iPhone Sound Recording – Review: iProRecorder by BIAS

iProRecorder Premier Voice and Music Recorder by BIAS

There are a great many sound and voice memo programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Indeed there are many that it is hard to make a choice.  I have tried quite few and will be reporting on some of them in my blogs.

Using AppSniper I noticed that the well reviewed iProRecorder was on a 3 day sale at 59p UK ($0.99c US) which  is quite a whopping 80% discount off the normal price. My initial tests a very good and I would recommend buying this while the price is discounted.  They do seem to run these sales periodically so if BIAS go to form there will be another sale in a month or two if you miss this sale.

I have made some pretty hefty High Quality recordings of 250 Mb plus and transferred them easily to my PC simply by turning on the built in Web Server and connecting with a web browser where the WAV files can easily be downloaded. There are 3 options to get your recordings off your iPhone and onto your computer. There is email, which uploads to the BIAS website where you can click to download. You will find this option painfully slow for all but small files.

Wi-Fi using the built in web / ftp server is the no brainer choice if you plan on using this software regularly. Learn how to set it up and use this method always would be my advice. Basically, if you are using a fairly typical wi-fi router setup you will be using an internal IP addressing scheme in the 192.168.0.x (where x is a unique number for your network devices). The software displays your iPhone or iPod Touch IP address so it’s as easy as typing that into a browser just as it says.  e.g. http://192.168.0.4:8080/  Note that the :8080 portion refers to the port number for those not familiar with this notation system.

iProRecorder Main Recording Screen (above) set to Medium Quality

Once on your PC you can of course edit the audio files with your favourite sound editing program if you so desire. Or send them for audio transcribing via your office typist for conversion to text.

Of course the program caters well for all the usual needs of a voice / sound recording software.  Helpfully it reminds you when recording for the first time that you are advised to put your iPhone into Airplane mode to prevent any incoming phone calls or text messages interupting your recording. This is one of the downsides if you rely on your mobile to keep in constant touch, you may not be too comfortable switching the mobile phone features off whilst you record. Unfortunately since Apple do not at present allow 3rd party developers to run their apps in the background an incoming call will interupt the recording – even if you do not answer and seend it to voicemail.

Uses for the Recording Software

• • voice memos
  • lectures
  • sermons
  • legal briefings
  • field interviews
  • business meetings
  • dictation
  • music
  • ambient sounds
  • or anything else you can hear!

You can get a good quick overview of the features of the software on the BIAS website…

demo gives a good preview and overview of features…

There is a timer function…

Additional Features

Inside the software you have a screen where you can easily play, rename and add a graphic icon to your audio recordings.  It also gives a good overview of recording time, sound quality and the date and time of the recording. From this screen you can also go back into your recording and add more recordings to the end of the file so if you are composing a long report you dont need to finish it all in one sitting.

In playback from the device itself the sound is clear enough at even the LQ (low quality) recording type. You have many catagories built in and you can group recordings into 1 of 7 built in catagories or create new ones of your own making. This is a very handy feature itself and gives you a facility akin to folders for your files.

Some users have reported instability issues with the software (which I have not observed) and others have complained that the Peak Express audio integration is only available in the USA (which is true at this moment in time). I cannot see much benefit from the Peak integration feature myself but if that is important to you you have been warned.

All in all this is my top rated audio recording app for the iPhone and iPod Touch at the moment. If you need a good quality audio recording solution for your device this reviewer gives it the thumbs up. If you can get it at the sale price it is without doubt a bargain.