iPhone Multitrack Recording: 4 Tracks and FourTrack
I’ve been dreaming of a cheap, easy way to record multi-track melody, lyric, and arrangement ideas using my cell phone for years. (Dedicated multitrack recorders are expensive, and I’d not carry another "thing" in my pockets.)
Last week, I got an iPhone 3G. (My iPod broke, it had been my birthday a couple months ago, and my Cingular plan was up for renewal…the perfect intersection of excuses.)
Within less than a day, I found 4 Tracks by Little Code Shop, a multitrack recording application for $6. Oh baby. Harmonies, bass lines, drum beats…all multi-layer brainstorms are now possible. Included are a metronome, track volume control, and mute buttons. Lacking are some kind of sound/track archive to save tracks with, a way to jump to different parts of a song, and an easy way to export the audio to a PC. Still, I’ve seen cheeseburgers that are more expensive, so I’m happy.
Just today, I found FourTrack by Sonoma Wire Works…I had no choice but to include it in this post. At $10, it’s the better buy. Included are pan control, compression, jump-to-point functionality, song project archive capability, and WiFi syncing to export music to a PC (though in my opinion, that’s not a whole lot of help — I’d prefer Bluetooth or email export). Lacking is a metronome, which is bizarre to me… And according to the reviews, there seem to be some audio quality issues during playback, and exporting is pretty difficult to make work.
For now, I’ll play with 4 Tracks. FourTrack may advance faster, since it’s backed by a major audio recording software producer, but then again, you should never count out a talented, independent DIY developer.
Either way, if you’re a songwriter and own an iPhone, you should definitely check out one of these apps. (Want more music apps? Check out iPhone Apps: 19 Music iPhone Applications.)
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Linda: Well, they’re note quite that advanced, yet. 4 Tracks does not include editing capability or export capability. FourTrack includes limited editing (compression and panning), and only lets you export it to a desktop PC via WiFi. But, hopefully, since these are early versions of the software, they’ll advance in the near future..!
This sounds cool. How’s does it work? Do you edit the song on your phone then send it to people on you phone list or your computer? Sounds like a lot of fun to play with though.