Recording Studio

What the Studio is for

The Studio is where a piece's recordings live. It does four things: capture a take (a recording of you playing the piece), manage saved takes (play, rename, share, delete), import recordings made elsewhere, and hand a take to the Trainer so Follow can learn the piece's timing. One take is enough to calibrate a piece; every additional take refines it.

The Studio has two faces: a take manager (a tab inside the piece's Properties, titled Studio) and a capture widget that appears over the open score once you tap Record. You manage takes in the first; you record in the second.

Open the Studio

On iPad:

1. Open the piece in the reader.
2. Tap the headphones button in the navigation bar (accessibility name: Recordings).
3. Properties opens directly on the Studio tab.

On iPhone:

1. Open the piece in the reader.
2. Tap the wrench button (Tool chest) to open the side panel on its Tools tab.
3. In the Piece section, tap Studio.

Note — Opening the Studio never starts recording. The Studio tab is the take manager; the microphone only goes live after you tap Record and then the start button (Start recording).

The Trainer's Step 2 (Open Studio) leads to the same place — see Prepare a piece for Follow.

Limit — A piece browsed straight from the Catalog shows a Reference recordings section only. Add the work to My Library before recording or importing your own takes.

Record a take

Capture always runs in the same compact studio pill. What you see before you start differs by device.

On iPad:

1. In the Studio tab, tap Record. Properties closes and the studio pill appears in the navigation bar, reading Press ◼ to record in the studio.
2. Tap the red square button (Start recording) and play. The first time, iOS asks for microphone access.
3. The pill switches to capture: a pulsing red dot, a live wave, and a running timer. The square button becomes Pause recording.
4. Tap the checkmark (Finish and save take) when you're done. The pill reads Take saved, then closes.

On iPhone:

1. In the Studio tab, tap Record. Properties closes and a setup card opens below the navigation chrome, headed RECORDING STUDIO with the piece title.
2. Check the input badge under the title. It names the input about to be used (for example Built-in microphone); an external audio interface shows a waveform-mic icon and a green dot. Plug in your interface before recording if you want it used.
3. Tap the round blue record button (Start recording) and play. The setup card closes and the studio pill takes over at the top of the score, so the page stays visible while you record.
4. Tap the checkmark (Finish and save take) when you're done. The pill reads Take saved, then closes.

To record another take, tap Record in the Studio tab again.

Controls while recording

These are the studio pill's controls, on both devices.

The wave next to the timer moves with your playing — that is the sign the microphone is reaching the app. If it stays flat while you play, the wrong input is selected: discard the take, change what is plugged in, and start again.

Manage takes: My Takes

Saved takes appear in the Studio tab under My Takes, with a count in the header. Each row shows the take's name, file size, date, duration, its anchor count, a Calibrated / Not Calibrated badge, and · In trainer on the take the Trainer currently follows.

• Tap a row to play it inline — a scrubber with 10-second skip buttons appears under the row.
• Tap the ⋯ button (Recording actions) for the full menu:
  • Use in trainer — makes this take the one the Trainer references. It reads Active in trainer on the current one.
  • Calibrate this take — opens the calibrator (shown only while the take is Not Calibrated).
  • Rename and Save a copy… — rename in place, or save the audio file out.
  • Publish (Export video, Share to YouTube / Reels, Share to SoundCloud) — shown only for calibrated takes; calibration is what makes video export possible.
  • Delete recording — removes the take. Swiping the row left does the same.

Limit — A take's calibration (its sync anchors and replay markers) is stored with the audio file. Deleting a take deletes its calibration too; if it was the piece's only calibrated take, the piece drops back to uncalibrated.

Bring in recordings from outside

Three sections of the Studio tab add audio you didn't record here:

• Import Recording — pulls an existing audio or video file from Files.app or iCloud Drive into My Takes.
• Search Authorized Recording for Auto Calibration — searches IMSLP, Musopen, and Wikimedia for downloadable performances. Downloads land in a separate Authorized recordings section, kept with their source and licence metadata; they can play, calibrate, and — when the licence allows — go to the Trainer.
• Find a Reference Recording — searches Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. These are listening links only: no download, no calibration. Saved links also appear under Authorized recordings.

Important — Licence matters for calibration, not for listening. An imported recording with an unknown, NonCommercial, or NoDerivatives licence stays on your device and calibrates manually only; it never unlocks network auto-calibration. Your own takes have no such restriction.

From take to Follow

A saved take is already a training take — there is no separate upload or "train" step. To make Follow track the piece, calibrate a take: tap Calibrate this take from its row in My Takes, or run the Trainer's Auto-calibrate. The full path is on Prepare a piece for Follow.