Audio recording: let’s go hybrid!

A special message for you from team Reclouder!

The amount of questions we've received in the last months about the retail price of Reclouder has been stunning. We sincerely thank you for all the interest you've shown so far. This is really exciting for us. As always we will cut right to the chase. Today we introduce the official retail price: US$199. 

We've launched a crowdfunding campaign with a special introduction price for you as a valued early adopter. Check out the link underneath to join!.  Currently we are working on finalising our dedicated cloud service and received our second prototypes of the  Reclouder hardware. This is becoming one amazing project. It is already changing our lives. We will contact you soon to get your feedback on our cloud service. Become part of the movement by interacting with us. We will keep you posted. 

Now that we've announced our official retail price, it is time to explain how we came to this point. Get some serious insights and detailled information about our innovative approach to recording audio. Are you ready? Let's go hybrid!

Beyond the traditional audio recorder

In our previous blog post you had the opportunity to meet our "decentralized wireless hybrid audio recorder”. That sounds great and adventurous, don’t you think? You might think it is just hollow phrases. It is only a bunch of marketing terms, right? Please allow us to change your mind on this.

We carefully considered our wording to position our invention. This blog is about explaining those terms and give them the value they deserve. You can follow, step by step, the breakdown of our product. Just read and investigate!

Let us start at the end. We all understand that recording audio is an essential part of your production process as a videographer, musician, sound engineer or DJ. There are multiple solutions on the market ranging from audio interfaces and mobile apps towards all-in-one multitrack recorders with integrated microphone capsules. We can imagine you think: “I am okay with my current solution, so why change?” or “What is so smart about your solution?” and “How does this benefit me?”

You skepticism is an important part of our motivation. We thrive on thinking differently. One needs to be honest and thorough to improve and grow. Reclouder is challenging your familiar ways of recording audio. It offers a new angle. A new approach. Try to think different. Along the way you might find that this approach offers you a totally new workflow to recording high-quality audio.

What is so smart about Reclouder?

We’ve received this question many times during our promotional campaigns and discussions with recording specialists. Reclouder is the easiest way to store, sync and share audio recordings. It combines today’s technologies and your traditional workflow to get you ready for the future of audio recording. With the current trends of 5G, cloud services and the internet of things, Reclouder offers you a different viewpoint, another perspective and a future-ready approach to recording audio. Thinking ahead is what we call smart.

Reclouder offers a standalone solution that connects with your preferred microphone(s). You can use one recording device with the removable SD card and power it with replaceable AAA batteries to record audio on any location. As we said before, we’d like to challenge you to think further. Reclouder is fully expandable. You can add a potentially endless amount of units along the way. This way you can build your own modular recording network. You can record in varying compositions. As every musician will own a Reclouder, you can link the units in a specific live recording and create a session that correspondents with the units that joined it.

Reclouder offers both an audio input for recording and a lossless audio thru functionality for stage mixing, making it the most versatile solution for recording live music. Reclouder will seamlessly integrate into your live setup and will honour the importance of your live sound.

The best things in life are driven by simplicity. We believe that Reclouder is easy to operate and simple to understand. It is a solution that gives access to high-quality audio recording for a wide range of creators. We carefully designed every component of Reclouder’s hardware and are constantly improving the firmware and cloud service to keep offering you the best.

Decentralized

You must have read this term quite often on our website, blog and social channels. We think you deserve a complete and full explanation from us.

If you investigate audio recording you will notice that every setup is build from a centralized way of thinking. Consider live mixing consoles, audio interfaces and portable multitrack recordings. They all have one thing in common. They are designed to direct your recording signals to one device: controlled, operated and owned by one person.

While designing Reclouder we took in account the final stage of your music business. It is the monetisation and collection of royalties generated by your songs. With Reclouder we considered that every member, every sound source, can have a different creator or audio input associated with it. This is not mandatory. That is how we keep Reclouder versatile. We think in solutions, but we do not force them upon you. You are free to choose whatever fits your workflow.

You can use Reclouder as a centralized solution and operate it as a sound engineer. No problem. On the other hand you can use it for recording live music as a band itself. Every band member then operates one Reclouder.

You can use Reclouder to enhance the audio in your video project and expand it to complex multi-camera setups with single or multiple sound sources. Working from a decentralized state of mind offers a new way of thinking. It allows you to set up your recording network differently without compromising on your traditional workflow.

Wireless

All audio signals run through wires. This offers the best quality. We are not here to offer you an audio over bluetooth solution. We use the term wireless differently. We offer a wireless solution to create a decentralized recording network. With our top grade Bluetooth technology - compliant with Bluetooth v4.2 BR/EDR and BLE specifications - you can create a potentially endless network of Reclouders, connected peer-2-peer,  easily controlled with your mobile device while using our simple yet effective mobile application.

You can record on the removable SD cards first and, when connected with wifi, our hybrid device automatically stores and syncs your recordings in the cloud. From the cloud you can instantly share the recorded files with your best sound engineer, producer or grant access to VIPs, co-workers and band members. Our cloud service is constantly evolving. You can expect more features and services to arrive in the future. 

As we like to keep your options open, you can control the recording process directly from the hardware device or with our mobile app. Both with one single touch. It is as easy as a breeze. Together with our cloud service you streamline your workflow and automate the  production processes. Believe us if we say: "the best is yet to come, we are just getting started".

Hybrid

Hybrid is indeed some kind of fancy word. Hybrid is used in cars that run on fossil fuel and electric power. Hybrid solutions are a way to adjust and transfer from one traditional form to a new innovative form. It is an in between solution. It stands for transition. What does that mean?

We offer you a traditional solution to recording audio. While we do that, we add several exciting technologies, ranging from bluetooth to wifi, to create a new approach to recording audio.

We strongly believe this is the future and while we are already streaming as a consumer, you are getting ready to stream as a creator. The internet of things and 5G mobile networks are just a small next step in that direction and Reclouder is just the beginning of your adjustment to this. With Reclouder you are ready for the IoT revolution in the recorded music industry.

Breaking down Reclouder hardware

To give you better insights in development decisions we’ve made, we compared Reclouder with another fairly new recording device. Please note that we do not want to bash this product. Actually, we think it is a clever product which we would recommend in particular cases. What we try to do is give you a better understanding of the choices we’ve made based on the features and specification of our hardware device.

The Mixerface R4R is a USB audio interface with independent inputs and monitor controllers. It can be used as a mini-mixer. Reclouder is different. It can record multiple channels in a wireless recording network. This network consists out of multiple hardware units and is scalable to a potentially endless number of channels, thus hardware units. Every Reclouder offers a flexible set of inputs creating an all-round solution with dedicated focus on hybrid recording of high quality audio.

Reclouder offers several pricing solutions for your multichannel recording project. The first one is a special price for early adopters. The other one is a bundle package when you purchase multiple units. We would like to inform you further on this subject, but you’d have to be a bit more patient.

To ensure the wireless and wifi capabilities of Reclouder we chose to build our device with a sturdy hard plastic casing. Any grade of metal or aluminium, as used in the Mixerface R4R, will interfere with the wireless signals.

Reclouder is designed for live music and video projects. For recording music related projects, you can connect your dynamic or phantom power (+48v) condenser microphone or line signal to a Reclouder unit and expand the number of units in your wireless recording network if you desire more channels.

You have one dedicated combo input that can record mono (mic) and stereo (line). We’ve added a combo mic/line lossless audio thru option, especially useful for recording live music with a PA mixer. As you might have noticed there is no instrument input. We designed Reclouder as a microphone thru box. For guitar and bass players this means you either connect your pedalboard or your amp output on stage. This will keep your live recordings close to the original live sound your audience is experiencing.

Reclouder is also suitable for single and multi-camera projects with one single or multiple sound sources. With plug-in power and two 3.5 mini-jack inputs you can connect two video microphones, or lavaliers and even a video condenser mic. This offers a wide range of applications for videographers.

As you noticed there is no USB data connector and only a record button on the hardware unit. This is done deliberately. Reclouder is not an audio interface nor an audio player. Reclouder focuses on recording audio. You can monitor the results of your recording using a headphone or through our mobile app. We offer a dedicated gain control and an ultra precise 8 LED level monitor to do the job for you.

With bluetooth and wifi functionality we offer a complete and versatile solution to recording your audio projects. Consider our solution and think about what it can do for you.

If you have any smart ideas, projects or applications, feel free to let us know. We would like to hear more: drop us a comment below!