TapeOp is a four-track recorder designed for songwriters and musicians who want to
capture ideas fast — no cables, no interfaces, no setup. Just your iPhone and a pair of wired
earbuds.
A cassette 4-track recorder lets you lay down a rhythm part, then overdub a melody, then
add a harmony, then sing a vocal — all without leaving the room or touching a computer.
TapeOp brings that workflow to your iPhone. When the idea is there, you hit record. When
it’s done, you export stems straight into Logic, GarageBand, or any DAW.
iPhone with iOS 16 or later
Wired earbuds or headphones (required for overdubbing — see below)
That’s it
Portrait (phone upright)
VU Meters — the four colored columns at the top show the level of each track in real time
during playback and recording.
Faders — horizontal sliders below the meters control each track’s volume. The M button
mutes that track.
Delay Offset — the small 0 / -1 / -2 / -3 buttons fine-tune track alignment by shifting playback timing in milliseconds. Track 1 defaults to -1ms which is calibrated for typical headphone monitoring latency. Leave these at their defaults unless something sounds off.
Record Ready buttons — the four large square buttons arm a track for recording. Dark outline means idle. Solid red means armed and ready. Only one track can be armed at a time.
Transport
REC — starts recording on the armed track while playing back all other tracks
RTZ — stops and returns to the beginning
PLAY — plays back all tracks from the current position
UNDO — undoes the last recording on whatever track you just recorded
STOP — stops playback or recording, stays at current position
SAVE — opens the session and export menu
Landscape (phone sideways)
The same controls in a wider layout. The four channel strips run left to right with meters, pan knobs, faders, mute, delay offset, and arm buttons. Transport and master volume are on the right panel.
1. Plug in wired earbuds before opening the app. This is important — without headphones you’ll get bleed from the speaker into the mic on overdubs.
2. Open TapeOp. The app will ask for microphone permission — tap Allow.
3. Arm track 1 by tapping its Record Ready button. It turns solid red.
4. Press REC. You’ll hear a short count-in delay, then start playing. The tape counter runs at the top.
5. Press STOP when you’re done.
6. Press PLAY to hear what you recorded.
7. Arm track 2. Press REC again. You’ll hear track 1 in your earbuds while you record track
8. Repeat for tracks 3 and 4.
Track 4 has a special button labeled U47 in the landscape view. When enabled, this applies a Neve 1073 EQ, tube saturation, and an optical compressor (modeled after the classic LA-2A) to the input signal as you record. It’s designed to make a vocal recorded into an iPhone mic sound more produced with no effort. Try it on your lead vocal.
Tap SAVE or Export to open the session menu.
SAVE SESSION — saves all four tracks and settings to the app’s internal storage. Sessions are named after your project name (shown at the top of the save sheet). You can rename it before saving.
OPEN SESSION — shows a list of your saved sessions sorted by most recent. Tap one to load it. Swipe left to delete.
Sessions are stored inside the TapeOp app folder, visible in the iOS Files app under On MyiPhone → TapeOp.
Tap SAVE then choose an export option.
DUB MIX — exports a stereo WAV of all tracks mixed together with volume and pan settings
applied.
EXPORT TRACKS — exports each track as a separate WAV file. Use this to bring your recordings into Logic, GarageBand, Pro Tools, or any other DAW for further production.
Share sheets let you AirDrop, save to Files, or send via any app.
Always use wired earbuds. Bluetooth headphones introduce too much latency for comfortable overdubbing. The app works with Bluetooth for playback only.
Record in a quiet room.
The delay offset sliders are there to help compensate between different recording hardware and versions.
means quiet takes come back at a usable level without you having to touch the fader.
Undo is one level deep. UNDO undoes the last recording only. If you record track 2 and don’t like it, press UNDO immediately. Once you record another track, the previous undo is gone.
The tape counter shows seconds. The orange number in the header counts elapsed time in seconds during recording and playback.
Troubleshooting
No sound on playback Make sure your earbuds are plugged in. If using Bluetooth, connect the headphones before pressing Play.
Tracks sound out of sync Try adjusting the delay offset buttons (-1, -2, -3ms) on the first recorded track. Small values make a big difference. Also make sure you’re using wired
earbuds — Bluetooth latency makes sync impossible to calibrate.
Recording is very quiet Turn up the INPUT knob in the bottom left of the portrait view. Alsocheck that nothing is covering the front microphone at the top of your iPhone.
The app shows ENGINE ERR Usually caused by a phone call or another app taking the audio session. Close TapeOp completely and reopen it.
Session won’t load Make sure you saved the session using SAVE SESSION (not justEXPORT). Exported WAV files are not sessions and can’t be reopened in TapeOp.
TapeOp records at 48kHz using the iPhone’s front stereo microphone array with Apple’s automatic gain control and noise suppression disabled. Input processing uses a custom Neve 8078-style EQ and transformer saturation model on all tracks. The U47 chain on track 4 (button must be clicked in Landscape mode) adds a Neve 1073 EQ and LA-2A optical compressor model.
All processing is done on-device. No audio leaves your phone except through the share sheet when you explicitly export.
TapeOp — capture the idea before it’s gone.