Some common questions are answered below, and much more information is available in the User Guide, but if you have a question not shown here, please drop us a line and we’ll try to sort things out for you!
Note: Ferrite Recording Studio requires iOS 15 or later. Some features of Ferrite Recording Studio are only available on some devices.
- Where’s the User Guide?
- Why Can’t I Import Music From My Music Library?
- Can I “Bounce” A Project?
- How Do I Redo Or Fast Forward On Devices With Small Screens?
- Can I Listen To A Recording While I’m Making It?
- How Many Channels Can I Record?
- Before You Start Recording
Where’s the User Guide?
There’s a comprehensive guide included inside the app itself – just tap the Tools button in the top-right of the Recording/Library screen, and pick User Guide (or tap on User Guide in the Tools section of the Side Bar). But if you want to read it on another device, or print it out, the User Guide is available online in a couple of different formats.
We also have some tutorial videos you may find helpful!
Why Can’t I Import Music From My Music Library?
Ferrite does support importing music from your Music Library, however, Apple will only allow it to import certain tracks: They must not be copy-protected (importing into Ferrite counts as “copying” as far as they’re concerned) and they must already be on your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch.
If you use a “cloud music” service (e.g. Apple Music or iTunes Match) then you might be looking at music that’s “in the cloud”, not actually on your device.
You can check this by looking in the Music app:
If you see a “cloud download” icon, the track is still “in the cloud” and needs downloading – you can tap the icon to download it
If there’s no icon, you can probably import the track into Ferrite
You can find more information on downloading music on Apple’s support site.
Can I “Bounce” A Project?
Yes, you can bounce a project. Tap the Share button and pick “Save to Ferrite Library” and the project will be bounced to your device as an audio file, which you can import into other projects.
How Do I Redo Or Fast Forward On Devices With Small Screens?
Ferrite has Undo and Redo buttons, and Rewind and Fast Forward buttons, but on older devices with smaller screens – especially in portrait – it has to hide the Redo and Fast Forward buttons to fit everything in.
But, you can hold your finger on the Undo, or Rewind button, and it will “unfold” or “pop out” to show both buttons. When you’re done with them, tap the “x” that appears, to fold them away again.
Tip: Once you’ve got the hang of that, there’s a shortcut you can use to Redo or Fast Forward with just one step: swipe your finger from the Undo or Rewind button, up in the direction of where the Redo or Fast Forward will appear. It will unfold, select the button, and fold away again all in one go!
Can I Listen To A Recording While I’m Making It?
Yes, through headphones. Plug them into your device before you start recording, and the headphones icon should appear/become enabled on the recording screen. Tap this to turn headphone monitoring on or off.
Note: If you’re using an audio device plugged in via USB/Lightning, the device itself may provide headphone monitoring. In this case, turning on Ferrite’s monitoring as well may cause an odd echo, as both the external audio device and your iOS device pass the audio along. You probably want to use just one of the device’s monitoring features in this case.
How Many Channels Can I Record?
It depends on the iOS device you’re running Ferrite on, the version of the OS you’re using, and the microphone(s) you’re using to record:
If you’re using a “hands-free headset” mic plugged into the headphone port (on devices that still have one of those), you will only be able to record in mono.
If you’re using the built-in microphone on an iPad, you will only be able to record in mono.
If you’re using the built-in microphone(s) on iPhone, you can record in mono or stereo, depending on the iPhone model (more details below).
On either iPhone or iPad, you can also connect an audio device via USB or Lightning to get more channels. Ferrite 3 Pro supports up to 8 channels with the right hardware. More details below.
Stereo Recording with iPhone’s Built-in Mics: Recent iPhone models have multiple microphones. The additional mics are typically not positioned for stereo imaging, and are instead used to improve the quality of voice calls. But starting with iOS 14, they can provide a kind of “synthetic stereo” recording by using several of these mics in combination. Ferrite will detect and use this automatically where available, but if you prefer not to use this feature, you can turn it off in the Ferrite Settings. Recordings with the built-in mic will then be mono only.
Multi-channel recording over USB/Lightning: Both iPhone and iPad can receive audio from a device connected to the USB/Lightning port. The free version of Ferrite supports USB/Lightning audio devices, but only the first 1-2 channels (a single mono or stereo track). If you have upgraded to Ferrite 3 Pro, you can record up to 8 channels at a time.
Not all file formats support this many channels – if your chosen format does not support all the channels you have connected, Ferrite will mark the channels with a “warning triangle”. They will become enabled when you change the format.
Any standard USB audio device should work, but there are too many different devices out there for us to be able to test them all, so we can’t guarantee compatibility with any given device. Some devices may require more power than the iPhone/iPad can supply – in this case, you may be able to get the device to work by providing extra power to it via a USB hub, an Apple USB 3 adaptor, or a dedicated power adaptor for devices that support it.
iPhone and iPad only support a single USB/Lightning audio device at a time, so if you want to record multiple channels, you can’t connect multiple USB microphones to a USB hub. You need to connect multiple regular (non-USB) mics to a single audio device (a USB audio interface or mixer), then connect that to the iPad/iPhone.
After recording, you can use Ferrite’s “Channels” screen to split the channels up so you can edit them independently. More details on this can be found in the User Guide chapter “Audio Info and Preproduction”.
Before You Start Recording
Ferrite’s recording is very solid, but on iOS it’s possible that an audio app can be interrupted, if another app demands control of the audio hardware. For example, if you receive a phone call, the phone takes priority over recording, and we have no way to prevent this (it’s controlled by iOS itself).
Also, even if an app doesn’t take control of the hardware, it still might cause unwanted disturbance – for example, by beeping or vibrating the device, if you receive an alert.
For this reason, if you’re making a recording, and it’s important enough to miss phone calls because of it, Apple provide the following recommendations to avoid interruptions:
In the Settings app, ensure that Airplane Mode turned on, for devices that have an Airplane mode.
In the Settings app, ensure that Do Not Disturb is turned on.
In the Calendar app, ensure that there are no event alarms enabled during the planned recording period.
In the Clock app, ensure that no clock alarms are enabled during the planned recording period.
For devices that have a Silent switch (called the Ring/Silent switch on iPhone), do not move the switch during the recording. When you change to Silent mode, an iPhone may vibrate, for example, depending on user settings.
Do not plug in or unplug a headset during recording. Likewise, do not dock or undock the device during recording.
Do not plug the device into a power source during the recording. When an iOS device gets plugged into power, it may beep or vibrate, according to the device and to user settings. Plug it in before you start!
Don’t forget to restore your original settings afterwards!