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Reel is a $10 app that turns your iPhone into a 4-track tape recorder – and it’s already hit No.1 on the App Store
If your voice notes app is overflowing with half-finished hooks, synth jams and “don’t forget this riff” recordings, this might be the iPhone music tool you’ve been waiting for.
Built by Bristol-based developer Tug, Reels is a tape-style 4-track field recorder for iPhone designed to make capturing ideas feel fast, tactile and weirdly addictive.
Aimed at musicians, DJs, songwriters, podcasters and field recordists, Reel strips mobile recording back to the essentials.
Big transport buttons mirror a traditional tape machine, while a chunky jog wheel lets you scrub through recordings at variable speed like you’re handling actual tape. Record, rewind, overdub, loop, punch in and out – it’s all designed for muscle memory and immediacy, with an interface that’s made to feel “just like tape”.
The app supports up to four tracks at 32-bit float and up to 96 kHz, allowing for archive-quality recordings without clipping concerns. Connect a class-compliant USB-C audio interface and Reel automatically routes stereo input pairs to tracks on first connection, so you can start recording almost instantly.
It’s also refreshingly free of modern app bloat. There’s no subscription model, no account setup and no mandatory cloud features – unless you actually want it. Instead, Reel is designed as a quick-capture tool for everything from hardware jams and DJ sets to field recordings, vinyl archiving and tracking live instruments on the move.
Recordings save locally by default, with optional iCloud Drive sync and easy export as AIFF or WAV files via the iOS share sheet. Stems can be AirDropped into your DAW, sent to Dropbox or fired into a group chat in a couple of taps.
There’s more. Reel continues running in the background, meaning recordings won’t stop if you lock your phone or switch apps mid-session – something anyone who’s accidentally lost a great take will certainly appreciate.
Describing Reel as a “pocket swiss army recorder”, Tug says the app was built as an alternative to traditional DAW workflows.
“Whip it out in the field for a quick capture, or hook your hardware setup up to your phone and hit record for proper multitrack,” he explains. “The whole idea is to keep the limitations of tape, make it feel as nice as hardware, and not make you learn anything to get going.”
Reel is available now via the App Store as a one-time purchase priced at $9.99/£9.99/€9.99. The first 500 buyers will also receive “Founder” status, unlocking lifetime access to future premium add-ons and beta features. And it’s already taking off; at the time of writing, it sits at the No.1 spot on the UK App Store Top Paid Music chart…
Learn more at Reel Audio.
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