Master Record
Developed By: Igor Vasiliev iMusicAlbum

Available in iTunes App Store HERE

Remember when you had to put an audio cassette tape in your old Tascam PortaStudio to record music? Remember the warm hiss that analogue tape added? You don’t? Really? Yikes, I’m really showing my age I guess.

Well anyway, before technological advances that brought us luxuries like gravity, oxygen, and iPads, we had to record our music up hill! Both ways, when I was young! Dag nabbit!
Now we have insanely easy ways to record. No more tapes, reels, or whatever. No more unwanted noise.

So now we have “Master Record” available for us to enjoy recreating the noisy analogue tape recordings from yesteryear. But, why?
Turns out there are plenty of folks who appreciated the warm hiss that tape forced upon us. With this app though, that noise is completely under the users control. You can crank it up and have your recordings sound like they were done behind a waterfall, or remove it completely. Whatever you want.

Master Record is a convenient way to record just about anything, from any audio source. Wherever you choose. It works with the iRig Mic (among many other mics) and is Audiobus compatible with the Effect and Output slots. Import or export using AudioCopy/Paste, Open In, Internal web service via WiFi and of course iTunes File Share. Moving recordings to and from Master Record is covered well. It needs Dropbox support though.

More than anything this app is best suited for adding analogue tape sound effects, rather than a go to recorder. It can warm up recordings with its 4 unique analogue tape noise emulations, and its “Tape Saturator” with 3 variants. There are also the “Flutter” effects with 3 frequency types and a basic 2 band shelf EQ for input corrections. So there’s plenty of options to manage and create the desired effects.
The “Flutter” however really doesn’t seem to do anything at all. I’ve tried maxing it in several experiments with various audio, but it has no noticeable effect on anything.
I suppose the effects this app generates are meant to be subtle, and very specific. In regards to that, it does a great job. So don’t go in expecting to get anything but analogue tape effects out of Master Record.

Master Record has a nice waveform view screen which also provides an environment to adjust fades. 3 envelope fade types ( just like in the Audio Mastering App which looks nearly identical to this app) to choose from and detailed positioning with pin point accuracy.
This is simply a recording app, but it would benefit from some editing tools. That would boost its appeal, making it much more useful and practical. As a stand alone recorder with no wave editing, that for the most part doesn’t do much except produce a niche sound type, Master Record has me on the fence whether or not to recommend it widely.

Yes! This does do a very good job with emulating analogue tape noise, has dubbing, a good array of tweakable parameters for warming recordings and adding body. But that’s about it. This is one of those very specific “job-type” apps. If you really want to have an excellent way to reproduce certain tape sound types, and make perfect digital recordings sound more natural, then look no further. If you don’t have a strong desire for this specific sound, then you probably won’t have much need for this particular app.