The iOS 18.2 update that Apple introduced today brings layered Voice Memos recordings to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max for the first time, making it easier for musicians to flesh out song ideas and experiment with new ideas.
Apple teamed up with Canadian singer songwriter Michael Bublé, country star Carly Pearce, and record producer Greg Wells to demonstrate the feature. The trio recorded Michael Bublé's new song "Maybe This Christmas" with vocals recorded using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 16 Pro.
"I don't think people realize the critical role Voice Memos on iPhone plays in the creation process for musicians," said Bublé. "And now with Layered Recordings, if an artist has a moment of inspiration, being unencumbered by the traditional studio experience becomes the advantage, not the limitation. It's so typically Apple to build something we didn't know we needed -- and now won't be able to live without."
Once installing iOS 18.2, iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max users can layer a vocal track on top of an existing instrumental recording, with no headphones needed. Instrumental compositions can be played through the iPhone's speaker while vocals are recorded at the same time using the iPhone 16 Pro microphones.
Apple says that this feature is powered by the A18 Pro chip, using advanced processing and machine learning to isolate the vocal recording. Voice Memos is able to create two individual tracks so users can apply additional mixing and production in apps like Logic Pro.
A variety of background instrumentals like acoustic guitar or piano can be used as the first layer for a recording, and using Logic Pro, artists and producers can send an instrumental music mix as a compressed audio file directly to Voice Memos for layering vocals on top.
Michael Bublé's "Maybe This Christmas" song can be streamed on Apple Music in Spatial Audio.
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The genius of old Apple ads was that they showed you how to use a feature. It was a mini tutorial packaged as an attention-grabbing advertisement.
This here doesn't show me how to use the feature at all. It talks about how amazing the feature is, it abstractly talks about what the feature can be used for. But I still have no idea what the feature really is, how to access it, or how to use it. The ad taught me nothing.
Music illiterate here. Can someone explain what makes this unique vs voice notes on iPhone from 10 years ago?
Until now Voice Memos couldn’t record you while playing another recording at the same time, because unless you use headphones if it did play at the same time then the new recording would pick up the old recording and be a mash up of the old and new recording. Now VM can record and play simultaneously, without headphones (which are often not available on the fly), and via machine learning the second recording will be cleanly separated from the first so you end up with two distinct recordings that can play together but that can be manipulated separately as needed. This is called layering tracks and it’s the basis of how pretty much all studio musicians record music.
It's great. But it's not replacing the studio setting.
It's not trying to. And it's actually quite good for fleshing out musical ideas. I use Voice Memos all the time for this. The downside is that it seems you need an iPhone 16 Pro for the layering/isolation feature to work.
