Dear AppleVis forum,
I'm Thomas, one of the developers of Tape It, a recording software that we originally designed for musicians. We were frustrated that Voice Memos' organisational features and recording quality were both very lacking, and wanted to build something better.
Tape It is used by many professional and amateur musicians today. But during our journey we discovered that we gathered more and more blind people among our user base who often aren't musicians at all. Our blind users use Tape It simply as their photos and camera equivalent. A bit more than a year ago, we worked with one of our blind users on making Tape It accessible with Voice Over, and have since made it our mission to always keep it accessible. We wrote a blog post about it then: https://blog.tape.it/recording-memories-for-blind-people/
Tape It has much better organisational features and much better playback and listening support. It's a fully featured music player that behaves exactly like you'd expect it to (compared to Voice Memo's cumbersome playback UX), with full Media Center integration. There's automatic syncing and cloud backups, private sharing, and much more.
On top of that, we record with two mics on the iPhone to create a stereo image and apply much gentler dynamic range compression. The resulting sound is in fact so good that we have recording engineers in Hollywood who use Tape It to record voice overs and folio. For our blind users, it means that Tape It can capture a memory with much more fidelity than Voice Memos can.
Tape It is a free app with an optional pro upgrade, available as either a monthly or annual subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. The big difference between the free and the pro version is the recording quality: the free app sounds like voice memos, the pro version has the high fidelity stereo microphone sound.
I'd be delighted if you gave it a try. Just search for Tape It on the App Store or visit https://get.tape.it . And of course, if you find any accessibility issues, please let us know - we're always eager to improve it. Either reply here or mail me directly at thomas at tape dot it.
All the best,
Thomas
Comments
An example
OneNote is an app that, when a note is open, shows several rotor options for navigating between images, tables, etc.
As an alternative to what I said about using the 3 finger sweep gesture, Tape it could use something similar, so we would have a rotor option to navigate between the 3 minute sections, another one to jump between markers, and the create a marker at the current position would fit into the default rotor.
If it sounds confusing, I can try to clarify.
I'm probably the only one who wants this... so here goes nothing
Hi,
I'm probably the only person who wants the following feature, but I'm going to ask anyway. It's rare, but in some iOS recording apps, if you're recording something, and you happen to have a bluetooth headset in, and you wish to listen to music or a book, while you record life going on around you, you still can do this. In most iOS apps, this unfortunately, isn't the case, it stops what you're listening to when you start recording, and when you go to whatever app you're playing media from, and press play, it stops the recording, I HATE that! I think it's an apple thing, because you can listen to media in other apps when you record what's going on around you in android. However, on iOS, there are a few recording apps, audio memos by imecert, (I don't know if I'm spelling the dev name correctly), that still let you listen to music in another app while you record the world around you. I don't need or want the music to show up in my recording, that's not what I'm asking for. I just want the simple ability to listen to other media in a bluetooth headset while I record the outside world through the stereo iPhone mic. Would that be possible? It's huge to me, if I could do that, I wouldn't need to carry a separate music device around all the time. There's rarely ever a time when I want to turn off what I'm listening to, even when I'm purposely recording something, I'm someone who needs background music or a book CONSTANTLY. Anyway, I hope this can be implemented into Tape it, so it won't stop the recording if I decide to play something in another app through a bluetooth headset.
Thanks
Thank you
I want to thank the app developers for making this app accessible. The fact that you've put so much time and effort into making this accessible and getting feedback from the community is just amazing. Thank you so much for what you're doing and I wish you all the best. I agree about wealth's suggestion about usingthe roter to get to markers and other sections. I think that it will be much faster and easier. Right now, I don't think that I have any use for the app, but i’m going to download it and tested to see what I can do with it.
One last question, is this app only considered for musicians or can I use it for example to record podcasts and edit them there?
Where are the mods? What are they doing?
Some guy calls me a jerk and they do nothin', let alone warning him for harassing or offending others? This is how they explicitly discriminate against certain members. I demand a clear explanation but do know that it is still them who have the power to remove certain posts and ban certain members at will so what I can do is still limited to writing this post and just hoping it can be noticed and read by enough people before it is removed by someone.
Markers, and recording with other apps playing
@WellF I'm going to check out OneNote. Thanks a lot for that. Let me play with this a bit, I'll try to implement something today.
@Moopie no you're not the only one who wants to record while another app is playing. This is a fairly popular demand among musicians, too, so you can record while you're playing to a YouTube video, for example. It even bites me every now and then when I record my singing lessons and we search for new songs to sing in the next lesson. If I then play something on Spotify, the recording stops. Really annoying.
The problem is that iOS only allows us, as developers, to choose from two global settings, and neither is perfect for Tape It: either we allow to mix our audio with other apps. That would fix the recording issue. But when you play audio in Tape It, you manually have to stop other audio players like Spotify, which is rather annoying. Or we say that we don't want Tape It's audio mixed with others. This creates a really nice playback experience, but you can't record with other apps playing.
As much as I hate settings, until Apple makes it possible for us to say "allow other apps while recording but stop other apps when we play back", we might have to introduce a toggle for this. I hope iOS 18 gives us (as developers) a bit more control here.
@Ryok: thanks for the warm words! While we developed Tape It originally with musicians in mind, I think it's a perfect generic recorder for blind people. We think of it as a photos and camera equivalent for audio. One key differentiator to many other apps is that it is designed to work with any kind of audio, not just speech. If you only focus on speech, you can design a very different user interface: you can represent spoken words as text, and that opens up a lot of possibilities. But you can't do that with guitar riffs or bird sounds. The subgroup of sighted people who often record something else than speech are musicians, but for blind people, I'd assume that Tape It is interesting to a much wider audience.
However, Tape It doesn't have any major editing capabilities. You can record your podcast in it, but I'd assume there are other podcast apps that are much better for that task - I don't record podcasts, so I'm afraid I'm not expert on this subject. Tape It's strength is - apart from the audio quality - much more in the organising aspect. We saw that many musicians, even Taylor Swift, record song ideas on their phone using Apple Voice Memos, and everyone we talked to struggled finding old ideas again. It felt like photography software 20 years ago. There is some value in recording an idea, but there's a lot more value if you also listen back to it. The same goes for songwriting sessions, instrument lessons, and so on. The value of recording is much, much higher if you also listen to it. And I think that if you use Tape It to record your memories as a blind or visually impaired person, the same logic applies as well.
option to upload to youtube?
Could you add in an option to upload to youtube? I use an external service called tunestotube which allows you to upload an audio file to youtube, and I upload covers all the time onto my channel. however, most users use the native camera app to upload there vlogs, and while that can be great for sited users, I for one don't use that option. I'm an audio person, and I would like to have the ability to upload just the audio directly using tape it. It would be cool to have the option so that, say, if I have an event coming up, I can record the audio using tape it, go into the iOS share sheet, and upload the audio to youtube.
Re: upload to YT
Hi JC,
That’s actually possible. When you open a tape, choose more, then choose “create a video”. In the next dialog, just choose “more” again, which will open the Apple Share Sheet. As I write this, I realise the labels could use some polishing in Voice Over, but I hadn’t expected a blind person to use this feature.
The video that Tape It creates is an elegant waveform - i.e. a display of the loudness of the recording - on a dark gray background. The waveform animates subtly to show the progress of playing back the recording. There’s a small, subtle “tape it” text on it that shows that this video was created with Tape It. The “create video” feature was designed exactly for this use case: to be able to share audio recordings on visual platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
OK cool
OK Cool. Will give a try. question. with the lifetime upgrade, how much is it? and it doesn't expire at all?
100$ or its equivalent
priced in local currency
Seconding request for playback while recording.
I, too, may want to be able to play back sounds sometimes while recording, especially if the recording is long or the location is loud, as in the former case I may wish to read and in the latter I may sometimes want to play a soft background noise to help with masking. Thanks for bringing this suggestion up! I mostly have the need to record little oddments of random things, but I appreciate very much all the work going into this app and will be giving it a download soon! Thank you for all the work!
Thank you
Thank you for your reply and your explanation. Really appreciate what you’re doing, keep up the great work!
Stereo recording
Hey there,
I like the app so far!
I'm not in a position to purchase pro right now, but it would be nice to have Stereo recording in the free version.
I'm fine without lossless audio or the other features in pro, but stereo recording would be amazing.
A couple things
Hi! I just want to say, I have a very good feeling that Tape It is going to be the new home for my goofy recordings, and my gaming recordings. :) You have done an wonderful job incoorporating VoiceOver support into your app, and I would have to agree with a previous poster, you're probably the most active developer on this site other than Adventure to fate games, that we've seen in ages it feels like. I do have a question, Is there a way to name your tapes? if so, you could add a rotor action along with the share option. I'm going based off apps like GarageBand, and I think Voice memos may do that as well. :)
same here
Same here. I don't have the money right now to purchase the lifetime pro version, and I don't care about lossless audio, I just want to have stereo recordings in the free version.
On stereo
Yeah, stereo on the free side would be great. But I’m okay with the way it is right now.
Choir Rehearsals?
Hi,
I am in my church choir.
Would this application work for recording our rehearsals, just in case I don’t have my BrailleSense with me?
I imagine so.
I’m not the developer, but it works good for my recording needs. I imagine that recording a choir can be nice, specially with the stereo features.
new update, naming, stereo and choirs
Hi all, first of all I'm really glad to see how well Tape It is being received, both here in the forums and via all the emails I get. It's really quite heart-warming, and I really want to express a big thank you for it.
There's a new update out which includes:
- much improved marker support, and a rotor action for jumping between markers
- a rotor action for changing the seek speed
- a sound is played when starting and stopping a recording. This only happens when Voice Over is active. It introduces a 250ms delay when starting the recording to make sure the start sound isn't recorded.
- improved accessibility when opening the more menu on a tape, and most importantly make the delete dialog accessible. It was already accessible elsewhere, just not when triggered from the opened tape screen.
- a small bugfix with selections
- better explanations on how to import existing voice memos with Voice Over
I have a few more things on my todo list, but one thing at a time.
I have a question on how to use VoiceOver: when using a rotor action to move between markers, I use the swipe up and down gestures to choose different markers. I can activate them with a double tap; activating jumps the playback position to the marker's position. However, there's also the possibility to rename a marker, and I don't know how to get there. When a button has several actions, I can swipe up and down to choose from the various actions. But with the rotor, swiping up and down already moves between the different markers. How can I choose another action on a marker when swipe up/down is taken by the rotor?
Now, onto your questions:
@Dragon Queen: yes, of course there is a way to name a tape. Select a tape, swipe up to select the open action, activate to open a tape. The focus will instantly be on the summary of the tape, which reads out date, name, location and more. Swipe down to select the rename action.
@Jahmal, @JC, @WellF: Unfortunately, we have to draw the line between the free and the pro version somewhere. We already put most of Tape It's functionality into the free version, and I hope it's a very compelling offer. You get the great organisational features for free, and if you want the better recording quality, the cost of that is less than that of a dedicated microphone or a Zoom recorder. There are of course many other ways to structure pricing. We could, for example, limit the number of recordings one could make on the free version, or we could add ads, but both these options felt a lot worse to us. One other really important aspect of our current pricing is the peace of mind that even if you stop paying, you will always have access to all your existing recordings, can continue to make new recordings, and will never be locked in. That was really important to us.
@KE8UPE: yes, in fact, Tape It works extremely well for that use case. You can even share the recordings with other people who have Tape It - they don't need to buy it, they can be on the free version. You can create a collaborative mixtape, share that with others, and as soon as you add a new choir rehearsal to that mixtape, everyone has it, too. Collaborative mixtapes are designed exactly for that use case and work extremely well. The major downside is that Tape It only works on iPhones, and the larger your music group, the more likely that someone doesn't have an iPhone. So you almost certainly won't be able to share it with everyone in your choir this way.
about the rotor
You can move between the different rotor stuff with the rotor gesture, which can be done by placing a finger on the screen then sweeping another finger in a circular motion around the static finger. Like turning a guitar knob is how I would describe it.
Been playing around with the new update and it feels nice. You guys are really listening to our feedback and it shows.
Off to check this out!
The more I read about this app, the more intrigued I am. Off to download it and give it a try! Thank you for your commitment to accessibility!
a possible workaround, will it work?
Hi there,
I have a possible workaround, and I was wondering if it will work. so, I save audio recordings to icloud drive, so if, say, I record from the Zoom H1E recorder in stereo, and save it into iCloud drive, can I import the file into tape it, and save the tape as a new file? if that can be done, I can use that option in the free version and upload strate to youtube that way. and if it can also work with other apps as well, such as other audio recording apps, that could be awesome.. I also have the Olympus DM720 that records in MP3 files, and if I can import the file into tape it, it could be wonderful, let me know.
Importing from other sources
Hi JC,
Absolutely, that workflow works. Tape It will import any audio file you throw at it.
Compressed files like mp3 will be converted to AAC (at highest quality settings) if they’re not AAC already, lossless files like wav will be stored as Apple Lossless, although only on the pro version - the free version converts them to AAC, too.
Some minor issues with the magic tap
the magic tap won’t work when you open a tape and when you’re outside tape it.
Magic tap
Hi WellF,
When you’re on the record screen, the magic tap controls start and stop recording. When you’re somewhere else, for example when you open a tape, it controls start/stop playback.
If you’re outside of Tape It, I’m afraid we can’t make it work - as I understand it, Tape It has to be in the foreground so that we receive the magic tap event.
Clarification
Magic tap doesn’t control playback when a tape is open. I don’t know if it’s some weirdness of my device though.
Hmm, weird. On my device it…
Hmm, weird. On my device it does. Could some other people in the community share their experience? Does magic tap control playback for you when you opened a tape?
Tape it rocks!
Hi,
I have just tested tape it, and man, it rocks!! It includes the same sound just like on voice memos. the magic tap works fine on my end when playing back a tape. it records in AAC format, and I was able to listen to the compareson between standard and tape it stereo, and man, it's amazing! it sounds like you are recording in a professional recording studio. I do applaud you guys for the overall accessibility with voiceover. Keep up the good work. What I would like to see is the noise reduction option found on the tape it website to filter any background noise using the same AI technology as you have demoed on the tape it website. I hope this feature gets added in a future update.
I know you're not a big fan of settings
Hi Thomas,
I know you're not a big fan of tons of settings in a menu, however, waiting around for apple to overhaul the way it lets devs handle audio recording in conjunction with playback from other apps could take forever. So I wish, and I know, it's a big wish, but I really wish you would implement that option in settings to let the user decide whether they want to record from other apps. I'd definitely toggle it on first thing if you did, that's for sure. :)
Option to select external mic
Hi Thomas,
in the native voice memos app, as well as other apps, you have the option to select either the internal mic, or external mic. however, in your case, when you record using tape it, it defaults to the internal mic rather than the external mic. I have an audio interface with a TRRS connecter, that will allow me to connect the headphone port to the interface via TRRS. sadly, tape it records using the internal mic rather than the external mic, so, could it be possible to add in an option from within audio settings to select an external mic? If that can be done, that would be awesome!
Settings
@Moopie, I think a setting is actually a reasonable interim solution. I'm going to add this to one of the next updates.
@JC I made a note to look into this. A few people have now asked for it; I didn't know the TRRS adapter was still that popular. I'm currently travelling and need to wait until I get home where I have my old iPhone with a lightning connector, but I'm going to look into this over the coming weeks.
New update with your requested features
Hi all,
We just published a new update which adds new playback modes: play all recordings in a row, play only one and stop, shuffle, and repeat.
It also adds two features requested here. @Moopie, you can now record while other apps are playing. This works automatically and doesn't require a setting. I hope this doesn't trigger problems with users on older iOS versions, but so far the testing looks very good. Fingers crossed that this actually works :).
And @JC: the lightning-to-TRRS adapter is now supported. We previously ignored it on purpose as it reports with the same identifier as the wired Apple Earpods, and the Earpods microphone is super crappy. You need to plug in the adapter and switch on "use wired headset" in the audio settings to use it.
The update also includes small Voice Over fixes. For example, the current playback position is now updated correctly while playing. Please keep sending feedback when you find something that isn't working properly!
Best,
Thomas
Excited
I'm very excited to be able to listen to music while I record. I tested this, and it works. Now to have a "tape-able" event, lol.
Tape it
I began to use this app yesterday. It's good and I can also use this app on my M 1 Macbook air and M 1 Mac mini, even if this is not the main intention of the app. But I can't see the tapes I created with my iphone on my other devices. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi Cankut, I'm sorry for the…
Hi Cankut,
I'm sorry for the slow reply. I hadn't been aware until now that AppleVis had reopened, which I must say fills me with great joy. I will of course monitor this thread regularly again, so that future posters won't have to wait as long as you for a reply.
Syncing should happen automatically. I've heard from a few users over the last few weeks that the first sync between devices can take quite a while, to the point that people wondered whether it's working, but after the first sync is through it works very fast. I need to look into why the first sync takes so long; it's not a great experience.
It would be great if you could let me know whether the app syncs by now. If not, please shoot me an email to thomas@tape.it in addition to posting here so that I can give you direct support. I'm happy to jump on a call as well if we can't solve it by email.
Best,
Thomas
ability to record in multitrack mode, is that still coming?
Hi there,
You may remember in a previous email I have mentioned that voice memos on iPhone 16 Pro and later will have the ability to record in multi track layered mode. This means that when you're playing a first track, you are able to record over the second track, much like you're doing in a professional recording studio. Is that still going to be added in a future update? Please let me know on the status of this.
Re: recording on top
Hi JC,
Yes, the ability to record on top is still in the roadmap. Has been from the very beginning, actually.
Best,
Thomas
Spatial audio
"The iPhone 16 introduced spatial audio recording, but only when recording video. Is there a chance to implement this in your app as well?"
Syncing
Hi,
Yes, now I can see the tape on my M 1 Mac Mini. Thanks for the reply. :)
By the way, with Iphone 16, there is an Audio Mix Feature as you know. I don't have an Iphone 16 yet and I know that's a video feature, but is there a way to implement the feature to the aplication? Thanks. :)
a couple of ideas for tape it
I have two ideas for tape it. First, the ability to cancel a recording. Many times, I record an event, thinking it will be tape-able, but then it's a nothing burger, not worth keeping the recording. It would be nice to have the ability to cancel a recording, as opposed to stopping, navigating to the tape, then deleting it. Also, the ability to select all tapes at once would be extremely helpful. I was cleaning up my tapes, deleting what I'd already exported, and a select all definitely would've been nice.
On spatial audio and feature ides
Hi iPhoneski, I haven't found any good developer documentation on recording in Spatial Audio yet I'm afraid, so I don't know if it's possible. I don't know how Apple implemented this internally; there's a chance that Apple uses information in the video you record to help the placement of audio sources in the room - but I don't know. I've asked on the Apple Developer forums about this. It would really be a great feature to have.
@Moopie great suggestions. Let me give them a try.
@Cankut glad to hear it works. The Audio Mix feature you're referring to is nearly the same as spatial audio that iPhoneski asked for, although I'm quite certain that Audio Mix in particular will not be possible since it relies on information in the video - it can amplify or lower voices of people who are or are not in the video frame. But spatial audio itself might be possible, if we're lucky.
On accessibility improvements
Hi Moopie,
The next update will have rotor actions for selecting and deselecting all tapes. The update will come out sometime next week. Give it a try, and let me know what you think of it, and if there's a better way to do it.
I also added a function to discard the current recording, but I won't make it available yet. The reason being that I added it as a custom action on the stop recording button, but I haven't found a way yet to tell Voice Over to reset the selected action to the default afterwards. The way it currently works is really dangerous as you could accidentally delete a new recording that you want to keep, because if you discarded the last recording, Voice Over will still have "discard" as the action that's selected by default. That obviously needs fixing. But I'm on it and will deliver it eventually.
By the way, those two features are Voice Over exclusives; sighted people don't have them yet (even though in particular "discard recording" has been requested a few times) :).
Best,
Thomas
The best recording app by a great developer
Hi Thomas,
Thank you for such a great piece of software. I think this one is headed to the AppleVis Hall of Fame.
I bought the lifetime version several months ago and I'm just amazed at how good the recordings sound, and how easy this app is to use with voiceover.
One idea I had is the possibility of starting a recording over in progress. In my use case, I do a lot of improv guitar stuff, most of which isn't worth keeping, so it would be cool to have a button or gesture that would just allow the recording to start over, automatically discarding the recording in progress.
I really like the way we can organize tapes, this is amazingly helpful when doing multiple projects. One thought on this is the possibility of having a previously created mix tape selected on the recording screen, causing any new recordings to automatically go to that mix tape. If no mix tape were selected, then the recordings would by default go to "All Tapes."
I realize you are getting lots of ideas thrown at you, and it is difficult to balance tons of features with your very well thought out and easy to use design, but a couple of thoughts for down the line.
One last comment to my fellow VI folks out there. This is the kind of developer we want to promote and help out. He has shown that he is very receptive to the input of the community, and has been very quick to incorporate ideas for our relatively small slice of his users. He has handled rude commenters with grace as well. Last but not least, he has made a great product that you'll be glad to have spent a few bucks purchasing.
I personally haven't used any other recording software on my phone since buying Tape It. It does what you need elegantly and efficiently.
As a fellow long time developer of blind software, I feel this guy is doing it the right way.
Keep up the great work Thomas.
Thank you
Thank you so much for the encouraging words. I mean, if we make it to the hall of fame, that would be quite something. I have to say, it's been quite fun to develop the Voice Over stuff; in many ways it aligns incredibly well with modern design concepts. Good design has a clear visual hierarchy, and that hierarchy maps incredibly well to Voice Over commands.
On recording into a previously selected mixtape: yes, I've received that feature request before. We're rethinking the design a bit right now as both recording into a mixtape and recording on top of an existing tape doesn't fit well into the regular record flow, and I'm not super happy about that. I think it's more likely that we'll add a record button to the mixtape, but again, not 100% sure. It's certainly on our radar though.