Well, now they’ve done it. Now there is a Mac App. for the iPhone/iPod Touch I think I cannot live without. According to Wired’s blog, Listening Post, the good people at Sonoma Wire Works have created a four-track recorder for Apple’s touch-based portable technologies. For a measly $10, you can aspire to be just like Guided by Voices circa 1994 or any of your other lo-fi heroes, except, uh, you'd be using an iPod to record your songs. Each track is stored as a 44.1 kHz WAV file that can be sent wi-fi to any computer for further work if desired. The application is rather basic, functioning mainly to arm tracks to record, pan, and skip through the progress of a song, but it will fit in your pocket, so who can complain?
Now, while this product is indeed drool-inducing (or perhaps wet dream-inducing for the likes of, I don't know, Phil Elverum?), there are of course some limits, as this is being pumped out of an MP3 player or phone depending on what you are using. A major cited problem is that the internal speaker of the iPhone/iPod Touch is soft, so without headphones and a microphone that fit the outlet on these devices, there is not much hope of making a meaningful recording. Also, this program will not work for the first-generation iPod Touch.
But it's still a pretty solid application. Each track is stored as a 44.1 kHz WAV file that can be sent wi-fi to any computer for further work if desired, which is pretty sweet. With the holidays a month away, if any of you reading are feeling especially generous this year, feel free to hook me or any other member of the TMT family up with an iPhone and this app. I promise you will be on my “good list” if you do!
