# MIDI Tape Recorder — Perfect MIDI recording

> Open source AUv3 plugin for sample-accurate MIDI recording and playback. (iPhone/iPad app by Uwyn, LLC.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midi-tape-recorder/id1598618004 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Uwyn, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/597132109)
- Category: Music, Utilities
- Price: $9.99
- Rating: 4.73/5 from 59 App Store ratings · 33 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 5 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2021-12-25
- Data updated: 2026-08-30
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midi-tape-recorder/id1598618004/reviews.md

## What is MIDI Tape Recorder?

MIDI Tape Recorder takes a radically different approach to MIDI recording. Now in version 2.0, it runs both as an Audio Unit v3 plugin inside your favorite host and as a standalone app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

MIDI messages are recorded and played back with the same accuracy and precision as audio recordings. Most modern DAWs, even at their highest resolution, still change the timing of MIDI messages to accommodate their editing features. These changes impact the playback of your performance as MIDI messages get reordered and delayed, altering how they influence sound, sometimes in very significant ways.

MIDI Tape Recorder records your performance exactly as you play it, just like an audio recorder, accurately reproducing every nuance.

It purposefully has no MIDI note editing, no quantization, no individual CC tweaking, nothing you wouldn't do with audio. Instead, very expressive and ultra-dense MIDI streams are perfectly stored and reproduced. It excels at capturing and playing back expressive performances with MPE controllers and MPE plugins.

The controls are purposefully simple and intuitive, like a traditional four-track tape recorder, making it fun to record, play back, and loop your MIDI performance. Even with non-MPE MIDI, it keeps you in the flow and creative, without being interrupted by the technical nature of most DAWs.

New in the standalone app: run MIDI Tape Recorder on its own, with CoreMIDI input and output to route your performance to any of your MIDI apps, synths, and hardware. Sessions are autosaved and can be saved, opened, and shared as documents. Recording keeps running in the background and with the screen locked, so you never lose a take.

MIDI Tape Recorder makes no sound on its own: as a plugin it records inside your host; as a standalone app it routes MIDI to your instruments.

Features:

• Runs as an AUv3 plugin or as a standalone app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
• Four independent tracks for recording MIDI channel voice messages
• Sample-accurate MIDI recording and playback
• Real-time display of active recorded notes and other received messages
• Full MPE support
• Continuous loop recording that re-records over the loop on each cycle instead of stopping at the loop end
• Multi-level undo and redo
• Overdub recording, with punch-in/punch-out for automated regional overdubbing
• CoreMIDI input and output routing in the standalone app
• Autosaved, shareable session documents in the standalone app
• Background and screen-locked recording in the standalone app
• Automated storage and recall of all recordings inside the AUv3 host project
• MIDI file import and export, for the whole project or each individual track
• Repeated playback with start and stop locators
• AUv3 parameters for all controls
• Snap-to-beat positioning for the playhead and locators
• Per-track MPE configuration (MCM) detection and envoy
• Host transport and host tempo sync
• Clear all recordings or a single track, and crop the session to a new duration
• Fully resizable UI with per-track input/output activity indicators
• Optional per-track record enable, input monitoring, and mute
• Four virtual MIDI cable inputs, with optional routing of the first cable to all tracks
• AUv3 user presets when the host supports them
• Open source, freely distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

## Key features

- Sample accurate MIDI recording
- MPE support
- Four independent MIDI tracks
- Overdub and punch-in recording
- MIDI file import/export
- Undo/redo functionality

## Chart rankings

- #192 in Top Paid · Music (US App Store)

## Recent user reviews (10 of 33)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midi-tape-recorder/id1598618004/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Auf dem iPad gut, aber…..

*2025-10-19*

Auf dem iPad sehr gutes Tool. Aber auf dem Mac läuft der MIDI Tape Recorder nicht. Jedenfalls nicht bei mir unter Cubase und auch nicht in Gig Performer.

### 5/5 — Wow

*2025-05-04*

This app is nuts! Love it.

### 5/5 — Simply Brilliant

*2024-11-09*

I have some really great midi recorders / editors on my device and I love them but I wanted a really simple way to just record midi exactly how it’s played and then export it. It may seem a daft workflow as the exported file often ends up being imported in to a app that can record midi and do everything this app can do (and more) but the simplicity of this app that just records midi streams is just what I was looking for.
Midi has also been adopted by other professions like lighting and video control and can see this being very useful in environments where midi isn’t just triggering instruments.

### 1/5 — Don’t Buy!

*2024-10-10*

This is the only app I’ve ever been refused a refund on. Even after an appeal. So unless you are prepared to keep this app if it disappoints you (as it did me) don’t buy! Personally I lost some good work on this app by accidentally hitting the destructive undo. There is no redo. That alone made me unwilling to ever use it again. An inexcusable oversight in design. The way markers are adjusted on long projects is also unnecessarily fiddly. And there is no written documentation for the product, only one YouTube video which doesn’t demonstrate some of the features claimed in the app description.

### 4/5 — Takes a little fiddling around, but…

*2024-05-25*

…a utility like this is so obviously useful for almost any musician who uses midi-enabled stuff that it worth it.

Would love to see a built-in editor.

### 1/5 — Uncomfortable

*2024-04-12*

The cropping is useless. No fast workflow for setting start and end of the loop

### 5/5 — Geert Fanboy Here

*2024-01-27*

Wow.  Best MIDI dev in the world?  And this is open source.  So clean, elegant.  I'm learning just from studying the source code.  You go!

### 5/5 — Expresss;)sesh

*2023-12-31*

All the stars for this one!

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2023-11-06*

Works flawlessly with AUM on the iPad!  I wonder if this is the answer to recording midi using Mainstage on the Mac.  Mainstage only records audio if you want to record a performance.  This may work if you want to record midi for archival reasons inside of Mainstage.

### 5/5 — Brilliant and essential

*2023-07-17*

A staple of my toolset for recording MIDI on iOS. I’ve been using it for years and it has never let me down, and in my experience is the most faithful and reliable method of recording MIDI. Excellent support from the developer too.

## Frequently asked questions about MIDI Tape Recorder

### What does MIDI Tape Recorder do?

MIDI Tape Recorder is an open-source Audio Unit v3 plugin designed for sample-accurate MIDI recording and playback. It captures your MIDI performance with the same precision as audio, preserving every nuance without altering timing or reordering messages, unlike many standard DAWs.

### What are the key features of MIDI Tape Recorder?

Key features include sample-accurate MIDI recording and playback, support for MPE controllers, four independent tracks for MIDI channel voice messages, overdub and punch-in recording, multi-level undo/redo, MIDI file import and export, and host transport and tempo sync.

### Is MIDI Tape Recorder free to use?

Yes, MIDI Tape Recorder is fully open-sourced under a Creative Commons license, making it completely free to use. It does not have any in-app purchases or advertisements.

### What devices or software is MIDI Tape Recorder compatible with?

MIDI Tape Recorder is an Audio Unit v3 (AUv3) plugin and requires an AUv3 host application to function. It is designed to work within compatible DAWs on iOS and macOS that support the AUv3 format.

### What are common use cases for MIDI Tape Recorder?

This app is ideal for musicians who want to capture expressive MIDI performances, especially with MPE controllers, exactly as they play them. It's also useful for producers who want to avoid the timing alterations often introduced by DAW editing features, ensuring faithful playback of their performances.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.0.0 — 2026-08-29

• New: MIDI Tape Recorder as a standalone app. No host required: record, overdub, and play back MIDI right on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, with CoreMIDI input and output routing to your other apps and hardware. Recording keeps running in the background and with the screen locked.
• Sessions and documents. Your work is autosaved, and you can save, open, and share .mtrec session files.
• New: continuous loop record. An opt-in option that keeps the loop rolling and re-records over your take on each pass instead of stopping at the end, refine a part without ever breaking your flow.
• Hardened MIDI file import: malformed .mid files can no longer cause out-of-bounds reads or event desync.
• Importing an empty (note-less) track now correctly clears the destination track.
• Fixed loop record acting on stale state after an undo or import.
• Fixed MIDI capture pausing when the screen locks.
• iOS 26 fixes: the About-window links (website, rating, donate) open again, and various stability improvements.

### 1.0.8 — 2023-07-12

Minor improvements.

### 1.0.7 — 2023-01-25

Minor improvements.

### 1.0.6 — 2022-04-13

Fixes to message sample offset on playback.

### 1.0.5 — 2022-01-30

Minor fix to MIDI file export.

## Apps similar to MIDI Tape Recorder

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [MIDI Recorder with E.Piano](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midi-recorder-with-epiano/id1448577506) | 4.6 (63) | Free | Music |
| [Drambo](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/drambo/id1469365718) | 4.8 (325) | $24.99 | Music |
| [Audulus 4](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/audulus-4/id1592022030) | 4.6 (57) | Free | Music |
| [BLEASS Monolit](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bleass-monolit/id1589410030) | 4.7 (82) | Free | Music |
| [PaulXStretch](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paulxstretch/id1619014008) | 4.9 (72) | Free | Music |
| [Hammerhead Rhythm Station](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hammerhead-rhythm-station/id1568699989) | 4.9 (108) | $7.99 | Music |

## More apps by Uwyn, LLC

- [MidiWrist](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midiwrist/id1452355349)
- [ShowMIDI](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/showmidi/id6472608850)
- [MidiWrist Unleashed](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midiwrist-unleashed/id6479215445)

All apps by Uwyn, LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/597132109

## Related topics

[midi tape recorder](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/midi-tape-recorder) · [midi memo recorder](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/midi-memo-recorder)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*