Recording your first idea
How to capture a recording in Amber, and why it's never blocked by tagging or analysis.
Just tap and play
Open Amber and tap the record button. That's it — recording starts immediately and never waits on anything else in the app. Tap again to stop.
Every recording is saved the moment you stop, before any tagging happens. Amber's rule is simple: capturing your idea always works, even if your phone is under load, low on storage headroom, or a detection model hasn't finished loading yet. Nothing about tempo, key, or transcript detection can ever delay or block a recording.
You never lose the first two seconds
Amber keeps a short rolling buffer running before you even tap record. If you're a beat late hitting the button — which happens constantly when an idea comes to you mid-thought — the couple of seconds right before your tap are still captured. You don't need to react instantly; the app already caught up.
What happens next
Once a recording is saved, Amber automatically starts figuring out what's in it — tempo, key, instrument, and (if you were talking) a transcript and title. This all happens in the background after the fact. See What Amber detects automatically in this same section.
Recording without opening the app
If you've set up the Action Button or a Siri shortcut, you can start a recording before Amber is even on screen — see Set up the Action Button.
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