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Music DawnGet the app

Music Dawn

User manual

Record an idea, find it again and shape its sound. Learn Music Dawn's recording, library, playback, sharing and effects controls on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

From idea to recording

  1. Catch an idea

    Capture a melody, a lyric or a rehearsal before you forget it. Music Dawn keeps the recording in your library so you can come back to it, listen and work on the sound later.

  2. Find an idea

    Your library brings recordings, imports and Watch captures together. Search by title, browse the places you recorded, or keep promising ideas in Favorites and folders.

  3. Listen

    Open a recording to hear the idea again and find the phrase you want to develop. The waveform helps you move through the recording, and Pro can add estimated chords, tempo, key and meter when the analysis is confident enough.

  4. Shape the sound

    Turn a rough recording into something you want to hear again, from a small tone change to a full sound chain. Effects work during playback, so the original recording is never changed.

  5. Trim a recording

    Keep the part of a recording you want to hear, without the silence or handling noise at its edges. Trimming saves a start and end point; it never cuts audio out of the original file.

  6. Bring recordings in

    Bring existing song ideas into the same library as your new recordings. You can choose audio files from Files or send recordings from Voice Memos and other apps, then play, trim and shape their sound in Music Dawn.

  7. Send recordings out

    Share a recording with a bandmate, save it to Files or send it to another audio app. Music Dawn prepares a file from the saved trim and the active effects, then opens the system share sheet.

  8. Tune an instrument

    Use the Tuner to check a note before you record. It shows the note, octave, frequency and how far the pitch is from the nearest note, with a strip of standard guitar strings to help you find your target.

  9. Record wherever the idea arrives

    Use the iPad to browse your library beside a recording, or the Apple Watch to catch an idea from your wrist. Record controls and shortcuts open Music Dawn straight into capture so you can start without browsing the library.

  10. Keep your musical ideas private

    Music Dawn stores your recordings on your device first, with private iCloud sync to carry your library between devices. Recording, playback, effects, tuning and musical analysis run on your device. Location tags are optional.

Effects

Clean and monitor

  • CLEAN

    Clean reduces steady background noise and the room sound that lingers after a voice or instrument. It learns the noise from the recording itself, so you do not need to select a quiet passage.

  • MONITOR

    Monitor gives a recording the gentle leveling and room sound a singer hears in headphones with Monitor on while recording. Add it to hear that sound on playback and in an export with effects.

Tone

  • EQ

    The EQ shapes the tone of a recording: more body, less mud, more air. Use it to fix what the phone's microphone and the room did to the sound, before anything else in the chain.

  • SURGICAL

    Surgical targets one problem tone with a single adjustable band. Use it for a ringing note or a stubborn resonance after the EQ has shaped the overall tone.

Dynamics

  • COMPRESSOR

    Compressor tightens a recording by turning down loud peaks, bringing a voice or guitar under control. Use it when you want firmer attacks and more punch, with a little studio color as it works harder.

  • OPTO

    Opto gently evens out a voice or piano performance and adds a little warmth. Choose it over Compressor when you want steadier phrases while letting the starts of notes through more gently.

  • DE-ESSER

    The De-esser softens sharp s, t and sh sounds in a vocal. It turns down the high part when those sounds stand out, rather than darkening the whole recording.

Color

  • TUBE

    Tube rounds sharp peaks and adds harmonics that can make a thin voice, piano or guitar feel fuller. Use it for a little warmth, or push it until the recording has an audible edge.

  • TAPE

    Tape softens bright attacks and gives a voice, piano, guitar or whole song the color of a tape machine. Keep it steady for gentle warmth, or add wear for a wavering, rougher sound.

  • DISTORTION

    Distortion adds overdrive, crunch or fuzz with a rounded, speaker-like top. Reach for it on guitar, or blend a little into voice or piano when you want grit without losing the performance.

  • BITCRUSHER

    Bitcrusher turns clean detail into grainy, digital roughness. Try it on a guitar riff, a piano pattern or a vocal phrase when you want an obvious texture rather than gentle warmth.

Movement and space

  • CHORUS

    Chorus blends your recording with a copy whose pitch gently moves, adding shimmer and width. Use it to give a plain guitar or keyboard part more body and movement.

  • DELAY

    Delay adds echoes after each note, from a close slap to a trail that fills the gaps between phrases. Use it to give a voice or guitar more space, or make the repeats part of the rhythm.

  • STAGE

    Stage makes a stereo picture from a mono recording by keeping the lower frequencies in the center and spreading the higher frequencies left and right. Use it on a voice and guitar recording to give the guitar's sparkle more room around the vocal.

  • REVERB

    Reverb puts a space around your recording, from a close room to a long, smooth tail. Use it to give a dry voice or instrument somewhere to live, without letting the space cover the song.

Finish

  • MASTER

    Master finishes a recording: it helps the parts sit together, sets the overall loudness and catches peaks before they clip. Put it last in the chain so it works on the finished sound.