Concrete Software Voice Memo Recorder

Another recorder app that focuses on organization, Voice Memo Recorder lets you create your own categories for audio notes. As a clever twist, you can rank recordings with a priority rating of 1 to 10, and they’re labeled in shades from green to red according to the priority number. You can also sort recordings according to category, priority, date, and title, a scheme that other App Store hopefuls would do well to mimic.

Voice Memo only has one audio quality setting, a lowly 8 kHz AIFF (CD quality is 44.1 kHz). That keeps files small, but it renders Voice Memo poor for podcasting or field recording by sound designers or musicians. Also, Concrete Software provides no in-app or online documentation, which is rare, not to mention annoying. When you factor in semi-regular crashes, Voice Memo disappoints.

Check out the full review of Concrete Software Voice Memo Recorder

Better Day Wireless Voice FX

Voice FX doesn’t qualify for much more than cheap thrills. It records audio clips and then alters them with one of eight sound effects. You can save and name the audio files, but you can’t save them with an effect applied to it. Nor can you offload the clips to a computer, which makes the app a one-trick pony (although the developer says that file-emailing is coming).

By today's standards,Voice FX's audio effects sound cheap. The eight effects include Echo and Reverse, which are the most satisfying; Helium and Deep Bass, which speed and pitch the sound up or down; and Creature, Nasal, Static, and Robot, which use different combinations of pitching and distortion to basically make a mess of the sound. The latter four use irritating, low-res distortion and often render speech unintelligible, which we doubt was the intent of the app.

Check out the full review of Better Day Wireless Voice FX

Tomsoft Voice Changer

Voice Changer applies sound effects to audio recordings and might be relegated to the novelty category. Surprisingly, it actually has some practical use. You record, save, and then alter audio with eight built-in effects, including Helium, Reverse, Sci-Fi, Mouse, Slow Down, Speed Up, Echo, and Evil Demon. The effects aren’t complex, but they produce nice-sounding results on speech or other sounds.

What’s great about Voice Changer is that you can save a recording as a separate file with an effect permanently applied. You can then take that file and apply another effect on top. You can also transfer recordings to a computer through a Web browser over a Wi-Fi network.  

Check out the full review of Tomsoft Voice Changer

LittleCodeShop.com 4 Tracks Audio Recorder

Made for singers, songwriters and musicians to practice, 4 Tracks Audio Recorder lets you record four streams of audio (one at a time) that can be played back all at once and mixed with volume faders. There are also mute buttons for each track, so when recording a new track, you can have silence if not listening through headphones.

Although the inclusion of track delete buttons and an optional and an audible metronome from 60 to 200BPM is nice, 4 Track can't export audio to a computer or save more than the one song in progress. There's no panning of tracks, no fast forward or rewind, and not even a timeline for skipping around in the song. Frequent app freezes and often unresponsive controls also make 4 Tracks a tough sell. 

Check out the full review of LittleCodeShop.com 4 Tracks Audio Recorder

Sonoma Wire Works FourTrack

This four-track audio recorder's smart layout utilizes every square centimeter of screen space without resorting to controls that are too small to operate. You can record four separate audio tracks of unlimited length, one track at a time, with volume mixing and panning upon playback. A shuttle wheel and a timeline help you skip to points within song, which helps tremendously for any song of a minute or more. A record slider starts the recording, which helps prevent accidental track overwriting. A Song drawer opens to let you create and name as many songs as you want. A Wi-Fi sync feature lets you download the individual, CD-quality tracks to a computer from a Web browser, where you can load and edit them in music software such as GarageBand. That's especially imporant if you want to use FourTrack projects as parts of more polished recordings.

With decent audio quality, nice features, and smooth operation, FourTrack stands out among App Store music programs. It could benefit, however, from adding a metronome, audio effects, and an overdub option for layering tracks.

Check out the full review of Sonoma Wire Works FourTrack

THE WINNERS

We've covered several types or recorder apps, and because they don't all easily compare to each other, a few different standouts have emerged. When it comes to the special effect audio recorders, Voice Changer easily beats out Voice FX with its superior effect quality, effect rendering, and ways to transfer to a computer. The competition between four-track recorders is similarly lopsided. The more primitive 4 Track Audio Recorder can't touch FourTrack's superior navigation, audio exporting and project saving features. FourTrack's primo design and operability also helped make it the most impressive of the nine apps overall.

Of the remaining five basic audio recorders, the competition tightened up significantly. In the end, we recommend Recorder the highest for its easy use, good sound quality, and solid performance. However, Recorder has heat on its heels from up-and-comers such as iProRecorder and Plum Record. Both sound very good and offer a larger complement of features, such as the three playback speeds and timed recording of iProRecorder, and the color-coded categories and photo/text tagging of Plum Record. If those apps fix their crashing and glitchy performance problems, they'll give Recorder a run for your money.