TAPE 16 vs Tape Deck

TAPE 16 is completely cross-platform, with iPhone, iPad and desktop versions built around the same session format and focused 16-track workflow. Start a tape on one device and keep the session moving wherever you work. Inspired by reel-to-reel tape machines, TAPE 16 lets you arm a track, record a performance, and build your music one take at a time. Work with a fixed 16-track layout, hands-on transport and mixer controls, Audio Unit plugins, MIDI, and tape character controls. Recording follows a destructive tape workflow: new takes overwrite existing audio where you record. Your working tapes stay on your device. Record, save, and reopen your sessions offline. Use Files to move compatible sessions between iPhone, iPad and desktop, or optionally enable iCloud sync for selected Tape Library folders across your signed-in Apple devices. FREE MODE Keep one managed saved tape and save it as often as you like, with no time limit. All 16 tracks, recording, editing, Audio Units, MIDI, templates, and Remote remain available. Additional saved tapes and bounce/export require the Full Unlock. UNLIMITED TAPES + BOUNCE A one-time, non-consumable In-App Purchase unlocks additional saved tapes and bounce/export on iPhone and iPad. Restore Purchases is available in the app. Microphone permission is used for recording. Optional Remote control uses your local network. Optional iCloud sync uses your personal iCloud storage.

Tape Deck plays your own music as a cassette. Choose an album and it goes into the deck as a tape. The reels turn at the speeds a real cassette's would, one pack growing as the other shrinks. The counter runs, the leader passes before the music starts and a side comes to its end. SIMPLE OR ADVANCED • Simple to start with: plain keys, one side and only the settings that matter • Advanced when you want it: every setting, both sets of keys and the holds, kept as you left them THE DECK • Play, rewind, fast forward, stop and eject, each with the sound of the mechanism • Two sets of keys. A portable recorder's has a Pause that holds the tape. A modern player's has skip keys that wind the tape while you hold them • Sides and auto-reverse: fit an album to one side or cut it to a C60 or a C90 and turn it over • Gapless playback from track to track • Over a hundred tapes, from plain shells to classic ones. Pick one, flick the label for the next, let each album have its own or take one from the pile at random • A clear shell, a cutaway and an exploded view of its parts, drawn to the standard's sizes • A handwritten label for each album, with its cover, in one of thirteen period label styles • Tape hiss, wow as the motor starts and stops, three tape types, noise reduction and a tape condition from fresh to chewed • LED meters in the transport, if you want them • Each tape keeps its place. Put an album back in and it plays on from where it came out YOUR LIBRARY • An opening screen that lists every source, what each needs and how it stands. Tap one to set it up there • A demo tape to play until you have music of your own • The music on your iPhone or iPad, synced from a Mac, played as tapes • Copy album folders into iCloud Drive › Tape Deck › Music and they reach all your devices. Or copy them into the app's own folder through the Files app • Or play a folder where it sits (a NAS is fine) • Or connect to a music server of your own: the free Tape Deck Server, a Plex Media Server, a Jellyfin server or a Subsonic server such as Navidrome. Albums stay on the device as you play them • Albums, artists and tracks, a Recent tab, search and favourites that follow you through iCloud • Mixtapes: make one by hand or from what you've played in the last hour • Audiobooks and podcasts from your own Audiobookshelf server, by chapter, with a reading speed and your place kept on that server. They play while they download APPLE MUSIC • Got an Apple Music subscription? Your Apple Music library plays as tapes too: albums, artists, songs and playlists, with a search that reaches the whole catalogue • The sound is Apple Music's own, so the tape's hiss, wear and wow step aside. The reels, the counter, the keys and the eject carry on EVERYWHERE YOU LISTEN • Turn it sideways for a bedside deck: the cassette full screen, keys on the shell, the screen kept on while it plays • Handoff: carry the tape on to your iPad or Mac from the same second • Send this tape as a link or from Tape Deck in Messages beside eight animated cassette stickers • A Home Screen widget of the deck with its reels turning, plus Previous, Play or Stop and Next. It goes on the Lock Screen and in StandBy too • Apple Watch: the tape in your iPhone's deck on your wrist, the Digital Crown for the volume, your recent albums on a shelf and a complication • CarPlay: Recent, Albums, Artists and Books on the car's screen • Siri and Shortcuts: "Carry on the tape in Tape Deck", "Play what's new in Tape Deck", "Stop Tape Deck" • Lock screen and Control Centre controls, plus AirPlay • Named for VoiceOver throughout. Reduce Motion is followed AND A SPECTRUM LOADER In Advanced, with the tape stopped, hold stop and eject for three seconds and the deck becomes a tape loader for a real ZX Spectrum. Run a lead from the headphone socket to its EAR socket, type LOAD "" and play a game's .tap file from the Files app. Tape Deck has no account, no adverts and no tracking. It plays what's yours.