Dolby has announced the release of its Dolby On app for Android. If you’re making music at home, with friends, or anywhere outside of a studio, this app is designed to make your audio recordings sound the absolute best they can, even when the only equipment available is your phone.
The Dolby On app works as a dedicated audio recorder or as a video and audio recorder combination, and what makes it different to the existing apps on your phone is Dolby’s secret sauce for improving sound. The app listens to the sound around you and reduces irritating background noise, then tweaks different aspects of what you’re recording, from the equalizer to the soundstage, to clean everything up.
It promises the app can remove unwanted background sounds like the hum of an amp or a fan, create a stereo-like image, and automatically optimize the volume so everything sounds as it should. It does all this on your phone without the need for a professional microphone, mixer, or studio. The company’s argument is that while camera tech has advanced at a fast rate on phones, audio has not kept up. The Dolby On app evens out this discrepancy.
The app is easy to use, with just two basic modes for audio or audio/video, plus a few settings like the ability to record in a lossless WAV format. After you’ve recorded, you can apply different audio styles to the file, such as those designed to bring the vocals to the front, add more bass effect, or amplify the recording. You can also tailor the level of noise reduction, along with the tone, mids, and bass too. Files can then be shared to Soundcloud, Instagram, Facebook, or added to an email.
Dolby On is already available for iOS, and at the same time as the Android release, it will receive a small update adding in an option to live stream to Twitch. This joins an existing Facebook Live option, but at this time neither seems to be a part of the Android app. Dolby says the app is aimed at primarily at musicians, but also at anyone who makes video online and wants to record good sound on their phones.
Dolby On is free to download from Google Play today, and is already available in the Apple App Store.