Dolby made secret app for HQ audio on your cellphone

Dolby has been quietly trying out a new cellular app for recording and cleansing up audio under the codename “234,” as first spotted by means of TechCrunch. The app, which changed into available via a site signal-up form, permits you to list audio (a la Voice Notes), cancels historical past noise, after which follow presets, with names like “Amped,” “Thump,” and “vivid,” to theoretically make your recordings sound extra expert.

 

The signal-up site, which has due to the fact been deactivated, advertised the app through saying: “How can music recorded on a cellphone sound so good? Dolby 234 immediately cleans up the sound, offers it tone and area, and finds the most excellent loudness. It’s like having your personal producer in your telephone.” those are huge claims. happily, I snagged a copy of the app before the Dolby 234 website changed into deactivated and were taking part in round with it to look at various it out.

 

 

The app itself is enormously easy to make use of. quite simply faucet the listing button and the app will measure room tone for just a few seconds before beginning the recording session. when you cease recording, that you could at once polish the audio via adding a preset and tinkering with a couple of tools. tool alternate options include casting off the room tone (undesirable historical past noise), adjusting the volume of bass and treble, including “raise” (loudness), and trimming.

 

The app simplest comes with one preset but an “essentials” pack unlocks six more. These added presets are available via a seven-day free trial and every is described with just a few key words. as an instance, “Lyric” is “full, smooth, and balanced,” while “Thump” is “deep, full, and powerful.” unfortunately, that you may’t see what’s under the hood for each preset. It only allows you to alter “intensity,” which is how a good deal of the audio signal is distributed through and affected. once you’ve finished adjusting the recorded audio, that you may rename it, and decide to share it to Dolby or to SoundCloud.

 I’m constantly very skeptical of 1-button solutions for fixing audio, so i used to be desirous to see if Dolby’s app may observe through on its claims. I recorded my voice with a window a bit of open to create a greater tonal historical past. The presets gave me various success. “ordinary” made me sound muddy, while “bright” put too tons emphasis on plosives (popping sounds crafted from asserting phrases with difficult consonants, like “popping!”). There turned into one I liked — “deep” made my voice sound greater full and widened.

 

 

The app looks shiny, nevertheless it’s surely a work in development. none of the presets labored sufficient magic to make my voice sound like it turned into recorded with an expert microphone. The mic stage metering didn’t work both, failing to set off after I recorded at high volumes. here’s in reality no longer, as Dolby says, “like having your personal producer for your cell.” at least no longer for now.

 

I’m additionally a perplexed on the audience for this. Why would Dolby make a purchaser app for recording audio with an iPhone mic that uploads to SoundCloud, the place the optimum sound resolution is 256kbps AAC? It also doesn’t have enormous functionality. that you can’t multitrack with it or alter parameters inside presets. The app feels very at odds with Dolby’s attractiveness as an expert in high-end audio first-rate. Slapping a compressor and de-esser on a recording can most effective achieve this tons in case you recorded with a mediocre mic in a loud room. I certainly wouldn’t listing a guitar this way and expect the rest remarkable, because the app shows in the introduction slides above.

 

but, who is aware of — might be here’s simply the beginning and a stronger version of Dolby “234” is coming down the road. Regardless, the idea of a straightforward to make use of app that may polish up audio recorded on the go is appealing. Plus, it’s cool to look organizations are attempting to package skilled equipment for generic creatives.