Record on hardware, manage in software
A dedicated recorder is a pleasure to use: tactile controls, a good microphone, nothing else on the screen. But the files it makes have no titles, no transcripts and no way to search through them.
Signal Recorder SR-7 fills that gap. Bring the files in and SR-7 transcribes them on your device, writes a title and a one-sentence summary with Apple Intelligence, and adds them to your library, where search covers every word. An imported recording works exactly like one made in the app.
Using the TP-7 with SR-7
The teenage engineering TP-7 is a portable recorder that captures 24-bit WAV audio.
Switch on Memo mode
The TP-7 has a dedicated memo button on its side. Press it and the device starts recording at once, even from a powered-off state. Memo recordings always use the internal microphone and are stored apart from regular multitrack recordings.
In later TP-7 firmware the memo button still starts a recording, but Memo as a dedicated mode is off by default. Switch it on in the TP-7 settings so voice memos are kept apart from your other recordings, which makes them much easier to find and import.
Import into SR-7
- Connect the TP-7 to your Mac and mount it with teenage engineering’s Field Kit app.
- Drag the memo files onto the SR-7 window, or choose File > Import Audio (⌘O) and select them.
- SR-7 copies each file into your library and, while Transcribe automatically on import is switched on (it is to begin with), transcribes them one after another.
The original files on the TP-7 are not changed.
Other recorders
Audio from any recorder comes in the same way, as long as it saves files in a format SR-7 reads:
- Field recorders such as Zoom, Tascam and Sound Devices
- Voice recorders that save audio files
- Memory cards and drives: open them in Finder and drag the files in
- Phones: on iPhone and iPad, tap Import in SR-7’s toolbar and pick the files in the Files app; from another phone, copy the files to your Mac first
Supported formats
| Format | Extension | On import |
|---|---|---|
| Waveform Audio | .wav | Converted to AAC |
| Audio Interchange | .aiff, .aif | Converted to AAC |
| Core Audio Format | .caf | Converted to AAC |
| Free Lossless Audio | .flac | Converted to AAC |
| Apple Lossless | .alac | Converted to AAC |
| MPEG Layer 3 | .mp3 | Kept as it is |
| MPEG-4 Audio | .m4a | Kept as it is |
| Advanced Audio Coding | .aac | Kept as it is |
Converting to AAC keeps the library small. MP3, M4A and AAC files are already compressed, so SR-7 keeps them as they are.
Signal Recorder SR-7
A dictaphone for thinking out loud. It records your voice and transcribes it on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
$7.99 once for iPhone, iPad and Mac. No subscription.