlabs.llc. A person reads it, and we reply within one business day. Tell us your device, your iOS version and what you were doing, and we will come back to you. Privacy details are on the SCOUT privacy page.