UMBRALThe operator’s guide
Back to
your session.
A few practical answers, from your first sweep to sharing a marked moment. Need a hand? You can contact me directly.
Your first session
Set up the sound.
Choose a quiet place, set a comfortable volume and enable the banks you want to hear. Each bank contains short recorded fragments that shuffle automatically.
Press START.
The sweep and recording begin together. Adjust the interval from 50 to 400 milliseconds. Lower values create a denser sweep; higher values leave more space.
MARK, then revisit.
Tap MARK whenever you want to return to a moment. Press STOP to save the session, then open Sessions to listen and make a clip.
Keep Umbral open while recording. Locking your phone or switching apps pauses the session. Return to Umbral and tap Resume to continue.
You can replay the introduction from Settings → How to run a session.
Recording & playback
Does it record my voice or the room?
No. This version records Umbral’s audio output, including its effects. It does not use your microphone. The experimental microphone option is unavailable and off.
What happens if I leave the app?
Home, switching apps and locking the screen pause the audio and recording. The current session and markers are preserved. Returning stays silent until you tap Resume.
Where are my recordings?
Open Sessions in Umbral. Tap a saved session to play it and see its markers. Recordings are stored locally; there is no Umbral account or cloud library.
What if the app closes unexpectedly?
Reopen Umbral and allow recovery to finish. The app looks for unfinished recordings and attempts to recover them into your session list. If recovery fails, contact me before deleting the session or reinstalling the app.
How do I delete a session?
Use Delete in the session list. You cannot delete a session while it is recording or being finalized. Deleting a local session does not delete copies you already shared or copies in existing device backups.
Markers & clips
Open a saved session and choose a marker. Umbral starts with a clip around that timestamp, up to 15 seconds on either side. Adjust the start and end, tap Preview to listen, then Share to choose a destination.
Why is my clip shorter than 30 seconds?
A clip cannot extend beyond the recording. Markers near the beginning or end have less audio available on that side. You can adjust the range in the trim sheet.
How do I keep a copy outside Umbral?
Choose Save to Files or another available destination in the share sheet. Once saved or sent, that copy is managed by the receiving app.
Sound & banks
I can’t hear the sweep.
Check the iPhone’s media volume, Umbral’s master volume, and that at least one bank is enabled at an audible level. Check whether sound is routed to headphones or a Bluetooth device. If the session is paused, tap Resume. Umbral is designed to play with the silent switch enabled.
How do I turn off the echo and reverb?
Use the one-tap DRY control to bypass the effects. You can also set both wet levels to zero, or adjust them individually to taste.
Are these live radio stations?
No. Umbral plays bundled sound fragments on your iPhone. It does not stream radio, use sensors to detect anything, or generate interpretations of the audio.
Where do the banks come from?
The four banks contain 1,650 mastered fragments made from public-domain LibriVox recordings and generated noise. Read each bank’s provenance in the app’s bank details or Settings.
Direct to the developer
Hi, I’m Nathan.
I build Umbral. For a problem or a suggestion, email me with your iPhone model, iOS version, Umbral version and what happened. The app version is in Settings.