Tape It Unveils AI-Powered Noise Reduction Tool for Musicians, Revolutionizing Audio Recording

 

Tape It Unveils AI-Powered Noise Reduction Tool for Musicians, Revolutionizing Audio Recording

When Apple discontinued its beloved Music Memos app, musicians were left searching for a new solution to capture their song ideas. That's when Tape It, a promising startup, stepped in to bridge the gap. Their app harnessed the power of AI to automatically identify musical instruments and annotate recordings. Now, Tape It is poised to revolutionize the audio-recording process with an automatic studio-quality noise reduction algorithm, also powered by AI, applicable to any audio, not just speech.

This AI denoiser recently launched as a free web app, with plans to license the technology to vendors in the near future. Additionally, it will be seamlessly integrated into the flagship Tape It app.

Founded in 2020 by musicians and friends Thomas Walther and Jan Nash, Tape It initially focused on an iOS recording app tailored to musicians. Walther, a former Spotify employee following the acquisition of his audio detection startup Sonalytic, teamed up with Nash, a classically trained opera singer and audio engineer. Their inspiration for Tape It was rooted in the need for a user-friendly, AI-enhanced alternative to Apple's Music Memos.

The original app could automatically detect instruments and annotate recordings with a visual indicator, simplifying the process of locating specific recordings. Musicians could also add custom markers, notes, and photos for future reference.

Since its inception, the app has gained traction with around 10,000 monthly active users.

Tape It's ambition, as stated by Walther, was to expand the utilization of AI gradually. This led to their latest development: an AI-powered denoiser refined over two years. The primary challenge in recordings is background noise. Musicians often rely on complex software in professional studios to eliminate environmental noise and electrical interference. Tape It aims to offer a cost-effective AI-based alternative, automatically removing noise like hums and hisses from songs, single-instrument tracks, and field recordings.

Tape It is releasing an academic study accompanied by a scientific listening test to substantiate the software's quality and its capability to compete with industry-leading denoisers.

The AI technology devised by Tape It combines a neural network controller with a signal processing-based noise reduction algorithm. This unique approach enables automatic denoising of general audio signals, including music. The company is set to present its research at the upcoming AES conference.

While the focus is on the denoising product, the implications of automating studio software have piqued interest within the academic community. Potential customers, including a major studio software vendor and hardware manufacturer, have expressed interest. Enterprise pricing will be available for such cases, with more affordable plans catering to smaller startups.

AI is increasingly applied to address background noise concerns for musicians and podcasters alike. Companies like Podcastle have launched generative AI tools for podcasters, underscoring AI's role in enhancing audio quality.

Tape It, with its team of five spread across Berlin, London, Los Angeles, and Stockholm, continues to bootstrap, having previously declined funding offers. Their commitment to fundamental research and the desire to maintain a technological edge influenced this decision. While discussions regarding potential fundraising are underway, no formal decision has been reached, considering the rapid pace of the AI market.