A bookmark gives you a way back to a particular moment in an audio file. In Afterglow, these bookmarks are called labels. You choose a position, give it a name, and select it later to open the player there.
That can be useful when one recording contains several things you want to hear again: songs from a rehearsal, topics from a conversation, or a passage you are still thinking about. The recording stays whole. Its labels give you places to return to.
Give a moment a name
Afterglow is an iPhone app we're building for listening to recordings and keeping your own notes. You import an audio file into a project, where it becomes a track. Labels belong to that project, with a separate position in each track where you place them.
A name can describe whatever helps you recognize the passage. It might be a song title in a rehearsal recording, "Second chorus" within a song, or "Question about the ending" in a discussion. You choose both the name and the timestamp.
The short rehearsal example above has three named places:
0:12 First song
0:34 New ending
1:01 Acoustic version
The demonstration uses a short sample. In a full rehearsal recording, those places might be several minutes apart. You place them yourself; Afterglow does not find the sections automatically. You can place a label as you listen or move through the waveform to find the spot you want.
Return without splitting the file
Selecting a placed label opens the player at its timestamp. You can hear the passage in the context of the recording, including what follows it.
A label doesn't cut the file into clips or create separate tracks. The original recording remains unchanged, and you can move freely through it. If the beginning of the passage is a few seconds earlier than you marked, edit the label's position.
Labels stay in Afterglow's library with your imported audio. They aren't chapters embedded in the original file, so sending that file to someone doesn't send the labels with it.
Keep a thought at the same place
Sometimes a name is enough. Sometimes there is something you want to remember about the passage.
You can add a timestamped note as well as a label. At the fictional rehearsal's "New ending", a note could say, "Try this ending again with the quieter guitar." Selecting the note later returns to its own timestamp.
Written notes and labels can sit together in the same track. You don't need to write a comment just to save a place.
Find the passage in another recording
When you import another rehearsal into the same project, you can place the same label at a different time in that track. The acoustic version might start at 31:05 in one recording and 12:20 in the next.
Those placements also work in comparison. Choosing the shared label brings each track to its own position. You can then switch between them and listen.
