Introducing Tape It: a high quality audio recorder

Even though the registration would be easy (Apple Sign-In), I'd like to know why that account is actually needed.
Does Tape It not use iCloud?

Does the app have the post-processing options like noise removal that we can find on the tape.it website? Does it support external microphones and gain adjustment? What file formats and sample rates or bit rates does it support?

I can still upload the recording to tape.it to apply noise removal and download the result, but would love to be able to do that straight from the app. Are there any demos that let us hear how the premium version records though?

Hi,
Is it possible to log into the website and the app with anything other than Apple? Also, if I log in, no matter which way I log in, can I access my recordings from the cloud on the website? I have a mac and an android device. How can I get my recordings to them? Is there a way other than airdrop to the mac?
Thanks

Is this using 32 bit float? I'm a little rusty on all this but, as I understand it, 32 bit float removes the possibility of clipping? Is that the same as what you site in your above comments EG 32 to 24 bit when Apple sort out their codec?

Also, it sounds like the reliability of iCloud sync generally is an issue. Another app I use, Ulysses, is falling apart, at least the syncing aspect of it, because iCloud is junky.

Wow, thank you for the in depth description of bit depth. Makes a lot more sense now. I know the new zoom recorders all boast 32 float, but it does sound like marketting blurb, espeically as they haven't upgraded the capsules on the bottom end devices.

I was espeically impressed to read how your app can differentiate between spoken and singing. This is super helpful for those of us too lazy to title clips. Having a similar discussion regarding images and labelling them for quick refrencing purposes.

I'll continue to have a play and should anything come up I think of, will drop a line here. Seems a solid app though.

I would go for the lifetime purchase but it costs so much in Turkish liras. I may sound to some like ranting on and on about this exchange rate thing but it's really a severe problem. It would be great to have prices set with the region where the user resides in mind. By the way, it's disappointing that the free version doesn't even let me record lossless audio or raw stereo without Tape It's own processing. There are several apps that let me record in stereo and one even has its own features to apply stereo expansion and noise reduction to mono recordings, all for free. One has extra features like reverb and time stretching unlockable via an in-app purchase. This same app also lets you share your recordings via e-mail as long as they do not exceed the maximum file size allowed by the e-mail service provider, or store them on their own website and share a link instead, regardless of the size, even if you don't unlock share sheet access. The others already let you share the recordings without any restrictions. Why would I pay that much for Tape It then? I would really like to use it but why, and why Tape It and not any other app? You could at least let the user access certain features for free and offer this unique professional stereo recording thing as an in-app purchase, at a lower cost. I get development and maintenance costs, your efforts to make the app accessible and everything, but all the other apps I mentioned are also quite accessible and this should not be treated as some favor; it's a right already.
Oh, let me add that I am ready and willing to translate the app's interface into Turkish if that will let me get the pro features. I don't really intend to request stuff and complain without doing or offering anything in return.

I presume what Apple does is but show the equivalent in the local currency. And again, I presume that developers themselves do have the option to set different prices for different regions, although I'm not sure about the latter. As for your claim that the other apps don't work in practice, I'm afraid you compelled me to list their names one-by-one so that you install and try them yourself:

• Twisted Wave Recorder (AKA TW Recorder): This one lets you export the recordings as 24-bit lossless WAV or FLAC files even though it stores the raw recordings in 32-bit if you toggle that on in the settings. It does let you record lossless stereo audio, and you can even export the recordings without unlocking full access to the Share sheet without compromising the quality of the recordings themselves.
• RecorderHQ: This one also lets you record lossless stereo audio and export the recordings however you desire without any additional purchases.
• Ferrite (Ferrite Recording Studio on the App Store): I've not used this one that much, but it also does let you record in stereo.
• Dolby On: This is the one that lets you apply stereo expansion and noise reduction to mono recordings, and it works better with its own dedicated hardware made by the company.

Let me emphasize once again that Tape It's free version doesn't even offer many of the features found for free in those apps I listed above, so as you stated earlier yourself, Tape It's free version doesn't have anything that the Voice Memos app does not. This actually implies that the subscriptions or lifetime payment do include those features as well, but we can already use them for free in other apps. Hope my point is clear enough this time.

It is true that we will both continue to defend our own arguments and stances. I am a user, or from your vantage point, a customer; and you are the company's representative and possibly the CEO and the developer himself. We all have our own standpoints and perspectives, so it is more than likely that you will try to respond to me in a manner that is in the "best interest" of the company, while I will find your responses too short and unsatisfactory, and think that you have been evading certain points instead of addressing them. In that case, there should at least be one thing that we agree on: This won't get us anywhere.

Ah, question. Can I say, plug this into an audio interface that has multiple inputs and can I do multitracking coming from the interface into the app? Can I say, have separate inputs going from the interface into separate tracks? Kind of looking for an on the go way or recording bands. If this can indeed do this without too much hassle, I may have to give this a spin hehehe.

Is that how you make accessibility a high priority? I do know that you could have made an inaccessible app and ignore user feedback and requests for better VoiceOver support, but I also know that your emphasis on accessibility allegedly being your mission actually calls for a better app. This thing called the magic tap, and rotor actions, are some of the best-known and widely-used features of VoiceOver that many accessible apps have enhanced support for. I am just surprised that you didn't even know about either one of them and yet are promoting your app as one that is maintained by a team that has accessibility as its mission. I would normally appreciate such attention to feedback from visually-impaired users by developers, but your responses and attitude have made me conclude that all you do is exploit the concept of "accessibility" to address visually-impaired users so that more of us purchase your app. It is therefore not because more and more blind people have started using Tape It, but because you want more and more blind users to use your app that you've been blabbering on and on about accessibility. As I said, this should not be treated as some kind of favor; it's a right already. I don't want to be treated as someone in need who has to wait for developers like you to pretend to take our needs and demands seriously and then assert they have accessibility as their mission. That blind guy whom you worked with a year ago may not have thought of those things like magic tap and rotor actions, but you should have. Why not when you worked with that person but now are you finally asking us to use your app and "provide feedback"? You desperately try to advertise and sell such an expensive app but I am unfortunately confident that you wouldn't do that hadn't you had that many (potential) blind "customers". I've witnessed how you've been evading my points and how selective you are to respond to comments. I sincerely inform everyone that I shall do everything I can and make use of every means at my disposal to better disseminate how dishonest you are.
By the way, this app entry I posted recently, might be useful for those wishing to record 3-D audio without requiring any additional hardware, provided that you have two iPhones to be used as the two microphones to capture audio like your ears do:
https://applevis.com/apps/ios/photo-video/soundx-record-3d-audio
I know this app doesn't let you record multichannel audio, which was asked earlier, but it does appear to let you record 3-D audio at a much lower cost compared to Tape It's exceptional stereo thing.

I'm working on a project that needs good audio recording on my phone. i have the 15 pro so i know i have the mics for it but have been looking for some software. I've been playing with the UX and love it. i'll upgrade soon to pro, $100 seems actually pretty reasonable, it's the same cost of a low end zoom.
question: do you think you might add whisper support in the app? for transcribing things?

I am shocked and deeply saddened by Enes Deniz's post.

First and foremost, I want to applaud the developer of Tape It for their efforts in making the app accessible to VoiceOver users and for proactively reaching out to the AppleVis community to share information about the app's accessibility. This level of engagement and openness to feedback from blind users is commendable and should be encouraged, not subjected to such open hostility and accusatory assumptions about the developer's knowledge or approach to accessibility..

While there may be areas for further improvement or accessibility features that could be better implemented, it is shocking to hear the developer treated this way and accused of having ulterior motives or exploiting accessibility solely for financial gain. Attacking or discouraging developers who make genuine efforts is always going to be counterproductive.

To the developer of Tape It, I encourage you not to be disheartened by the tone and negativity of Enes Deniz's post. Their response should not be taken as representative of the AppleVis community. Most of us welcome and appreciate developers who actively seek feedback and prioritize accessibility.

I already have other free or cheaper alternatives to do whatever I want, including the apps I mentioned earlier, and the Sennheiser Smart Headset. Being unable to use Tape It won't be a significant loss for me. I did try to discuss a lower price and having some features for free, and list some other apps as examples, but no more than the developer do I care about financial gains for sure. My posts and Thomas' responses are all here for y'all to read and take into consideration. I also have e-mails to which he has not yet replied. If he doesn't reply to them, I will be even more confident that he has been insincere and dishonest. I will paste the contents of those e-mails here if he doesn't reply within three days and leave the final decision to you.

and yet you wonder why devs don't wanna take the time to make their apps accessible. It's honestly because these kinds of negative comments right here. I'm personally shocked at this comment! At least there's a life time purchase should you wanna take it if you don't feel like subscribing. The fact that the devs is working on accessibility for this app is an appreciation at best. You can either choose to use it, or not, just another tool in my toolbox as one would say. Just because devs didn't know about some of these VO features and they been out for a long time, don't mean you gotta direct personal and negative attacks! What's all the fuss! And dishonesty? where did you get that idea from? Kay... Rant over!

I'm trying the app and it's actually very polished. I feel like maybe the stereo recording could be a separate purchase from the general pro features bundle. I love doing stereo recordings, but it feels very expensive to pay a subscription just for this single feature.
BTW, it seems you can import stuff from voice memos. How so?

1. VoiceOver doesn’t announce which tapes are selected.
2. It’s good that voiceover announces in which mixtapes are the tapes contained, but I think that it should be possible to tweak the order in which voiceover says these stuff. Or if there were a more info rotor option to say it’s mixtapes, who recorded it and etc. Like the photos app does.
3. It feels like when you put stuff into a mixtape, it gets sorted in a completely random order. I think it would be interesting to be able to sort tapes inside mixtapes by creation date and other criteria.

And how do you know I am throwing baseless accusations at the developer and complaining for no reason? I already said I would just share the e-mails with you in three days, right? Think and say whatever you desire after that but nothing you say in that post of yours actually mean anything to me right now. You first have to learn how to be patient, listen to others and make unbiased statements. The developer has not yet replied to my e-mails or posts, by the way. He could just say what you said and strictly deny my "accusations" if he felt as confident as you do, right? So why are you doing that on his behalf? Perhaps I should've just shared all the e-mails with everyone on here right away instead of giving Thomas more time? But I will give him even more time by friday, as he may have been unable or preferred not to reply on the weekend.

@Enes I don't get your antagonistic approach here. The dev is just trying to improve accessibility and solicit feedback. I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish, but it's definitely the wrong way to go about it in my opinion.
@tcwalther Thank you for prioritizing accessibility, reaching out and engaging with the community! It is much appreciated.

Best
M

Pick either one.

Hi all,

On AppleVis, we strive to foster an environment where developers—regardless of their level of accessibility knowledge—and users can collaborate together in a positive and constructive way. To that end, some of the recent posts in this thread have taken on a deeply antagonistic tone. Posts written with the soul intent of harassing/intimidating developers or other community members are counter to our mission, go against our forum guidelines, and are not welcome on AppleVis. Any further posts of this nature (including sharing of private emails in an attempt to intimidate the developer) in this topic will be removed by site moderators.

Michael Hansen

AppleVis Editorial Team

First of all, it's very nice to be heard. Thanks for it.
As for the pricing, of all the premium features, as an amateur musician and audio enthusiast, stereo recording is what I miss the most. Lossless is good, but as I'm not doing any professional work I'm sure a high quality compressed audio is more than enough. So paying a considerable ammount of money for basically one feature feels kinda overkill for me personally, specially as a student with no job currently LOL.
On a feedback perspective, how are long recordings handled by voiceover?

I would like to make a few comments about pricing. These are only my opinions. So take it for what it's worth. I feel the pricing for this app is more than fair. You get a 1 week trial to see if it will meet your needs. The monthly price is only $7. So if you can't afford the yearly rate or the life time subscription, that really isn't a bad price. The yearly price is only $35. This is aproximately a 58 percent discount over paying monthly. I don't know of too many developers that offer that much of a discount. The life time price is $119. This is also not a bad price in my opinion. These
prices I have quoted are in Canadian dollars. I have no way of knowing what the prices are in other currencies. If you look at all the pricing options, I feel that they are more than fair. The 1 week trial should really help you to decide if you need the pro features.

Hi,

Afyter reading all of the comments, I would like to say thank you for making such a wonderful app for blind audio engioneers/musicians. I do have a few app suggestions.

1. In the native Voice Memos app, a beep confermation is herd when starting/stoping a recording. can that be added in tape it as well?
2. in apps such as Voice memos, and other apps, and I know that it has been mentioned in previous comments, but the scrub gesture allows you to go back to a previous screen. Is that still going to be implemented?

That's all the suggestions I have for now.

Hi,

In responce to your comment, the beep is actually not annoying. I like it. I use it all the time to confirm when it's recording and then when I stop the recording it actually lets me know that there's no dead air or silence. It just notifies me through sound when the recording has ended. One more thing that I forgot to add in previous comment is that nailed that we have the shortcuts app on our phone it would be cool to have a shortcut added into the shortcut app so that whenever we want to record quickly instead of loading the tape it app you just double tap on the shortcut and it will perform the action like starting at recording and then when you tap on the second shortcut it will stop recording instantly. That could be something you guys can look at especially with iOS 18 about to come out in June for beta testing, that might be a good idea for you to look into. And always keep the app updated as frequent as possible, especially for future beta cycle releases. I have been a beta tester since iOS 9.

I don't ever intend to harass anyone, and while I am not sure I will every use Tape It, I would still like to share a few suggestions regarding the beep thing as a sign of goodwill: The settings may have different options to toggle it off or on, or make it depend on the ringer switch. It can even be set to be switched on or off in a certain location, depending on the active "focus" or whether airplane mode is enabled. There might also be some countdown feature to let recording begin 3 or 5 seconds after the user (double-)taps the button to start recording, and indicate the countdown with beeps every second. It could also be haptic feedback instead of beeps. Let's say the user holds the device in his/her hand, or leaves it on something like a desk, and (s)he can still sense or hear the vibrations but doesn't want to make too much noise. There could also be an option for visual feedback.
Let me quote only the last paragraph of my e-mail in reply to the one that I've got from the developer (with one tiny correction), so that my intentions be clear: "I want one thing to be crystal-clear, like a high-quality recording: Whatever I've said I can and shall continue to defend, and none of it is meant to disseminate inaccurate information with nefarious purposes without being backed by solid facts. What I say does not differ in any way from what I believe. I am as ready as I first was to defend my points and justify my view truly because I believe I am right. I am as unconvinced as I am ready to be convinced.". The rest the developer must've received already, so he can always object to this claim of mine that I truly consider certain practices unfair, and not out of selfish attempts to bargain with him and broker a more "favorable" deal. By the way, those mails did not contain any private information, and were actually quite similar to my posts on here.

that works. I love recording such things as everyday sounds, and I still use the voice memos app, which records in mono. that sounds the same, so I'm not sure what the difference is when it comes to the sound in Lossless mode. what's the difference?

In some apps, the beep for starting and stopping a recording is different. Although a single beep is enough, having it a bit different is interesting just in case.
As for the person who asked about lossless and mono, these are different things.
Stereo audio, in opposition to mono, will have a greater sense of space. Tape it has its own demonstration when you start using the app.
As for lossless, it’s more about professional audio workers who need it for editing purposes. For our ears, a good quality compressed version is more than enough.

Wasn't sure i needed another recording app but after reading through this thread i'm downloading as i type this. Thank you so much to the dev team. You guys must be one of the most active and responsive devs on here especially with direct user feedback. That stuff takes time, thank you. Also very glad to see you weren't discouraged by one particular entitled jerk on here. THeres always one :).
About to go record heaps of stuff and annoy my wife with it haha.
Cheers

I tested the app this morning and it’s almost perfect. When the beeping alerts for recording and stopping a record are implemented it will be fire!
One thing that I think that could be interesting is the possibility to add our own tags to the recordings, as well as the possibility to add more than one tag to a single recording, E.G, singing and acoustic guitar.

Hello. This app sounds interesting. If I had a lightning to 3.5 inch headphone adapter, is it possible to record directly from the headphone out of my electronic drum set? I've been hoping for a quick and easy solution to do this without all kinds of extra cords or mixers. I would love to simply plug one of my phones into my drum kit's input jack to play along as I do now, and then plug another phone into the output/headphone jack of my drum set, and have an app record both the song and my playing being outputted. I've tried other apps, but none seem to work like this, and I don't even know if the iPhone is capable of recording from a headphone cable and lightning adapter... I hope that made sense.

Thanks for the quick reply. I will definitely be upgrading to a USB C iPhone at some point, probably this fall when the new model comes out. Would recording from my drums be easier this way? All this stuff is new to me, but it's something I would love to be able to do without a lot of complexity and hassle.

It seems that, visually, when a record is more than 3 minutes long, it is divided into sections, right?
I just did a 5 minute recording and voiceover treats it as a single element. As I imagine that you can kinda move between these sections as if they were chapters or paragraphs, it’s necessary for that feature to be made accessible for us too.
One idea would be to have them as separate elements and then we could have the option to double tap a section to move to it, or to use a tree finger sweep gesture to the left and right to move between them in sequence.
Still on the tree finger sweep, I think that it can be used in various sections of the app, E.G, to have it as a gesture to play the next or previous recording if the focus is on the media player. Spotify, which has a lot of issues TBH, has this feature and I find it pretty neat.

the create a marker, as well as the jumping between markers, could all be rotor actions.
I`ll try to find an app where a similar logic is applied to give you an example on how to integrate it all.