Audiohand allows bands to create live recordings
Bands will soon have an easy way to self-record and mix live performances, thanks to the latest music technology company with Nashville ties.
Audiohand allows bands to capture live performances on their smartphones, meld multiple recordings into a single mix and tinker with bonus features such as reverb. The company is hoping to offer a private beta version of the app-based program beginning in December.
Audiohand was co-founded by Nashville music tech leader Mark Montgomery and Knoxvillians Jonathan Sexton and Haseeb Qureshi, a lawyer, programmer and former audio engineer. Montgomery is the co-founder of the ever-growing music and technology firm FLO{thinkery}, and Sexton is a musician who co-founded the local startup Bandposters.
At this early stage, Audiohand is gearing its app toward bands as a tool to create unique content for fans. But the concept behind Audiohand has unique implications for hard-core music fans, who eventually should be able to upload their own live recordings to create original content on the platform. Imagine fans with their smartphones recording a popular band such as Shovels & Rope, and then uploading their audio to create a high-quality version that other fans could discover.
"First it's about bands creating, capturing as much as possible and doing whatever they want with it," Sexton said. "To start it's just about the band engaging their own fan base with more content."
The idea for Audiohand sparked in May when local indie band Feed the Birds played a show at the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville. As it turns out, Montgomery and Sexton are in the band, and both decided to capture the concert on their phones.
With the company in its early stages, the new venture is not under the FLO umbrella, Montgomery said, though that is a possibility in the future.
"When we played that gig, I just threw my phone down on the stage in front of my amp thinking, 'Well, that will be a crappy recording,' " Montgomery said. "But the compression algorithm in the phones are pretty decent.
"The problem is the one I made there was too much 'me' even for me — and I'm a guitar player. It was like, 'What if we could have everybody in the band utilizing their phone from their position and had one master record button?' That's where Haseeb took the ball and ran with it."
The key, Qureshi said, is the quality of the recordings, which the company is working to ensure is as clear as possible. Bands can upload recordings and then alter the mix to arrange the instruments in the most effective way. And bands can alter other factors, such as the reverb, in the recordings.
"We took extra pains on the data side to make sure how we're processing this in this server and achieve a high-fidelity quality mix," Qureshi said.
Audiohand has already sent a beta version of the app to local bands, including indie blues-rockers the Black Cadillacs. Guitarist John Phillips said the Black Cadillacs have already used Audiohand to self-record songs they're rehearsing for their upcoming album.
But Phillips said he was especially excited to use Audiohand to engage fans and generate recordings that are totally unique to each stop on the Black Cadillacs' heavy touring schedule. The band is playing in Nashville on New Year's Eve at Marathon Music Works in support of St. Paul and the Broken Bones.
"I see this thing creating a community of people who really dig going to live shows," he said. "Maybe we can capture live stuff on a tour and have 10 dates where we can get a different song from every date completely sourced from crowds at the shows, and have a really good mix."
Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.