Do you have several separate voice memos, sound recordings or music files need to combine them together on iPhone? By doing so you can make one long recording made out of many such as lectures recordings, conference recordings, etc. It would be better to combine these audio files together so that you can play, save, manage and share them easily. Since the Voice Memos app on iPhone does not have such an option by default, you might think that you need to download some professional audio editor or software from the App Store or elsewhere. In an earlier post, we introduced the free audio editor Hokusai and demonstrated how to use it to combine multiple voice memos on iPhone.
In fact, iOS also includes an app, the GarageBand, which can help us edit and join two or more audio files, music songs on iPhone.
Contents
- Introducing the music maker & audio editor - GarageBand;
- Part 1. Export recordings from Voice Memos to Files app;
- Method 1. Export voice memos individually
- Method 2. Batch export voice memos
- Part 2. Combine voice memos using GarageBand on iPhone.
- Step 1. Create a track in GaragaBand
- Step 2. Enable track view in GarageBand
- Step 3. Import voice memos to GarageBand
- Step 4. Merge and Save audios
- GarageBand Alternatives
About GarageBand
GarageBand turns your iPad and iPhone into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Whether you’re a beginning hobbyist or you aspire to professional stardom, it can help you make, edit, and publish impressive pieces of music. It ships with every Mac, iPad, iPhone, it’s completely free. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use GarageBand to combine two or more voice memos, songs or sound recordings for free on iPhone.
Note that GarageBand has a lot of features and tools, they’re very powerful. And for beginner it’s not always immediately clear how to use them.
Part 1. Export recordings from Voice Memos to Files app
There are mainly two ways to save your voice memos or recordings to Files app on iPhone.
Method 1. Export voice memos individually
Launch the Voice Memos app, tap on a recording to review the controls. You should see the action menu (three dots inside a circle in blue) behind the file name. Tap on it to bring up the action menu at the lower section, swipe up to reveal more options and choose Save to Files, then select a folder and save a copy of the selected voice memo or recording to the Files app on your iPhone. Repeat the steps to export extra sound recordings from the Voice Memos app to Files app.
Method 2. Batch export voice memos
Run the Voice Memos app, tap Edit button at the top right corner, choose the sound recordings, tap Share, choose Save to Files, select a folder and save a copy of those selected voice memos to the Files app on your iPhone.
Part 2. Merge voice memos using GarageBand on iPhone
Unlock your iPhone screen, swipe down from the middle of the Home screen, the Search bar appears at the top of your phone screen. Tap the Search field, then enter ‘garageband’ without the quotes to quickly find and launch GarageBand app on your iPhone.
The first time you open GarageBand, you see the Sound browser. KEYBOARD shows up firstly. Here you can choose Smart Piano, Alchemy Synth, Sampler and More Sounds. Swipe left to choose more Touch Instrument to play, like drums, guitar, bass, strings, and more.
Step 1. Create a track in GaragaBand
Swipe left to show more instruments and choose Audio Recorder > Voice. We will then open a screen like this.
The recorder configurations and tuners are displayed at the lower section. At the top of the screen is the control bar, featuring navigation and playback controls. Below the control bar is a ruler that shows musical time in bars and beats.
This is the place where you can record your voice, an instrument, or any other sound using the microphone on your iPhone or an external microphone connected to your iPhone, and play it back in GarageBand. We will not record anything here. Instead follow below steps to import our recorded audios, voice memos to GarageBand.
Step 2. Enable track view in GarageBand
Instead touch the Track view button (the third one from the left) in the top control bar. After that you should get a list of tracks. You should see only one track in this list now.
Step 3. Import voice memos to GarageBand
Now we need to import those sound recordings from Files app to the sound track in GarageBand app. Tap the Loop Browser button (the one before the wrench/configuration icon at the top right corner) in the control bar, then tap Files. Tap Browse items from the Files app at the bottom of the Files list, find those voice memos and sound recordings in Files app and add them to the Files list in GarageBand.
After that touch and hold a voice memo or audio file to drag it to Tracks view. Repeat the steps to add the second, third or more voice memos to the same track consecutively. You can drag an audio or voice memo in the Track view to reorder it. Put them in the order you want in the sound track.
Step 4. Merge and Save audios
Tap the Navigation button(Inverted triangle), the first icon in the control bar, tap My Songs. The GarageBand Recents screen opens with all your songs & projects created with GarageBand. Long press on the project file here to get the pop-up menu and choose Share. The Share Song dialogue pops up.
- Song: send your song as a stereo audio file.
- Ringtone: create a custom ringtone for your iPhone.
- Project: send the GarageBand project, which contains all your multi-track recordings if any.
Select Song from this dialogue. Then choose Audio Quality & Format, other information, cover image if like.
Finally choose to open, save, share the merge audio file with your preferred app. You can choose to open it with or save it to the Files app.
GarageBand Alternatives
Except GarageBand, these third-party apps can also help you edit audios, combine multiple audio files, voice memos on iPhone.
- Hokusai audio editor: Being one of the most popular classic wave editing apps for iOS, Hokusai is the best choice for sound designers, musicians, podcasters, journalists, educators and hobbyists. We highly recommend this tool if you need to join two or more voice memos, sound recordings on iPhone. It is totally free, no signup required, and easy to use. Much easier than GarageBand to merge iPhone voice memos.
- Awesome Voice Recorder Pro: best voice recording app for iPhone with cool interface and perfect functionality. It can help us easily combine multiple audio, music and recordings on iPhone.