Yeah I saw that! Not too bad actually.
I have 2 predictions about the future of this stuff.
Small and powerful:
Microchip processing will advance to quantum cells and computers as we know them will become obsolete. along those lines, advancements will battery technology and solar energy (or something like it) will increase the mobility of these devices. The iPhone used in this context is not limited as much by its size as it is by its processing power.
Holographic:
What about the impossibility of managing the workflow of recording on an iPhone because the screen is simply too small? I believe we’ll see an explosion of motion controlled interactive holographic technology in the next couple centuries. Think along the lines of Steven Slate Raven Mti meets Jarvis from the Iron Man comics. That would change mixing. Imagine all the benefits of my System 5 Console not costing $300,000, but having all the workflow capabilities. Then being able to collapse a hand motion/eye movement/voice automated music mixer into a 12 inch square box simply by turning off the hologram projector.
I don’t think this is a pipe dream because the medical, military, quantum computing and mech industries are already in a race to develop it. There is practical application for this stuff in just about any field of society.
AI with modeling technology will take over everything except producers and entrepreneurs, and maybe writers if they are one of the lucky few. The 1% will control everything (more than they already do.)
Oh, yeah there will be lots of hobbyists sitting at home on a minimum wage income because there’s nothing left to do but relax and consume (more than we already do.)
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The AI thing is a little different. I’m not so convinced it’ll ever really work with art. From my understanding, AI only works with stuff like chess because we fully understand the mathematics involved. Do you remember ‘Band in a Box’? That thing has a music generator AI that’s probably one of the most sophisticated composer algorithms I’ve seen, but its just light years behind what an even remotely competent musician can play.
Boz and I had an interesting conversation about AI’s mixing in the future on an earlier thread…It was around the time Izotope came out with their AI eq or whatever you call it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this 
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Just watched it and was totaly amazed. The vocals were really quite good (OK he is a pretty decent singer, but through an I phone?). I was also surprized by the bass. You really can play that thing. In fact, I thought it sounds better than my own attempts at playing bass guitar on the real thing…
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Yeah, I have an iPad, and GarageBand comes free already installed. I use it for songwriting a lot, but I’ve always thought about grabbing s little interface for it to do portable recordings. It’s a fantastic tool, but like anything, it’s down to the artist to bring the song and the performance, which Graham demonstrates so well here. These days, tools are never what is holding us back.
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You don’t think? I seems like that particular tool is gonna hold you back a little as far as editing and processing power. I think the VI options would also be a problem even if you had an interface with a good mic hooked up.
But don’t you think we could easily see phones that would have the equivalent processing power as a macbook air does now within the next 5-8 years? I could totally see this happening.
No, I don’t think so, and here’s why:
I grew up in an era where the tools we could afford were really holding us back - there is no comparison today… and yet that didn’t stop us making music, no matter how primitive the tools were. Yet today, I constantly see so many people obsessing ad-nauseum over gear in all it’s minutiae and not producing one finished piece of music, when they have a million times the equipment we had in their mobile phones.
I wasn’t going to mention this - and I’m not trying to be a mongrel by saying this, just merely trying to hold a mirror up to what is happening - But this thread kinda illustrates perfectly what I’m talking about…
I post a video of a guy writing and producing a perfectly decent, listenable song using only his mobile phone (a device that almost everyone on the planet has access too) and, rather than commenting on how it is basically down to his talent, drive and creativity, the responding comments went straight down the path of “isn’t the technology amazing!” and “how soon do you think it will be before computers replace songwriters?”.
As I said, I’m not trying to ridicule or pick on anybody, but it just strikes me as more than just a little faintly ironic.
Now, I’m not going to speak for Graham, but I’m almost 100% certain that admiring modern recording tools wasn’t the goal of his video.
Phones already have way more processing power than early music computers. People made perfectly good music on those old computers, so why can’t people use today’s phones to make perfectly good music? Answer: They can… where there’s a will, there’s a way.
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Actually, I have spent many an hour with my iPhone on a tram writing guitar and bass parts by touching a touch screen. At a certain moment while you’ve got your headphones on, you look around and then have to tell yourself that it’s 7:45am, on a crowded tram, and you’re recording studio quality sounds on a mobile phone… but that’s not the time or place to break out the vocals… people tend to freak out when I’m doing my Robert Plant impression that early in the morning.
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I understand. And I agree that it is a bit ironic. Yet I look at it like this…I’m convinced there isn’t a correct or incorrect position on the merit of musicianship vs technology. That line (within reason) wavers a bit based on your roll in the process of audio production. I think what someone draws from a video like this (regardless of the writers intent) comes down to their frame of reference or point of view. So one individual suggesting another missed the point may be another individual just taking something totally different (but equally meaningful) away from the video.
9:04
What I want to beat into your heads is that making records isn’t about the technical skill or expensive equipment. Its about having the skill and developing the craft of writing, editing, arranging, mixing, mastering, all of those things which can be learned but you can do it on any piece of equipment including your phone…
Again its not that I don’t agree. I do. I was just tickled by the fact he did what he did with the phone because I’d never seen it done before. Ps…I have an android and I can’t sing to save my life.
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This sums it up for me. I feel like the conversation always comes back to “but you can’t do ABC without gear XYZ.” And while that’s true, that is the case no matter what gear you have. You can have every single piece of gear known to man, and still not be able to make certain sounds. So what?
For me, it would be a nightmare trying to record a song on an iphone. But that’s because my skills don’t match the workflow of working on an iphone. There are technical downsides to recording on an iphone mic. But there are technical advantages too.
Processing power is a tool, not the goal. The goal is to make music that people want to hear. Whatever tools it takes to do that, is what it takes.
If you are a production house, your goals are different, and therefore your tools are different.
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@ColdRoomStudio sorry that I injected a dystopian view of the future that was off topic here.
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Hey, no worries Ingo - you’re free to say whatever you feel, mate! I didn’t want to, but I probably come across like some curmudgeonly Musical Thought Policeman here… Sorry if that’s the impression I give - let’s call it “lively discussion of differing perspectives” 
Graham followed up his original video with a “How I Did It” video.
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that looks about as un-fun as it can go…but them Im old dog.
the wave of the future stuff… keeps coming. the young kids wont have the fun of cassettes being eaten in the cardeck… lol
I wonder if pop-up ads happen while you track? or if youre pissed off girlfriend calls does it beep in and blow the track? hmmm? on a good side, maybe others could just call in on conference call, and add harmony parts.
So much for needing that expensive Neumann mic…
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You definitely need to put your phone into airplane mode before recording.
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I think it will work for mainstream pop hits. There is already software used to determine if a song can be a hit or not. And with almost all mainstream hit songs being so similar in melody and structure (and with simple lame lyrics) I see it is perfectly possible for a machine to create songs that will be popular. It would be interesting to see that!
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I’m off topic again, but I started a thread about AI that you might find interesting.
http://indierecordingdepot.com/t/ai-computers-writing-music/3056
Fail!! He should’ve done a cover of “I just called to say I love you”