Apple has officially ended Music Memos, an iPhone application that allowed musicians to record audio quickly and create new songs. Tape It, a startup, has stepped in to fill the gap. It offers a range of features that enhance audio recordings, such as higher-quality sound and automatic instrument detection. It also supports markers, notes, images and other visuals.
Tape It was an idea of two musicians and friends, Thomas Walther (and Jan Nash).
Walther was previously employed by Spotify for three years. He joined Spotify in 2017 after Sonalytic acquired the audio detection startup Sonalytic. Nash is a classically trained opera singer and engineer.
Christian Crusius is a musician and designer who was previously part of Fjord design consultancy, which was acquired in 2008 by Accenture.
Walther says that the founders had been in a band for many years and were inspired to create Tape It because they wanted it for themselves. He knew that he wanted to focus more on music-making after he left Spotify's Soundtrap division. While Soundtrap was a good option for some, it wasn't the right fit for Walther and his friends. They wanted an easy tool to record their music using their phones, something musicians do with Apple's Voice Memos and Music Memos, which was briefly discontinued.
Walther says that no matter if you are an amateur photographer or a professional touring photographer, you will always record your ideas using your phone. The same applies to cameras. You have the best camera. The best audio recording tool you have is the one that you have.
Recording is easy if you don't have to take out your laptop, connect some cables, and then load your studio software to your iPhone.
Tape It allows you to do exactly that and adds additional features such as Voice Memos, which makes it more competitive.
Tape It uses AI to detect your instrument and then annotate the recording using a visual indicator. This makes it easier to locate recordings by searching for the colored icon. Musicians can add their own annotations to the files when they record them. They can then add notes or photos to remind themselves of details. Walther states that this can be very useful for later review of recordings.
If I want to have a good sounding guitar, I can simply take a photo of my amp settings and have them. He notes that musicians do this all the time. This is the easiest way to recreate that sound.
Tape also makes a simple but novel change that allows for longer recordings to be broken into multiple lines. This is similar to a paragraph. This is the Time Paragraph. The team believes that it will make it easier to listen to longer sessions than the default, which is a single horizontally scrollable recording.
Smart waveforms and optional photos make it easier to find the right section of recordings. You can also mark recordings as favorites to quickly access a list with your favorite ideas and sounds. You can also access the media center from the app, so you can listen to your music whenever you want.
The best feature of Tape It is its support for Stereo HD quality. The app uses the two microphones of iPhone XS and XR to improve the sound quality. It also employs AI technology and other noise reduction techniques that it has developed in-house. This feature is included in the $20/year premium subscription.
Tape It plans to expand its use of AI over time to improve sound quality. Tape It plans to add collaborative features and support for exporting and importing recordings into professional studio software. Tape It could soon be in the same market as SoundCloud, which was initially pursued by SoundCloud before it switched its focus to being more consumer-facing.
Tape It first wants to perfect the single-user workflow, before adding more sharing features.
It is important that you make sure it is useful for everyone. Walther states that even if you like the stuff you collaborate on, you won't use it.
Tape Its three-member team is based in Stockholm, Berlin, and is currently bootstrapping.
The app is available as a free iOS download. It will also be available for desktop users on Mac or Windows. A version for Android is not in the works.
