Syn-Waves: Audio Editor

All in one audio recorder and editor with beautiful visualizations.

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Inspiration

I'm the creator of Syn-FX, a video editing and effects app for iPhone. I wanted to start recording a podcast and realized it was easier to record and edit audio inside Syn-FX (yes, the video editing app) than it was on most audio apps on the app store. So, I decided to build a stand alone audio recording & editing app using the same design principles, and added some deep refinements that would make the editing process smoother and more focused on the end goal.

As for the podcast? Well... like pretty much all indie developers, I got sidetracked by building the tool, instead of what the original plan was. But, it's finally in progress now, and I'm using the app to record it :)

What it does

It let's you record audio, edit audio, and enhance audio all in a simple, elegant interface. The app has a library of beautiful metal powered visualizations that make it even more fun to work with audio and visualize sound.

Right now it's focused on speaking, singing, voice memos and anything you can think of doing with your voice. In the future, it will have more music oriented capabilities as well.

It also has folders for organizing projects and recordings, and a dynamic EQ, compressor and voice enhance presets to improve sound quality in just a few taps.

How we built it

The app is iOS native built with swift, using metal for graphics. I have an engineering background so built it myself, with some assistance from Codex.

I was also making electronic music as a hobby at some point so was able draw on my experience of music making and sound design, building upon what the enjoyable parts were and minimizing the paint points.

Challenges we ran into

Working with the Audio Engine turned out to be more of a challenge than expected and had all kinds of crackling edge cases (pun intended). Getting it right and sounding good took a lot of fine tuning, and not something even AI can help with right now :)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building the app within just a few months from start to App Store has been something I have never done before. Being a quality freak, this was harder than it looks and not something I would have attempted if it wasn't for Shipaton. So, thanks :)

V1 is out and I'm working on V2 and 3 already. Those will be out after the deadline though. I now think this is a better approach than building an app for a year and then launching it once super polished, which is what I used to do.

What we learned

Give enough time for App Store review (10 days). It's probably faster to build an app today than it is to have it reviewed and released.

Revenue cat is awesome. We've been using StoreKit 2 in our other apps so far and didn't see the need for a third party payments api, but turns out RC (can I call y'all RC?) is so much more. Just being able to see a dynamic MRR number changing in real-time with country level information is a complete game changer. Once this competition is done, I'm planning to port our existing apps over and also use RC for all new apps going forward.

What's next for Syn-Waves: Audio Editor

We've got a huge range of improvements planned, including transcripts, captions and eventually adding music capabilities, instruments, track automations, more DSPs and a potential professional DAW/studio mode for power users.

Oh, and of course, adding some more beautiful visualizations and refining the existing ones.

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