RT60 Songzap 3

Songzap aims to turn your iOS device into a compact demo studio — and the latest version promises headphone‑free recording.

There’s now some truly innovative audio software for smartphones and tablets, with apps to cover everything from simple jobs like note‑taking (digital replacements for your notebook and pen) or memo recording (a digital dictaphone), right through to full‑blown DAWs like Cubasis and Logic Pro for the iPad. Somewhere between those extremes sits RT60’s Songzap, which was initially conceived to make the ‘pre‑production’ phase of a record intuitive and efficient. The first two versions impressed us, but now there’s Songzap 3, and it’s claimed this makes innovative use of AI to enable headphone‑free recording on your phone, amongst other things.

Core Features

We reviewed Songzap 2 in SOS October 2024, and for those unfamiliar with the app I’ll start with a brief recap of where that version left us — all its functionality remains available in v3.

Spread neatly across a compact set of main pages, Songzap offers both audio recording and a trio of compact virtual instruments (drums, bass and keyboards). There are also basic mixing options, an arrangement environment for experimenting with different song structures, and a note‑taking option for lyrics. And, once happy with your demo, you can export a mixdown and/or the individual track elements as WAV/MIDI files, plus a PDF with lyrics.

There were already some clever features in v2. For example, the audio loop recording and virtual instrument patterns operate in conjunction with your arrangement decisions, so you can define audio loops or instrument parts (essentially a MIDI loop) for each song section. If you change the arrangement (for example, by adding an extra chorus), then on playback these looped elements can follow that arrangement change automatically. Of course, you can add a new song section, record additional audio/virtual instrument loops associated with that section, and slot them it into your arrangement as required too.

When you’ve recorded audio in a section (or sections) in your arrangement, Songzap can (it’s your choice) analyse the musical content and automatically generate suitable accompaniment parts for the virtual instruments. It’s certainly a very quick and effective way to get a vibe going, and while options are necessarily more limited than in a DAW, you can perform basic edits on these parts, and fine‑tune the chords that Songzap automatically identifies, to refine the ‘performance’.

Once you have the musical arrangement organised to your satisfaction, if you want to add further audio elements you can turn your focus to the four‑track audio tracking feature. This supports the continuous recording of additional audio layers across the length of the whole arrangement. If all you want to do is capture a song idea in its most simple form (a guitar plus vocal track, for instance), this section of the app can also be used on its own for just that purpose. Audio import and track bouncing are also supported.

In short, Songzap has always been much more than a digital audio recorder. It may not be as sophisticated as a full‑blown DAW, but it’s not intended to be. You might think of is as an iPhone‑friendly Portastudio with some neat modern features...

What’s New

All of which brings us to Songzap 3, and to my mind, there are two main headlines. First, you can now easily import external audio into the loop or tracking‑based playback systems. So, if you want to develop your song idea based on an existing drum loop or three, or your favourite keyboard or guitar loop or, well, any sample you want, that’s now possible. Audio files can be dropped into your iOS device’s Files folder (for example, by AirDrop from your desktop computer) and then you use the Import button on the Groove and Tracking pages to insert it into the currently selected track. Providing you ensure the imported audio is already at the required tempo (or your new arrangement’s tempo matches the loop you want to use; Songzap doesn’t yet perform any tempo‑matching), this works very smoothly. In the Groove page, as with any audio loops you record yourself, you can easily adjust the start/end points of an imported loop. That’s great if, for example, you only want to use a selected set of bars from within the whole loop.

Songzap’s Groove options let you build your song ideas through a combination of audio loops (which can be recorded directly, or imported) and virtual instrument parts that can be fully customised for each song section within your arrangement.

This might strike you as a simple feature addition, but it’s one that makes a big difference in practice. Indeed, it could even prompt you to drop a collection of audio loop content onto your iPhone, for inspiration ammunition when you’re out and about with time to kill. I think it’s also a pretty shrewd addition on RT60’s part, since the ability to work with pre‑recorded audio loops could well expand Songzap’s appeal to a wider audience.

The second headline, and the one RT60 are rightly making the most noise about, is what I mentioned at the outset: Songzap 3 promises “headphone‑free” recording and playback. The idea is to make it possible to record new audio material into a project on your iPhone or iPad, while monitoring the backing track straight over its speaker — no need for headphones to prevent bleed from your cue mix being captured by the mic.

The whole point of the app is to enable you to capture your initial ideas as soon as inspiration strikes, no matter where you are, no matter whether you happen to have headphones with you or not.

So... why not just use headphones to avoid the spill in the first place? Well, you can still do that should you wish, of course, but the whole point of the app is to enable you to capture your initial ideas as soon as inspiration strikes, no matter where you are, no matter whether you happen to have headphones with you or not. What’s more, it also makes it super‑simple to work with collaborators — it’s easy for two (or more) folks to gather around the iPhone mic and jam vocal harmony parts, for example, and check the musical result on the iOS device’s speakers. So, in the context of Songzap’s design intention, this new feature actually makes a lot of sense!

There are a few clever aspects to this facility. First, the AI‑based clean‑up process takes place while you’re recording, so the results are ready as soon as you’ve finished recording — you can play back your headphone‑free recording in the Groove (loop) or Track (linear timeline) modes right away. Second, it’s non‑destructive, and you have access to a slider that lets you adjust the amount of ‘bleed’ reduction, with a two‑colour visual representation of the waveform making it easy to see what’s going on. Finally, this isn’t limited to use on voice — you can take advantage of this while capturing any sound.

There are also dedicated pages where song structures can be created and edited, basic mix moves can be performed, and of course, new tracks can be recorded — the last of those is where you’ll find control over the new headphone‑free recording feature.

Technically, it works very well indeed. As a user experience it’s also refreshingly immediate. No need to think about bringing headphones with you wherever you go. It can also be really liberating not to have to wear headphones or deal with additional gadgets while trying to play an instrument, and to hear the natural sound of the room you’re in as you perform. The only issue you might encounter is that if the sound source you’re recording happens to be quite a loud one, you may struggle to get enough level from your iPhone/iPad speakers for monitoring. But for quickly sketching out an idea with most vocals and instruments, it’s quick, intuitive and convenient.

Zaptastic?

As a compact, portable tool for capturing your song ideas and developing them into fully‑fledged demo arrangements, then, Songzap 3 works very well indeed. Like the earlier versions, it definitely fulfils its design brief. The combination of loop‑based recording in the different song sections, the compact trio of virtual instruments with auto‑accompaniment capability, and further four‑track linear/timeline audio recording means you have plenty of scope for shaping your ideas and exploring their form. And the headphone‑free recording — which really does work very well — is icing on that cake.

Songzap 3 offers songwriters so much more than a simple memo‑style audio recording app can hope to offer. Yes, there are some impressive DAW apps available under iOS too, with Cubasis and Logic Pro both getting you very close to a desktop‑style recording, editing, arranging and mixing experience. But most such apps tend to come into their own only when used on a tablet‑sized screen. In contrast, Songzap 3 offers a nicely focused feature set, and arguably a more efficient workflow for capturing inspiration as it strikes. And, unlike those DAWs, although it can be used with an iPad if you wish, it’s been designed very much with iPhone users in mind.

Much more than an audio recorder, yet without the complexity of a full‑on DAW...

Much more than an audio recorder, then, yet without the complexity of a full‑on DAW, Songzap 3 makes for a very capable ‘songwriting studio’. Sat with just your acoustic guitar or piano, or maybe even just your voice and some beatboxing, its features make it about as easy as possible to capture and develop a song idea. It’s well worth exploring.

There’s a free version with some feature limitations, but a month’s subscription to the premium version doesn’t cost much. You’ll probably want to factor in a familiarisation period if you’re to fully appreciate how to best use what the app has to offer, but to support you in that, RT60 have plenty of good tutorials on their website.