Apple set to introduce track layering to Voice Memos in iPhone 16 Pro

Apple’s new iPhone announcements typically fall into the ‘meh’ category for a lot of musicians, but tucked away in last night’s keynote we got a glimpse of a forthcoming new feature in the company’s Voice Memos recording app that looks genuinely useful.

Seemingly exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max - Apple’s new flagship handsets - this enables you to layer one track on top of another, and then isolate the overdubbed part for use elsewhere.

Say, for example, you’ve recorded a guitar part and then later think of a vocal to go over the top of it. The new Voice Memos feature means that you can record this while listening to the guitar through your iPhone’s speaker, then remove the guitar using “advanced processing”.

Although Apple hasn’t said as much, we’re guessing that this feature is based on similar tech to that used in Stem Splitter, which is found in the latest versions of Logic Pro for Mac and iPad .

The new iPhone 16 Pro Maxes are also said to contain four “studio-quality” mics with a low noise floor, and you can select Spatial Audio recording when you’re capturing video. The new Audio Mix feature, meanwhile, enables you to instantly balance your soundtrack. You can choose to focus on the voices within the video frame, generate a reverb-free ‘studio’ sound, or select the cinematic option, which pushes the environmental sounds into the background and the voices up front.

Prices for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max start at $999/£999 and $1,199/£1,199 respectively. Apple has also launched the standard iPhone 16 and Plus, which start at $799/£799 and $899/£899.

AirPods 4 are incoming, too - now with the option of active noise cancellation, if you’re willing to pay extra for it - and the AirPods Max can now be had in five colour options.

Find out more about all of these new products - plus new Apple Watches and the company’s new AI features - on the Apple website.