All About Acapella App
If you’re like me, you’re sitting at home and thinking about how much you miss playing music with other people. You hit up Facebook and see your friends making dope videos where they show off how many instruments they can play and how good they are at editing videos. You’re wondering, how did everyone get so good at this tech stuff? Well, it turns out there’s an app for that. What follows is a compilation of feedback I got from friends who are using what appears to be the simplest app for creating grid videos: Acapella. My takeaway from these conversations is that the Acapella app definitely serves a purpose, but is far from perfect. In the words of Conor Hearn, guitarist extraordinaire/half of the duo Rakish: “It sorta makes things more convenient..? But then other things less convenient.”
So basically, it’s a mixed bag.
Many thanks to Julius Thor Bjornson, Richard Osban, Meara O’Malley, and Conor Hearn for sharing their thoughts for this post!
The Good
It’s very user-friendly. You just record into your phone or a mic, set the number of frames for those participating, and the recording/sharing process is very simple.
It syncs up video for you. Having the ability to record, sync videos—either looping with yourself or recording with other musicians—and do basic audio editing at the same time without having to move files between apps or devices is a huge time-saver. Matching different takes at the resolution required for music is pretty difficult in iMovie, for example.
It looks good enough for the Socials. If you're specifically trying to collaborate with other artists and produce something that sounds live and looks like you’re playing with your friends, this provides an incredibly easy interface for videos destined for social media. Probably not up to the task of making YouTube or high quality music video, but for this current time where sharing art at a human level seems much more important than the "quality" surrounding it, it does the task.
In-app metronome is helpful. Dubbing over tracks that vary in tempo can be hellish, and having the ability to sync metronomes between recording sessions is very useful.
Has some editing features. According to one friend, the app has moderate editing features, but “nothing to write home about.” You may still want to export your video when you’ve finished recording and chop it up in iMovie or another video editing platform.
The Not So Good
Let’s talk about the biggest drawback, the price of the app. At $10/mo, it's entering into the category of professional software costs. Professional-grade video editing software starts at roughly twice the price, and allows you to work at a higher level on a much wider range of projects. Some people wonder whether the developers are taking advantage of the current situation to raise their prices, since we’ve heard that people recently had cheaper subscription prices. One workaround seems to be that if one person has the paid version, they can send a project to someone who has the free version and that person can still add their track without subscribing.
But also, sound quality... One friend writes that “the app’s claim of providing CD quality audio is a joke unless you have some way of connecting real recording gear with your cell phone.” Unfortunately, you may have to sacrifice headphones if you want to connect a proper mic to your phone.
Bluetooth headphones are probably a no. I got mixed reviews on this point. One friend said that he couldn’t use AirPods because of the latency, which isn’t fixable because it records directly to the original and there’s no way to realign those takes. Another friend said she was able to use them while she recorded some vocal tracks, so that’s a toss up.
Hope you like selfies. You have to use the selfie-facing camera because you have to hit the record button. Side note: you can’t switch squares after the first person records, so get it right the first time!
You can’t overachieve (that much). You can only have one project going at a time. But, if you send a video off to a friend, it becomes their project. While they’re working on it, you can start something new.
The Results
Now that you know what you’re getting yourself into, here are a couple of videos for inspiration. Reach out to Conor, Maura, or Alex on the Lessons page if you want more structured inspiration! Comment below if you’ve made an Acapella video too! We’d love to see it.
Here are some original tunes from our friends Conor Hearn and Maura Shawn Scanlin, aka Rakish, that they recorded to raise money for the Passim PEAR Fund: https://www.facebook.com/rakishduo/videos/658034654988864/
Here are some tunes from Julius Thor Bjornson and Ministry of Folk co-founder Brendan Hearn: https://www.facebook.com/juliusthormusic/videos/2899153893510321/
Here’s a collaboration between Richard Osban and Meghan Mette with a song called Hills of Mexico: https://www.facebook.com/meghan.mette/videos/10157079165110812/
Here’s a John Prine tribute from Meara O’Malley and William Kenlon: https://www.facebook.com/williamkenlon/videos/10106337142527449/
Here’s a tune called Bostons from accordionist and dance caller Alex Cumming: https://www.facebook.com/alexfcumming/videos/10159471783372619/
Here’s a bluegrass tune from Brandon Gordon, playing a Jake Brillhart fiddle (you could win one of his fiddles in this incredible fundraiser!): https://www.facebook.com/mrfiddler1/videos/10102629003524301/
Here’s an original tune from Chicago-based fiddle player Katie Grennan and guitarist Kyle Waymouth: https://www.facebook.com/GrennanMusic/videos/531584627551092/
