So basically "music memos" app they killed 4 years ago is now exclusive to latest models.
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iOS 18.2 Brings Layered Voice Memo Recordings to iPhone 16 Pro
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I read somewhere that the feature requires the more powerful processor and extra mics on the Pros. One can choose to be skeptical about whether that’s true or not, but I don’t know how one could prove it either way. I imagine the clean cancelling out of the old audio while recording the new is computationally intensive, so the requirement sounds plausible.
Music Memos didn’t even have layered recording. All it could do was auto generate an optional generic drum and bass track for your recording, but it was still just one layer of recording. It did have some other features that made it very convenient for recording music on the fly, but none of which have made it to Voice Memos so far (metronome, tuner, auto detect tempo and key, adjust chords, and seamless integration with Garageband).
Just gimmicks and bs non stop. I recorded a simple message this morning to reply to a friend, 29 minute recording that I usually send via telegram afterwards. I paused a few times, interrupted by a few phone calls. It could not complete saving it, I rebooted the phone twice, force closed the app, tried everything. I couldn't even delete it. After almost 12 hours it showed as saved and it was 0:00m long. All gone.
They turned into a laughable company, unable to produce a single reliable piece of software. But yeah keep spending billions in R&D to come up with "image playground". They should fire whoever even came up with that name, it says it all, toys. Pathetic if you ask me.
They turned into a laughable company, unable to produce a single reliable piece of software. But yeah keep spending billions in R&D to come up with "image playground". They should fire whoever even came up with that name, it says it all, toys. Pathetic if you ask me.
This is a useful app for me, I’m curious how the internal mic quality is-as I have a pro 16. A nice comparison would be to AudiGo mics, which you can easily use up to 4 mics and the internal video feature to make decent videos with good mic quality sounds on the go. Curious to see if your can use this simultaneously with the video recording app, like you can with AudiGo.
AudiGo’s great, but it’s $250 per mic. This is free and built in, so Im not complaining. Both seem like worthwhile solutions.
AudiGo’s great, but it’s $250 per mic. This is free and built in, so Im not complaining. Both seem like worthwhile solutions.
This is exactly it. What makes this different is the ‘without headphones’ thing. It takes a lot of computational work to clean the sound of the backing track (that was played out loud into the room) out of the recorded vocal track. Without that cleanup function, the vocal recording would be an unusable mess.
That’s why the feature is only available on the newest model phone. Older phones don’t have the processor power to do that. This isn’t a case of Apple arbitrarily restricting the feature to new phones just to sell new phones. It’s Apple building a new phone that can physically do things that old phones can’t.
Ironically, people typically complain about the modest, incremental advances from one iPhone model to the next, until a new model makes a bigger leap. Then they complain that the old models should be able to do everything the new one can, and that Apple must be doing something shifty to keep the new feature off of older models.
I’ve gotten worse recordings with sensitive mics while wearing headphones. It was what I expected and the leak from the headphones was so low it didn’t bother me. Clean is good.
Why the willfully obtuse point of view?
An app like Voice Memos is the modern form of a tape recorder which was the modern form of pen and paper. Each new version of technology added a new dimension of capability and convenience for the creative. Like any tool, it doesn’t make their music become good, but it improves their workflow and frees up more of their time for them to use as they wish. There are many modern technological tools in many fields that because of the same reasons have become critical for the people who use them.
Michael Bublé... maybe they aren't as prominent in the US, but in Canada, he frequently has ads for Bubly sparkling water with him excitedly carrying around the product screaming Bublé. I now look at a can in the drink fridge, and immediately imagine hearing him screaming his last name. Every. Time.
Because of the total hyperbole that this was 'critical' to musicians. It isn't, by any definition of the word, or musicians couldn't have done their thing without it. It's a useful tool, no more, no less. If you took it away tomorrow, I strongly suspect that musicians would adapt and cope as they did before.
You have a very narrow definition of the word ‘critical’. If a tool makes people’s work easier or faster, enabling them to produce more or make more money or have more time, then it is critical by many common definitions. If your definition is ‘unable to adapt without’, then not even a car is critical because one can hitch hike.
So what? The internet exists means that 1 second after seeing this ad my attention is elsewhere. All I learned is that Apple has some new feature related to their voice memo app and music that they want me to be excited about, but didn't bother to actually show me any of it.
Memos and Notes are in my Top 5 iOS apps. They are part of my daily workflow, both professionally and personally.
Memos’ recent updates are really nice. Love transcribing a voice memo. Adding the ability to overdub a second track atop an original recording, is a fun wrinkle. I tried poorly harmonizing a lyric idea. Or adding lyrics to an acoustic guitar piece.
Are there better recording devices/apps? Of course. But - and the promo was a bit much, for me - the same truth applies: the best audio recording device is the one you have on you. Lots of potential.
Memos’ recent updates are really nice. Love transcribing a voice memo. Adding the ability to overdub a second track atop an original recording, is a fun wrinkle. I tried poorly harmonizing a lyric idea. Or adding lyrics to an acoustic guitar piece.
Are there better recording devices/apps? Of course. But - and the promo was a bit much, for me - the same truth applies: the best audio recording device is the one you have on you. Lots of potential.
“We plugged an iPad into millions of dollars of expensive equipment….so we can say we used an iPad to do all of this!”For the record, there have been final recordings that were partially done on iPhones and iPads before.
The Guy Who Produced Kendrick Lamar’s Best New Track Did It All on His iPhone
Up-and-coming hip-hop producer Steve Lacy uses his smartphone as his personal studio.www.wired.com
So it’s not a terrible idea for Apple to try to tap into this market.
Damon Albarn created an entire Gorillaz album on an iPad
The musical genius behind Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, once made an entire album for the band on the road, using an iPad.faroutmagazine.co.uk
Yeah, all ads are a strech... but I think it's a cool feature. Look at how far video and photography have come in iPhone thanks to specialized processing tasks that compensate (to some extent) what you can do with pro video/photo gear. Now think about it... if you take a look at how a voice is processed: you need a nice mic and preamp, a sibilance processor, a noise suppressor/gate processor, dedicated EQing and compression, and stem separation for the layering. All done by Logic Pro plugins and processing tasks already, so Apple has the "pro" algorithms. And if you have your device's microphone setup figured out frequency response-wise (and they do,) you can compensate and simulate for room acoustics (Spatial Audio) and add inexistent frequencies (harmonics) to any voice. I wouldn't be surprised if an iPhone Pro becomes as good as a home music studio USB mic in the near future for recording voice and acoustic instruments. Newer MacBook Pros have an impressive mic array built in already and there are a lot of videos on how artists are recording directly to music mockups using them.
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And you would be telling the truth for many musicians 🤷♂️ And getting paid for it, double win for you.
Or headphones? But Apple won’t let you do it even with headphones. Ridiculous! GarageBand can though.
OK, I used it and called Apple Support on a couple things: My initial review:
PRETTY GOOD TWO TRACK Recording Upgrade on IPhone using updated VOICE MEMO app—can be used as a Band in the Box or Jamey Abersold function to improvise on backing tracks, as well. I created a 30 second sound sample, shared via instagram, below. NOT BAD! Here’s the internal iPhone Mic using voice memo app, after the 18.2 software upgrades on their new pro phone, as an instagram reel (30 second sample). it’s not a bad mic! Actually it’s multiple mics!
To set up properly Enable Stereo setup in Settings. You can mix 2 tracks (ie, pan and also kind of enhance the sound and eliminate silence) fairly easy, and then export as a MP4A file.
You can import a tune as track 1 and then blend with either singing or playing in track 2. Any MP4A file can be imported or more precisely SHARED, from you ICloud. Just go to the file, click Share and a context menu to enable sharing to VoiceMemos will appear. Voila!
So as an FYI, if you want to use this feature as a band in the box or Jaime Abersold, all you have to do is put an MP4a track into iCloud, tap on the file in iCloud and share with voice memos. Once in Voice Memos, you can add a layer and practice soloing over the entire track.. as long as you have the original MP4 file, which is probably either burned from a CD or so forth. I still have all my old ripped CDs that I burned into iTunes many years ago stored away, so it should be pretty easy to import them into iCloud as needed..
Here’s what the mic sounds like: not bad.
PRETTY GOOD TWO TRACK Recording Upgrade on IPhone using updated VOICE MEMO app—can be used as a Band in the Box or Jamey Abersold function to improvise on backing tracks, as well. I created a 30 second sound sample, shared via instagram, below. NOT BAD! Here’s the internal iPhone Mic using voice memo app, after the 18.2 software upgrades on their new pro phone, as an instagram reel (30 second sample). it’s not a bad mic! Actually it’s multiple mics!
To set up properly Enable Stereo setup in Settings. You can mix 2 tracks (ie, pan and also kind of enhance the sound and eliminate silence) fairly easy, and then export as a MP4A file.
You can import a tune as track 1 and then blend with either singing or playing in track 2. Any MP4A file can be imported or more precisely SHARED, from you ICloud. Just go to the file, click Share and a context menu to enable sharing to VoiceMemos will appear. Voila!
So as an FYI, if you want to use this feature as a band in the box or Jaime Abersold, all you have to do is put an MP4a track into iCloud, tap on the file in iCloud and share with voice memos. Once in Voice Memos, you can add a layer and practice soloing over the entire track.. as long as you have the original MP4 file, which is probably either burned from a CD or so forth. I still have all my old ripped CDs that I burned into iTunes many years ago stored away, so it should be pretty easy to import them into iCloud as needed..
Here’s what the mic sounds like: not bad.
It was just an opportunity for some marketing people to work with famous people so they took it.