Bring your childhood to life for your grandchild

Grandparents are natural story tellers, why not tell your grandchildren what life was like when you were their age, what could be better than your grandchild listening to stories from your childhood in your voice!

Aroundsound lets you easily record, save and share your own childhood stories with your grandchildren.

Imagine being able to share the stories of what life was like when you were the same age as your grandchildren for them to listen to over and over again.

Everyone can be a storyteller. What a birthday treat to get a message from you describing your birthday at their age or how lovely for Christmas morning describing the toys you received from Father Christmas at their age, some may be the same…some very different!

A good luck wish on their first day with a story on how your first day of school went or a bon voyage for their holiday with a story from your holidays at their age to entertain them on their journey.

But you don’t need a special occasion to share your memories, even the everyday can contain some amazing shared memories.

Recording, saving and sharing with your family is easy, its choosing what stories to tell will be the hard part!

So just grab a cuppa, sit down, relax, hit record on the aroundsound app and tell your stories. Aroundsound automatically saves the story and you can give it a unique name before sharing it with your family. It’s easy to share via text message, WhatsApp or email, just press the three little dots on the right a sound options menu appears, just press share sound, this will bring up your phone’s options for sharing. Your family can then listen via the Aroundsound app or simply open the link and listen in a web browser on their computer or mobile phone if they don’t already have the app.

Story Collection

Why not create a story collection for your grandchildren to listen and cherish your stories over and over again. It couldn’t be easier, once you have recorded the press the three little dots on the right and press add to collection, then either create a new collection or add to an existing collection. You can then find your collections by pressing collections at the bottom of the app. Want to share the collection of stories with your family? No problem, just press those 3 little dots again beside the collection and press share collection and share however you like.

Have fun and happy recording!

Need Inspiration?

Listen to an Evatt family story with a piece of interesting family history here…

Photo by Johan Mouchet on Unsplash

Record and Treasure Forever your Precious Story Times

Aroundsound helps you record those easy to miss moments and treasure them forever. Record those precious story times and relive forever Mummy and Daddy’s story telling.

Aroundsound helps you record those easy to miss moments and treasure them forever. Record those precious story times and relive forever mummy and daddy’s story telling. From daddy’s deep Gruffalo to mum’s squeaky Peppa Pig, thanks to Aroundsound you will be able to play your favourite bedtime stories over and over again. Imagine in the future being able to play your grandchildren their parent’s story time!

Aroundsound lets you easily record and save bedtime stories with your children, allowing you to capture those special memories without being intrusive in the moment. Five stories into bedtime and the kids want more stories? hit play and let them fall asleep to the stories you have just read, or why not get the grandparents to record a story to end story time in a very special way?

How to record?

Parents are busy, so Aroundsound couldn’t be easier to use. Pick any story time and hit record! Aroundsound loves the everyday moments so don’t worry about waiting for a special event and hit record on the app.

Story Collection

Why not create a story collection for your children to listen and cherish your stories over and over again. It couldn’t be easier, once you have recorded the press the three little dots on the right and press add to collection, then either create a new collection or add to an existing collection. You can then find your collections by pressing collections at the bottom of the app. Want to share the collection of stories with your family? No problem, just press those 3 little dots again beside the collection and press share collection and share however you like.

Have fun and happy recording!

Need Inspiration?

Listen to one of Rachel and her daughter’s storytimes here…

Photo by Picsea on Unsplash

Aroundsound gets even better with Shared Collections

We’ve started talking about soundtracking recently – creating albums of sound recordings. As Aroundsound grows we’ve seen more people who want to create collections or albums of sounds and share those with others. Examples include bedtime stories (recorded by a grandad for his grandchildren), lessons and lectures, musical notes (ideas and drafts) and environmental collections (birdsong, nature notes).

We’ve now made it even easier than ever to create collections

of sounds and share those with other with others. Anybody who joins your collection as a member can comment and even add their own sounds, plus they can be notified when you add a new sound.

You can find the ‘collections’ tab on your app, where you can create a new collection and start adding sounds. When you’re ready to share, simply change the privacy to ‘visible to the group’ and then you can invite members to join your collection. You can change the privacy at any time, back to a private collection if you prefer.

What’s more, if you are an iPhone user, you will be pleased to know that the latest app release now includes ‘trimming’ recordings, a feature we have made available in our Android app for some time. This means it’s super easy to select just the part of the recording you want to keep, and trim out anything else. The original full recording will still be saved and you’ll make an additional, new trimmed version. Pick and trim the best moments then save or share with others.

Aroundsound helps you to record, replay and share life’s moments – the everyday that is powerful without being perfectly produced. We’re calling that soundtracking. It is developing all the time both on Android and iPhone, with collections and trimming being just two of the latest features that you’ve asked for.

Download and give it a go, and please tell us what you think. We’d love to hear what’s in your soundtrack this week!

Download for Android

Download for iPhone

Record your favourite bedtime stories for your grandchild

Imagine your grandchild listening to your favourite bed times stories when you were a child or even their mum or dad’s favourite story.

Aroundsound lets you easily record, save and share bedtime stories with your grandchildren.

All it takes is for you to choose the stories you want to record, maybe you want to record the stories you loved to hear as a child, the stories you loved to read for your children or maybe your grandchildren’s favourite story. Or take a trip to the library and choose a few books. Let them drift into a beautiful sleep listening to Grandma or Grandpa’s voice.

How to record?

Once you have selected the story all you need to do is grab a cuppa, sit down, relax, hit record on the Aroundsound app and read your favourite bedtime. Aroundsound automatically saves the story and you can give it a unique name before sharing it with your family. It’s easy to share via text message, WhatsApp or email, just press the three little dots on the right of your recording, and a sound options menu appears, just press share sound, this will bring up your phone’s options for sharing. Your family can then listen via the Aroundsound app or simply open the link and listen in a web browser on their computer or mobile phone if they don’t already have the app.

Story Collection

Why not create a story collection for your grandchildren to listen and cherish your stories over and over again. It couldn’t be easier, once you have recorded the press the three little dots on the right and press add to collection, then either create a new collection or add to an existing collection. You can then find your collections by pressing collections at the bottom of the Aroundsound app. Want to share the collection of stories with your family? No problem, just press those 3 little dots again beside the collection and press share collection and share however you like.

Have fun and happy recording!

Need Inspiration?

Listen to one of Grandad Evatts’s bedtime stories here…

photo credit: Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

The Story of Aroundsound

Rachel tells you the story of her passion to record those easy to miss moments with her family so they could treasure them forever; how Aroundsound was born!

I first realised just how special sound was when I had my second daughter, Edith. When my oldest girl Iris, was born, those first six months were just about survival really, but by the time I was a mum for the second time I knew just how quickly time flies and how much the girls change in that time, and I wanted to do everything I could to save every precious moment.

I had my hands full with the two of them, so without really thinking about it, I started to take sound recordings. Little things really, like Edith lying on the mat babbling, or the sound she would make first thing in the morning when there was just the two of us.

What made it practical and also making it special, I didn’t need to worry about a screen. I could focus on my interaction with the girls, knowing we were making memories we could relive later.

I knew there were already a fair few technologies that I could use to record sound, but I couldn’t find anything that let me capture, organise and share sound as easily as I wanted. As a product engineer, I was drawn to this. And that’s how Aroundsound was born.

What I really love about sound is that it isn’t a choice between capturing a moment and living it. You can do both.

Until we find a way to time travel, listening back to recordings is the next best thing. I close my eyes and I am transported back to the moments we made together.

And what’s even better is that I can share them with family and friends, and they can enjoy them too.

Sound is helping our family connect in ways which matter – we are grabbing those everyday moments in life and being able to relive them and share them, like the time Edith said her name for the first time and called herself ‘Ebeep’. It was wonderful to capture this sound, and she’s already stopped saying it now. Like every child, speech develops so quickly and before you know it they no longer say that wonderful thing in that way. We shared that moment with the girls’ grandparents and they loved being able to enjoy that ‘first’ with us from afar.

The girls’ grandparents have sinced been using Aroundsound to record and share bedtime stories, so Iris and Edith have been listening to the sound of their grandparent’s voices as they fall asleep. It’s become a nightly routine now and we have a back catalogue of around 80 bedtime stories to choose from, as well as new ones coming in regularly!

Aroundsound is really helping me capture some amazing memories of my girls and share these with the people that matter. I can hit record and stay in the moment with them, rather than behind a screen. We now have a soundtrack of our girls early lives, which will be precious to us, and to them and perhaps their children in years to come.

Since the start of Aroundsound, I’ve become more and more interested in the power of sound to capture the world around us. We now have people using Aroundsound for saving special stories, labelling lessons and lectures, sharing spoken word and musical moments and recording soundscapes for meditation. The amazing feedback we’ve had so far is helping to develop the product it is today, and we’re still learning and shaping what it becomes.

Please give it a go and tell us what you think! Download Aroundsound here: Android App or iPhone app.

Share the sounds of your Christmas

The festive season is certainly upon us and memories are being made. Nativity plays, carol concerts, baking sessions, present unwrapping, and those bad jokes that are repeated every year at dinner by your Nan after a couple of glasses of Bucks Fizz.

This weekend we started getting in the spirit and heard a warm up rendition of Jingle Bells by a professional from the Hallé orchestra, and a Brass Band playing festive tunes at Chatsworth House. We also had an unexpected meeting with the big man himself and here we are meeting Father Christmas.

Sound is a special way to capture and share the festive moment, whilst remaining in the moment (tap to record, then carry on as you were). It’s also a great way to share the fun with friends and family.

Our Aroundsound iPhone app has just been updated to make the experience of sound capturing and sharing even better. The Android app is also available and is regularly updated. We’re grateful for all the feedback we’re getting and are making regular improvements. Try it out and let us know what you think, and why not share your sound captures with us too? We’ll publish the best ones with your permission.

What sounds of Christmas will you capture?

Posted by Rachel

Photo by Mike Arney on Unsplash

Aroundsound app is featured by Google

We are delighted to share that our Aroundsound app has been selected by Google to be featured as a recommended app on Google Play. Aroundsound helps you to capture and share life’s sounds as they happen. It is currently available as an Early Access app in Google Play for Android and as a fresh new app on Apple’s App Store.

Google have high standards for selecting apps to be featured (this is a small list of 8 ‘early access’ apps globally), so it is a privilege to be chosen. It is a great opportunity for Aroundsound to be visible to many more Early Access users globally, and gain the valuable feedback we need from people first hand. Here are some of the comments we’ve been given back already:

“I tried many recording apps in the play store, but it is the best app”

“Love the app. Does what it says. Very simple to use.”

“Super”

We are closely monitoring the feedback and analytics behind the spike in usage that this featuring has caused, and will use this to shape how the product develops.

If you are an Apple user you can download the Aroundsound iPhone app instead. Please let us know what you think!

Aroundsound iPhone App is live

Today marks a significant milestone for Aroundsound. Our iPhone app is now out in the Apple App Store. You can use it to capture and share sounds that are special to you; your baby babbling, bathtime giggles, the church bell chiming on the way to work. Save them, share them and invite others into your world using sound.

You an download the iPhone app on the App Store here.

This is the first version, MVP (Minimum Viable Product) if you like, and there is much more to come. We value any feedback at this stage, as it all helps to shape the product to come. If you like the app, please give us a good rating!

The Android app is also available and is regularly updated.

We’re grateful for all the feedback we’re getting and are making regular improvements. Try it out and let us know what you think, and why not share your sound captures with us too?

Bedtime stories from Grandad

This week something really special happened. Every night, at bedtime, I have played my daughters a bedtime story sound recording from Grandad Evatt, who lives 200 miles away. Each night, they listened to the story in bed, with the lights turned off, and drifted off to sleep whilst listening to the sound of his familiar voice.

My daughters, Iris and Edith, are aged 4 and 2, and getting them both to bed at the same time is usually a challenge. It’s especially tough when it’s just me, or just their dad, doing bedtime. Not only has this made bedtime easier for all of us, but it’s lovely to feel that another member of the family is part of it. The bedtime stories are something we can listen to over and over, in the car as well as at bedtime, and we’ll treasure having his voice saved in years to come.

Grandad Evatt now has his homework cut out (as do my parents) as my daughters have been requesting more bedtime stories from Grandad.

Here he is reading Rapunzel.

Aroundsound is a sound platform that enables you to record, edit and share sound recordings. You can use it to record experiences, special moments as well as bedtime stories to share with people you love. Sound is different to video. Close your eyes, listen and your imagination will tell you why. Download on Android here. iPhone app is coming soon.

Photo credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The Aroundsound app is now on Google Play

We are pleased to share the news that the Aroundsound app is now out of private prototype and available on Google Play, as an Early Access app. You can find it here.

You can use the app to capture and edit your sound recordings. You can also share your recordings with friends and family, thereby spreading your audio joy.

I’ve personally been using the ptorotype version of the app for a few months now and have captured some wonderful memories of my children in situations where video would have pulled me (and them) out of the moment. For example, squeals of laughter during chasing games, first words uttered over breakfast and end of day chatter during bathtime. I can quick hit record (using the Quick Tile feature) and get back to being part of, and enjoying, the moment. It’s precious to have these memories saved forever and a delight to listen back and relive the moments. Sharing the recordings with others adds to the fun and spreads the joy.

The app is easy and intuitive to use, yet it’s current functionality is just a first step towards what we have planned in the coming months, such as key moment tagging, collections to organise sounds, and even easier ways to share sounds. We’re keen to ensure we’re building the right thing, and therefore having early users offering feedback is super helpful.

Please do download it, try it out and let us know what you think by emailing feedback [@] gritstonestudios.co.uk, or using the feedback link within the app.

If you are an iOS user, be assured that we are working on the iOS app currently. If you would like to find out when it is released, please let us know here.

We hope that you enjoy reliving and sharing your sound memories using the Aroundsound app as much as we do.