by Joe Lonergan

Recently there has been a recorder app that has become more accessible for low vision and blind users with the VoiceOver screen reader. It’s called the Tape It Recorder app and it’s available on iPhone.

It offers features like:

• Record from your home screen.
• Add markers and text notes to your recordings.
• Easily privately share your recordings with your friends and family

Tape It has lots of features that simplify recording, organization, and sharing. Some of them are small details like Media Center integration, meaning that listening to recordings is easily integrated into the built-in media player. You can attach external microphones and USB audio interfaces. There’s a lot of practical functionality. It’s an exceptionally smooth and simple audio recorder player with a user-friendly interface, and it works well with VoiceOver.

Tape It upgrades your Microphone

Your microphone has several mics and the Tape It Recorder app takes advantage of that, turning your iPhone into a serious professional microphone recorder.

OK, here is the catch, there is a Pro version, which is a subscription-based service, €6 per month or €30 per year, or the value option €100 for a lifetime once-off payment. The Pro version gives you stereo recording, lossless audio, unlimited recordings, external, and a home screen widget.

Or you can just opt for the free version which is ok but no better than the built-in Voice Memos app already on your iPhone. The free version of Tape It only records in Mono exactly like the voice memos app.

The Tape It app offers a free 7-day trial on the Pro version so you can try it out but remember to opt out before the seventh day if you are not interested in the subscription option.

Originally the Tape It Recorder app was designed for songwriters and musicians to record their material in as close to pro standard as possible but one day the developer of the app got a message from a blind user that used VoiceOver and this particular user suggested some improvements, namely the way buttons were labelled. So, the developers of the Tape It Recorder app worked hard to make sure each button was labelled correctly, and the developers are now working hard to introduce rotor actions and magic touch compatibility. They realised that a recording app would be popular with users with a vision impairment to take notes or record memories, so, they have worked hard to make it accessible.  Even though it is good that they made an extra effort to improve their app for VoiceOver users, by any logic and EU law every app should be accessible.

I am not a musician but occasionally record technology demonstrations in audio format. I also record notes and the odd soundscape. I have only been using this for a few days, but I am impressed with the quality of the recording. But saying that I am not using it for music, and I also like to record some of my stuff in mono but my main reason for checking out this app is to see if it is easy to use and the answer is yes.

When you open the app there is an easy-to-find start recording button in the middle of the screen, and you just have to double tap this to start recording, then double tap on the same place to press the stop recording button.

You can access your recording by tapping on a section called All Tapes on the tab at the bottom. It gives your recording a name, brands it as speech or music, and has the time it was recorded. It names its files better than Voice Memos. You can easily delete the recording by flicking up or down with one finger and double-tapping on delete. Other options are available like favourite and select.

A pop-up came up on the screen with an option to import your voice memos to have all of them in one place, this is a neat option, but I did not avail of this right now.

To summarise

This is a great recording app and can only get better, It is easy to use, and you can produce great quality recordings, especially with the Pro version which offers stereo and lossless recordings.  Especially great for recording nature soundscapes and music.

But the downside is the subscription, it may be a little high for some people especially if you are on a low income, and the last thing you need is another subscription. Let’s hope they come up with some split subscription options for specific things like stereo recording.

For people who are happy recording in Mono, I advise you to stick with the built-in Voice memos or download the just press Record app for a once-off payment, mainly because if you use the free version of the tape, it recorder app your experience will be ruined by the constant pop up of subscriptions offering of the Pro version.