I have written a whole blog about how to use this Android app as there is no User Guide available. It was the first new tool I mastered last year when I started creating recordings of myself singing harmonies.
When I first started to use it, it really did feel like magic, something I had been waiting for my whole life. I don't use it so much these days, apart from creating quick demo videos, as its limitations actually mean it is easier to get a good result using more complex tools, now that I have mastered some alternatives.
As a teenager I remember using two cassette recorders to try to layer up harmonies so that I could record myself singing with myself. I would record on one, then play it back while singing another part, recording it on the second machine and so on. Here is a recording from those days that has survived .. I have applied noise reduction but the quality is still very poor, due mainly to the way it was recorded. Its the first verse from 'Come and join the celebration'
So imagine how delighted I was to be able to easily create recordings such as this (which I made as a 'Virtual Christmas Card' last year, it was recorded on the fly without planning or writing down the harmonies in advance):
So what is Acapella Maker? Its a mobile phone app for Android, that allows you to film yourself singing (or playing) multiple parts for a single song. While recording, I use headphones, through which I listen to an extra track that I recorded earlier, to remind me of the key and tempo. When you have made all the recordings, the app stitches them together to create a collage. It has limited editing features (can adjust track volume, re-record a whole track, arrange the items differently in the collage and that's about it). And it is rather flaky and prone to random crashing. The fact that I have persevered with it so long and created nearly 60 recordings, is testament to how much of a game changer it was for me in my musical journey.
I find it very easy to use for simple harmonies. But when I am less sure of what notes I should be singing, it is much easier to record using Audacity, for then I can listen to an individual 'guide track' via my headphones for the part I am recording, which is not possible with Acapella maker - just one backing track for the whole song. So for the most part I feel I have now mostly 'outgrown' Acapella maker, but still feel a great affection for it!
I leave you with one of my more ambitious and silly Acapella Maker recordings, made as a Thank You for Gareth Malone for the Great British Home Chorus (as it was based on a warm up piece he taught us) ... this features clever use of a stock video of a real dog ... captured in a very low-tech way by pointing my phone camera at the video playing on computer screen!!
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