StudioMini - Music Recorder 4+

Music Recording

I was looking for a pocket sized mic for an iPhone 6, and this works reasonably well. I’ve recorded live Music and solo home guitar/singing, comes out better than the internal mic (less hollow, boomy). It does a good job rejecting crowd noise in public.
Several times I’ve recorded and found out it was distorted, once when within about 8 feet of a PA, and once from a loud outdoor concert. Also vocals up close will distort, including normal speaking volume.
The “dead cat” wind screen works great, I often record outside with it and without it the wind noise makes the recording unusable even in light wind.

I like it except for one key feature missing

This is a fun and extremely basic but intuitive little multitrack recorder that allows you to record up to four separate tracks, just like the old cassette four-trackers from the 80s. There are very few bells and whistles save for some on-board drum loops which I think are new to the app and they are very helpful for setting down a groove for adding your guitar tracks, bass, etc. tracks. The one key feature missing I mentioned in the review title is such an obvious feature for guitarists that I can't believe it's not been included in this most recent update and that is the ability to loop the tracks like a looper pedal so you can practice a lead solo or other part. I hope the developer can add looping on the next update because that would make this a solid five- star app for simple, quick recording and practicing without the complicated learning curve on other recording DAWs. It would be great to be able to flip a switch for the transport to loop instead of having to hit the play button again when it stops.

Developer Response ,

Hi Rick57 and thank you for the review. We couldn't be happier to hear that you find StudioMini easy to use! That's a core part of our philosophy around designing software - we aim to help without getting in the way of your creative flow. To give you pro quality without a steep learning curve, and solid software you can rely on that we hope you find a joy to use.



We've logged your feature request for Repeat. We'll be developing that feature soon, and I will follow up when I have news on when it will arrive. Thanks for buying and supporting indie software devs working to support their fellow musicians!

Middling Program with major limitations

This software is quite an achievement compared to 4 track recorders from days of yore. Having said, once you get beyond its ability to allow you to lay down basic layered tracks on a phone - an iPhone 8 in my case – the apparent features frustrate rather than spawn creativity.

The problem is, the year is not 1995 and even back then, 4-tracks allowed for flexibility in adding vocal effects and provided inputs for drum machines with a range of tempos. This does neither, at least without high-tech savvy, and missing both those, a musician will experience huge frustration with the results.

I’ve recorded many a tune at an undesired pace, overly rushed or too draggy, and it’s a big disappointment to hear those songs now. And choices of reverb or echo would greatly enhance the experience also, but sadly, nada.

Added to that, there is no ability here to “punch-in” so any performance errors require the entire track to be stopped and redone. Big loss on that.

Finally, nothing can be played externally from within the program over Bluetooth, so forget about checking out an early mix in your car or Airplay.

All in all, for high schoolers or young amateurs, this has some usefulness, but unless the developers are actually active on improving this, keep expectations very low.

None of these things have been dealt with in the year or more I’ve had the program. Too bad.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, both on behalf of those considering downloading, and for us at Otreus who love feedback! 🙏

As musicians ourselves features like Punch and Effects are on our wish list also, so we're on the same page there. Bluetooth is a bit trickier, because it has inherent problems with large latency. This isn't an issue for playing back, but is a big issue when recording. It's the main reason we don't have Bluetooth support at this time, but it is definitely on our radar, especially as that technology evolves.

Some of the things we take great pride in are audio quality, and impecable timing. Audio tracks are recorded as 16-bit 44.1 kHz WAV files, and there are no latency or timing issues. You can record in StudioMini, with an attached pro audio interface using pro mics etc., then drag and drop your WAVs into any DAW on your computer and continue your production to full mix. In the old days you mention, this is CD quality audio, whereas old tape multitracks let's just say left a lot to be desired when it came to audio quality.

In terms of future features, we definitly have big plans. Developing software takes a ton of work and expense, so it's hard to promise a date, but hopefully soon we'll have news to share, stay tuned and thanks for buying!