How to record music and raw sound on your iPhone

Everything that makes a meeting clearer ruins music. Noise suppression hears a sustained note as noise, automatic gain pumps the quiet parts up and the loud parts down, and compression to 64 kbps throws away the top octave. Music & raw sound mode turns all of it off.

Record a take

1. Swipe to the Music & raw sound card — WAV, 48 kHz, stereo, no processing.
2. Set the phone up about a meter from the source, off any surface that rattles.
3. Play the loudest part first and watch the meter: if it hits the top, move further away. Digital clipping cannot be undone afterwards.
4. Tap Start recording, and mark the takes you like as you go.
5. Save, then trim the silence off each end.

What lossless costs

• WAV at 48 kHz stereo is about 350 MB per hour — roughly six times a Standard take.
• Nothing is thrown away, so a recording survives editing, effects and a second export without degrading.
• Every other app reads WAV, so a take drops straight into a DAW.
• If the file is too big to send, compress a copy and keep the original.

Room tone and field recording

The same mode is the right one for ambience — rain, a market, a train — for the same reason: you want what was actually there, not a cleaned-up version of it. Record thirty seconds more than you think you need; the extra tail is what lets an edit breathe.