Recording infrasound used to be complicated and expensive. With the RedVox Infrasound app, anybody can now explore the inaudible sound field around them, and help build a global hazards and noise monitoring network.
Exciting piece of news hit the inbox today, August 28th, 2024- RedVox's wicked audio recording app "Infrasound Recorder"- though already a great app with a very complete spectrogram of the live audio, with record/ replay capabilities and AI sound description-
Now, all features of the paid version are also available to all, for free. What are the extra features? I am not clear on that myself just yet- this was a sticking point on actually paying for the paid app in the past... I just couldn't get what extra features would be available but will be exploring this side of things ASAP- I'll report back once I'm up to speed on these new offerings. I believe that the once paid for, now available to all features actually have more to do with after analysis of recorded infra sound... a quick read also mentions access to other audio display options and abilities to add/ incorporate other sensors. That does really spark my interests.. what kind of other sensors? And what kinda results can we accomplish putting it all together?
Why Did I Choose RedVox's Infrasound Recorder?
For some time now and with ever growing personal interests- I've grown to enjoy "audio"- to view it on a spectrogram or FFT plot...to see any patterns/" clusters". Discover the mysteries that may be hiding within which surround us-
Analysing the captured data- and in a relatively intuitive manner + a big bonus to a clean user friendly UI- pat on the back to the designer(s) of the Infrasound Recorder app- consistent on both IOS and Android- "futuristic", "modern", it actually shouts "RedVox"- very on brand.
So, when a moment in time those many moons ago that I'd started my interests in audio discovery came around... with plenty of digging behind me. And, through the many spectrogram apps and sound recorders available that I'd sifted through, RedVox's Infrasound Recorder was an easy, obvious choice to stick with (and only sometime later discovering the actual power of the whole service offering when paired with the online web analysis).
Features that I'd Been Looking for
...and all in 1 app.
Infrasound Recorder offered features that allowed for live spectragram, waterfall and FFT views of audio, functionality to record the audio/ along with the corresponding visual representations of the recordings/ saving and exporting these files/ and playback where we can, again observe the audio and visuals that'd been recorded/ saved. Many other app offered such features, but, none like Infrasound Recorder offered all of them, especially with all these features seamlessly and in a user friendly manner co-existing for ease of use. Sure there are a sprinkling of other apps that may offer features such as those in RedVox's Infrasound Recorder but, either they'd only have a portion of em or you required a PHD in physics and advanced math, algebra to u.se... very much so over complicated.
Long story, short... RedVox's Infrasound Recorder checked off a list of tools, features, and/or services that'd I'd had set out seeking for- many other apps scrolled through may have checked of 1 or 2... but, only a few others checked off the majority if not all of them- visual, live views of audio. Sase of recording/ playback. Adjustments to such things as sample rates and frequency ranges. Ability to save, export, post analize/ have access to all the detail that is presented in the live view- those had been the main features I'd had in mind at the time.
Saving and Re-calling Audio files Along with the Corresponding Media
Where Corresponding Media equals the spectragram and any other analysis data that may have been captured- Infrasound Recorder is that... it's meant for the capturing and analysis of audio- so, even though you may be able to do a certain thing/ whatever feature/ it may not be as straight forward as, say, a app that was specifically geared to do that- you can sense this when looking at the feedback left behind by others- some voicing their frustrations.
One such frustration by others was the inability to save/ recall the audio- suprise suprise, you actually can do this. It's just a few more clicks then what the majority may be used to...- especially when dealing with larger files... those extra clicks add up- more clicks, more chance of user error- And, unfortunately, from my experience with the app- the app allows for continuous recording. Saving the file, you save the whole recorded file... but when it comes to recalling the file for review at a later date... Infrasound Recorder breaks the files out by date and then some. Year, month, day are the menu links that have to be clicked through... those being accessed through the main hamburger menu, in the Android device, this is in the top right of the screen
Automate
*more to come- check back here...
Reviews and Ratings?
Why so low?
The app, though a robust, clean, with many-a-features that some expensive pay for apps advertise- especially now with all of Infrasound Recorder being free to all- Something is a-miss... it's rating in the apps stores is low. From what I'd typed, it's all been positive. I have been giving it raving praise- then why? Why the low score? A quick skim through the comments/ feedback left behind, I cannot help to notice... and as some onr that came into using this app with 0 expectations, but left with all of which I had been looking for and more- I was sure to explore some deeper, when I could... there is still more to this RedVox than just a Audio recording app...reading the comments 1 can see the frustrations in the app lacking in this area... it's not meant for just recording and playing some time later..it's made to record and to provide reporting and analysis. Esplly when it comes to infrasound.
Why the Permissions?
So, the app isn't just for recording, saving and review of audio... that is 1 sticking point... the second is the types of permissions the app is requesting the user to let it have. Why does the app require my location details if all I am doing is recording audio? Again, this isn't just an audio recording app...some of the functionality of the app and services when analysing the recorded info at a later time require location....example being; determinizing direction of thunder and lightning..or discovering the volcano that has recently erupted- these types of results provided from the access to multiple user's recordings from locations far and wide- somewhat of a doppler style of direction finding. So, keep that in mind when freaking out on the permissions being requested- it is not for nefarious reasons. To get the full out use of all the service offerings from RedVox, you must login- but, that is mainly for the organizIng of your records along with the long/ lat data to be able to provide the reports that one can generate... and now, having al features free, w can set private if we don't want others to view or listen to recorded audio. This wasn't available in the free account in the past.
Si, if writing a review for the app, take all those items into consideration- and I am sure if others would have... then that rating woulda been much different. In a positive way.