MANUAL · REK. 1.4 PRESS THE
RED ONE.
THEN READ ON.
The red one is still the manual. This is everything around it, screen by screen: what each key does, where every setting lives and what the footer is telling you.
LAST UPDATED 19 OCTOBER 2026
Contents
Every screen here is REK. 1.4, photographed in the iOS Simulator. The Simulator records from the Mac’s own microphone, so the legend reads MONO and the input is the built-in mic. With a USB interface connected you see its name, its channels and STEREO where it has a pair.
The device
REK. is drawn as a piece of hardware. Everything it has to show appears on the black LCD in the top half. The grey deck underneath holds only controls, and nothing you need is hidden in a menu behind them.
The LCD
- Legend. REC, PLAY, LOOP, VARI and CLICK light when they apply, then MONO or STEREO for the input and the free space on the phone.
- Counter. Minutes, seconds and tenths, with the take number beside it.
- Meter. One row for a mono input, L and R for stereo. The PK lamp latches for two seconds after a peak.
- Body. Whatever screen you are on.
- Footer. What REK. is doing right now, and for a few seconds what just happened. Section 14 lists every message.
The band
The two jacks printed on the band, MIC IN and PHONES, are part of the drawing. Plug into the phone, not the picture. The speaker is another matter: see section 13.
The deck
Double-tap a knob or the fader to send it home: GAIN to 0 dB, OUTPUT to 5, SPEED to ×1.00. REK. remembers where you left all three.
First launch and the microphone
The microphone question
iOS asks once, the first time REK. opens: “REK. records audio from the built-in microphone or a connected USB audio interface. Nothing leaves your device.” Allow it. A USB interface counts as a microphone to iOS, so the same answer covers both.
The welcome screen
Every launch from cold opens here: three lines on what REK. is for, and PRESS RECORD TO BEGIN. RECORD or any pad takes you in. The first line reports the real input format — mono at 48 kHz from the Simulator’s microphone in the picture. On the free version the footer adds FREE · 1 MIN PER TAKE and UNLOCK →, which opens the unlock screen in section 10.
If you said no
MAIN’s header reads MIC DENIED, and RECORD takes you to the INPUT screen instead of starting a take. OPEN SETTINGS → goes to iOS Settings, where Privacy › Microphone has the switch.
Recording
Press the red one
RECORD starts a take at once. The trace scrolls, REC lights on the legend and the footer says RECORDING. Of the two lamps over the key, the left blinks while the take runs and the right lights once audio is actually reaching the file.
HEAD START keeps the second before you pressed, so a take that starts on the downbeat still has its downbeat. That is why the counter opens at about 00:01. Set it to OFF, 0.5, 1 or 2 SEC on SYSTEM.
REK. records uncompressed at the rate and depth set on SYSTEM — 48 kHz, 32-bit float unless you change them.
Stop, and it is saved
STOP ends the take and takes you to LIBRARY with it at the top and selected. It is named for when it happened, as PERF-2026-10-19-10-47, and there is nothing to confirm or name. Every pass makes a new take.
Pause
During a take PLAY reads PAUSE. Paused, the trace stops, the header reads INPUT / PAUSED and the RECORD lamp holds steady instead of blinking. RESUME carries on in the same take.
START: PRESS, COUNT-IN or HANDS FREE
SYSTEM › START decides what RECORD does. The rows beneath it change to match.
- PRESS, the default. The take starts the moment you press.
- COUNT-IN. One or two bars of click at the TEMPO, with a big countdown, then the take. PLAY is dimmed while it counts, and RECORD again cancels. HEAD START is hidden under COUNT-IN, since the count is the lead-in.
- HANDS FREE. RECORD arms the take. The counter waits at 00:00.0 under WAITING FOR SOUND and capture begins when the input crosses the THRESHOLD. Set the threshold by dragging the marker against the live meter on the THRESHOLD screen; it starts at −30 dBFS.
Click, tempo and length
- METRONOME is OFF, REC (a click while recording) or REC+PLAY. CLICK LEVEL is LOW, MID or HIGH.
- TEMPO runs from 40 to 240 BPM. The click keeps it; SPEED does not bend it.
- RECORD LENGTH is OFF, or 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars. The take stops exactly on the bar, LOOP switches on and it plays straight back.
If the click plays through the phone’s own speaker while its microphone is listening, the footer warns CLICK ON TAKE: the click will be on the recording. Headphones or an interface keep it off.
On the free version a take stops at one minute and is kept. Section 10 has the details.
Playback, loop and varispeed
PLAY
PLAY plays the selected take — the newest, unless you picked another in LIBRARY — once from the top. The waveform fills with the accent as it goes and the footer reads PLAY ×1.00.
STOP is a stop, not a pause: PLAY always starts again from the top. With nothing recorded the footer says NOTHING TO PLAY.
LOOP and SPEED
LOOP runs the take round between its trim points, with no gap at the seam. SPEED moves pitch and tempo together; VARI lights on the legend whenever it is away from ×1.00. Both work while a take plays, and so do OUTPUT and the Mixer.
OUTPUT at 5 is the take as recorded, and SYSTEM’s PLAYBACK row says UNITY. Above 5 adds up to +12 dB, to playback only. Nothing you do here changes the file.
Playback carries on with the phone locked. The Lock Screen and Control Center show the take, its length and a scrubber that wraps with the loop. Play, pause and stop work there; none of them can touch a take that is recording. The Simulator does not draw that card, so it has no screenshot here.
Library, tags and names
Every take, newest first
Each row shows the take number, its name, its length, its tag dots and a small waveform. The selected row is filled with the accent; PLAY, TRIM, the Mixer and EXPORT all work on it. Tap a row to open the take (section 06).
The footer says where you are, as 01 / 06 · ALL, and reminds you: HOLD → MENU. With nothing recorded the list reads NO TAKES.
Filter by tag
The strip across the top holds ALL, one chip per tag and UNTAGGED. Tap a chip to see only those takes; tap the lit chip again to go back to ALL.
Hold for the menu
- TAGS opens a card over the list. Tap a tag to put it on the take or take it off; + NEW TAG makes another. DONE, the × or a tap outside the card closes it.
- RENAME brings up the keyboard. The name is the file name, so it has to be unique and fit; REK. says NAME EMPTY, NAME TOO LONG or NAME IN USE when it is not.
- DELETE asks DELETE TAKE? first. So does the ERASE key, from any screen, for the selected take.
Tags themselves — names and colours — are managed on SYSTEM › TAGS, in section 08.
Trim
A take, full width
Tap a row in LIBRARY and the take opens across the LCD: its name and length, ← LIBRARY, the waveform, and under it the trim in-point and the speed. Only the part that plays is drawn.
Trim the ends
Press TRIM, which stays lit while it is armed. Now the whole take is drawn, with the ends that will not play dimmed. Drag on the waveform or on the bar beneath it and the nearer trim point follows. LOOP runs between the two points.
Trimming never touches the file. The points are kept beside the take, so you can always drag them back out. Press TRIM again to return to LIBRARY.
Tracks and the Mixer
A take can hold up to four tracks, each recorded from its own input and kept as its own file. With a one-input source — the phone’s microphone, or a device with a single stereo pair — REK. records one track, and none of this needs touching.
The Simulator has one microphone, so these shots map it to more than one track. With an interface each track takes its own input: INPUT 1, INPUT 2, INPUT 1-2 for a stereo pair, and so on.
TRACK MAPPING
SYSTEM › TRACK MAPPING lists four tracks and the input each one records: a mono input, a stereo pair or OFF. The lamp at the start of each row lights with that input’s signal. The footer adds it up, as 02 MONO · 00 STEREO · 02 OFF, and RESET goes back to the default.
The mapping is remembered for each input device. It cannot change while a take is running; try, and the footer says MAPPING LOCKED.
Choosing an input
Tap a track to open its card. It lists OFF and every input the device has. An input another track already records says so, as TRK 1, and each dot lights with its signal, so you can find the right channel by playing into it.
With more than one track, MAIN draws a lane per track: scrolling while you record, filling with the accent as it plays. The take screen stacks them for trimming, and one trim applies to every track. A track you cannot hear is dimmed.
MIXER
The MIXER pad opens the strips for the selected take. Each has its number and name, a pan bar (C, L30, R20), a meter beside a fader, the level in dB and the M and S keys. The footer names the strip you last touched, as TRACK 1 · C · 0 dB.
Tap or drag to set a fader or a pan. Double-tap to put it back at 0 dB or centre. Meters move only during playback.
Mute, solo and what you hear
M mutes a strip and S solos it; CLEAR M · S lets everything back in. You hear every change live, and it is saved with the take. An export of the take comes out the way you hear it. Stems do not: each is its track before anyone mixed it (section 09).
Takes with more than four layers page through four strips at a time. On a small phone, or at very large text sizes, the strips drop their names and pan labels to fit.
SYSTEM, row by row
The SYSTEM pad opens every setting REK. has, in one scrolling list. Tap a row to step through its values. A row ending in → opens a screen of its own, and grey rows only report. The list keeps its place when you come back. Defaults are in bold.
| ROW | VALUES | WHAT IT DOES |
|---|---|---|
| AUDIO | ||
| INPUT → | The current input | Opens the input list, below. |
| TRACK MAPPING → | e.g. 01 / 04 TRK | Which input each track records. Section 07. |
| SAMPLE RATE | 48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 96 kHz | The rate takes are recorded at. |
| BIT DEPTH | 32 FLOAT, 24 BIT, 16 BIT | The depth takes are recorded at. Float leaves headroom above full scale. |
| MONITORING | AUTO, ON, OFF | Whether you hear the input. AUTO holds it off when the phone’s own mic would feed its own speaker, and the row adds · SUPPRESSED to say so. |
| OUTPUT | AUTO, SPEAKER | Where playback goes. AUTO follows iOS; SPEAKER keeps it on the phone’s speaker. The current route follows the value. |
| STATUS | ||
| ROUTE | e.g. 1 CH · 48 kHz · 2.7 ms | Channels, rate and latency of the live input. |
| PLAYBACK | UNITY, UNITY +n dB, −n dB, MUTE | Where OUTPUT leaves playback against the take as recorded. |
| CAPTURE | e.g. MONO · 1 CH | What the next take will record. |
| RECORDING | ||
| START | PRESS, COUNT-IN, HANDS FREE | What RECORD does. Section 03. |
| COUNT-IN | 1 BAR, 2 BARS | Shown under COUNT-IN only. |
| THRESHOLD → | −30 dBFS | Shown under HANDS FREE only. The level that starts the take. |
| HEAD START | OFF, 0.5 SEC, 1 SEC, 2 SEC | How much of the moment before RECORD the take keeps. Hidden under COUNT-IN. |
| METRONOME | OFF, REC, REC+PLAY | When the click plays. |
| TEMPO → | 96 BPM, 40–240 | The click’s tempo, and the bar length for COUNT-IN and RECORD LENGTH. |
| RECORD LENGTH | OFF, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 BARS | Ends the take on the bar and loops it. |
| CLICK LEVEL | LOW, MID, HIGH | How loud the click is. |
| TAGS → | e.g. 04 | Make, rename, recolour and delete tags. |
| LICENCE | ||
| FREE → / FULL → | 1 MIN PER TAKE / NO LIMIT | Opens UNLOCK. Section 10. |
| EXPORT | ||
| NORMALIZE | OFF, ON | Raises an export’s peak to −0.1 dBFS. Off, an export is the take as recorded. |
| DEVICE | ||
| APPEARANCE | LIGHT, DARK, SYSTEM | The finish of the case. Section 13. |
| THEME → | CRIMSON and nine more | The accent colour. Section 13. |
| KEY SOUND | ON, OFF | The click the deck makes under your thumb. |
| HAPTICS | STRONG, MEDIUM, LIGHT, OFF | How hard the controls answer back. Each tap plays a sample. |
| STORAGE | e.g. 116 MB / 34 GB | What REK. uses and what is free. Adds · LOW under 500 MB. |
| ABOUT → | The firmware line, and the board under the case. | |
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS → | 2 FONTS | The two bundled typefaces and their licences. |
INPUT
Every input iOS offers, each with its channel count. A USB interface carries a USB badge. With nothing REK. can record from, the screen says NO INPUT and CONNECT AN INTERFACE.
REK. takes class-compliant USB-C interfaces as ordinary inputs. The USB audio guide covers cables and power.
TAGS and TEMPO
REK. starts with four tags: VOCALS, DRUMS, IDEAS and LOOP. + NEW TAG asks for a name of up to 12 characters and a colour from the iOS colour sheet. Tap a tag to rename or recolour it, or to DELETE it; deleting asks again and says how many takes carry the tag, as CONFIRM DELETE · 03 TAKES. Deleting a tag never deletes a take.
TEMPO steps by one or five with the buttons under the readout.
ABOUT and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT plays a short dance over the firmware line, REK. R·01 and FW 1.4, and takes the case off: while it is open the whole device is a bare circuit board, green in LIGHT and black in DARK. Press any pad to put the case back.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lists the two typefaces REK. bundles, Archivo and DSEG7 Classic, with their licences. There is no third-party code.
Export and stems
Pick a format
EXPORT opens the formats for the selected take, each with the size it will come to:
- WAV at the take’s own depth — WAV F32/48 for a 32-bit float take. The default.
- AIFF 24/48.
- AAC 256, for when size matters more than anything else. A 96 kHz take exports AAC at 48 kHz.
EXPORT → writes the mix: the take between its trim points, with the Mixer’s faders, pan, mute and solo applied. REK. remembers the format you chose.
A take of more than one track also offers 4 STEMS · WAV F32/48 →: one file per track, between the trim points, with the faders, pan, mute and solo left out. A stem is the track before anyone mixed it.
When the file is written the iOS share sheet opens, for AirDrop, Save to Files, Mail or another app. Close it and the LCD says where the file stays: KEPT IN FILES · REK / EXPORTS. Exporting again never overwrites; the second copy is NAME-02. Stems land in a folder of their own, PERF-… STEMS, as PERF-… TRACK 1 and so on, so a stem dragged into a DAW still says which take it came from.
NORMALIZE on SYSTEM raises an export’s peak to −0.1 dBFS. It is off by default.
If an export fails the LCD says why — NO AUDIO, TAKE TOO LARGE or WRITE FAILED — and suggests EXPORT AS AAC when a smaller file would get through.
Free and full
One minute per take, free
The free version records takes of up to a minute. At 60 seconds the take stops and is kept, the footer says FREE LIMIT · TAKE KEPT and the UNLOCK screen opens. Every take you have already recorded stays, and export is never limited.
You can also reach UNLOCK from the welcome screen’s UNLOCK → or from SYSTEM › LICENCE.
Unlock once
UNLOCK → buys the full version through the App Store, at the price for your country: one payment, no subscription and no account. Afterwards the screen reads UNLOCKED · NO LIMIT, takes run until you press STOP, and SYSTEM’s LICENCE row reads FULL. RESTORE brings the purchase back on a new phone.
- STORE UNAVAILABLE. The App Store could not be reached. Recording carries on as before; RETRY asks again.
- AWAITING APPROVAL. The purchase is waiting under Ask to Buy. REK. unlocks itself when it is approved.
- PURCHASE FAILED, COULD NOT VERIFY or RESTORE FAILED. Each adds NOTHING WAS CHARGED.
Refunds go through Apple. The support page explains how.
Recording from outside the app
The Record control
REK. adds one control, Record. Put it in Control Center (edit, then Add a Control, then REK.), on the Lock Screen’s bottom buttons or on the Action Button. Pressing it opens REK. and does what the RECORD key would: starts a take, stops one or cancels a count-in. COUNT-IN, HANDS FREE and the free limit apply just as they do on the deck.
Siri and Shortcuts
The same action is in the Shortcuts app as Record, and Siri answers to “Record with REK”, “Start recording with REK”, “Stop recording with REK” and “REK record”.
If the input is not ready within three seconds the footer says INPUT OFFLINE. If the microphone is not allowed, the INPUT screen opens instead.
The control above was pressed in the Simulator. The Action Button, the Lock Screen buttons and Siri need a phone, so they have no screenshots here.
Your files
Your takes are in Files.app, under On My iPhone › REK. Performances holds the recordings and Exports what you have exported.
- A take is NAME.caf with a small NAME.json beside it, which holds its trim, tags and mix. Extra tracks are NAME-L02.caf, -L03 and -L04.
- The file name is the take name. Rename a take in Files and REK. shows the new name; delete it there and it leaves the library.
- The files are the source of truth, not a database. On launch REK. tidies the folder: audio with no sidecar comes back as a take, and a sidecar whose audio has gone is dropped.
- Takes are kept uncompressed. Encoding happens only at export, so deleting an export loses nothing.
Appearance, colour and feel
Light, dark or system
SYSTEM › APPEARANCE changes the finish of the case: LIGHT, the default; DARK; or SYSTEM, which follows iOS as it changes. The LCD is black either way.
The home screen icon has light, dark and tinted versions of its own, chosen by iOS.
THEME
Ten accents: ORANGE, CRIMSON (the default), MAGENTA, VIOLET, INDIGO, TEAL, CYAN, MOSS, LIME and AMBER. The accent runs across the whole device, LCD and deck alike: the RECORD key, the OUTPUT knob, the lit lamps and every highlighted value.
The speaker
Hold the speaker on the band and you blow it: the cone tears, and playback through it sounds the part. Hold it again to fix it. It forgets on relaunch.
Sound and touch
- KEY SOUND is the click the deck makes under your thumb. RECORD never clicks, and nothing clicks during a take.
- HAPTICS is STRONG, MEDIUM, LIGHT or OFF. Each tap on the row plays a sample at the new strength. Every key, knob detent, fader step and Mixer strip answers with one.
- The screen stays awake while you record or play.
Accessibility
VoiceOver reads every control, with named actions where a gesture would otherwise be needed: Edit tags, Rename take and Delete take on library rows; Mute, Solo, Pan left, Pan right, Centre and Reset level on Mixer strips; Reset on the knobs. Text on the LCD follows Dynamic Type up to the first accessibility size. The deck does not scale, because its labels are printed on the object.
START
RECORDING.
You have read the manual. The red one is still the quickest way in.
$6.99$9.99 unlimited recording
Free1 minute per take