All the world’s a stage. So wrote William Shakespeare in his pastoral comedy ‘As You Like It’. Yet 400 years after the Bard’s play hit British theatres his words have never been more true. With the advent of the Internet, and the potential to stream sets to fans anywhere on earth, the planet has never been a bigger dance floor. 

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Which is all well and good if you’ve got an army of techs streaming your set live from whatever festival or party you’re playing at. If you’re lucky enough to have Boiler Room come knocking at your door, you’re probably not stressing about which bits of kit to hook up to which other bits of kit to make sure your set’s recorded without any cock-ups, or streaming as smoothly as it can from an underground bunker in Kazakhstan or desolate mountain top somewhere in deepest, darkest Peru (Cercle we see you). 

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If you’re like the hundreds of thousands of DJs and artists streaming live to growing armies of fans every weekend over Twitch, TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, you’ll know just how essential it is to have kit you can rely on, that’s simple to set up and easy to use. That used to be the Holy Grail but thanks to the team at Howler Audio, who Collabhouse first ran into during ADE Lab 2024, it’s now one more thing to tick off your worry list. 

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With the ADE madness over, we finally managed to catch up with Tim Jannsen from Howler Audio to learn a little more about how the tech works and what it can do for Collabhouse users who play out and about…

In ten words or less, can you tell us what Howler does?

Howler records and livestreams DJ sets.

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Who did you specifically design Howler for?

We designed Howler for DJs of all levels who want to easily capture and share their mixes.

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What problem did you encounter that sparked off Howler as a solution?

We used to take our laptop with us to the grimiest booths to just record our set. Feeling scared something could happen to the laptop. We had to install special software for recording and find out how it works. Even then we sometimes ruined the recording accidently because we had the wrong settings setup. We thought "Why is this whole process so difficult and prone to mistakes?". This is exactly not what you want when you are nervous for the gig to start and have 3 minutes to switch between DJs. We then came up with a pocket-size product specially focused on DJs, that is fast to set up and usable for all kinds of DJ situations.

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How long has it taken you to develop the software and hardware?

Development took around 2 years, refining both the hardware and software for a seamless experience.

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Walk us through the different features of Howler…

Howler has 2 main modes, ‘Recording’ and ‘Streaming’. In recording mode Howler offers standalone recording to an SD card in WAV or mp3. In streaming mode (audio interface mode) you can connect Howler to any device, like your phone, go live on your favourite livestream app (IG, Twitch, TikTok, Mixcloud etc.) and the audio in the video stream is now from your DJ set.

In addition to streaming you can also video yourself with your camera app, also then the audio in the video is from Howler. Especially useful for YouTube DJs out there wanting to create a "Boiler Room" video with just your phone and Howler.

Howler has a rechargeable battery that lasts 30 hours recording.

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What was the biggest challenge for you when you were developing and testing?

Developing and optimising the firmware (software on the product) was our biggest hurdle. Also ensuring high-quality audio recording and streaming while keeping the device compact and user-friendly was a great challenge!

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What feedback have you had from Howler users so far?

Users love the simplicity, portability, and sound quality of Howler, and the ability to easily share their mixes. We received quotes like: “More than 100 recordings already, not a single glitch! Perfect!” “Love your product. Sound quality is amazing.” “Finally a good working recording device at my disposal.”

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It kind of seems like an obvious solution now that you’ve gone and done it – why do you think there was such a gap in the market for what you’re providing?

Combining high-quality recording and streaming in a dedicated, user-friendly device was a complex challenge that hadn't been fully addressed. So far there are recording devices, and streaming devices. Both features in 1 product have not been done. Plus Howler is really focussed on its simple, easy and fast use for DJs. Other devices often have complex settings and are not designed for DJs and their needs. I.e. Howler has a "thru" output, the audio that comes into Howler comes out of Howler through its thru output. This is especially useful if a DJ mixer does not have a separate rec output, the DJ then can connect it between the mixer and the speakers.

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How many sets can you record on the Howler SD card?‍

A 64GB SD card is included with the Howler. In WAV recording mode (24 bit/48kHz) 1 hour recording is around 1 GB, so total recording time is around 64 hours. Mp3 recording mode (320kbps) is much more compressed and the total time is around 1500 hours before the 64GB card is full.

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How easy is it to connect your Howler device to streaming apps like Instagram, Twitch, TikTok etc?

Connecting is simple! Just plug Howler into your USB-C port of the phone with a USB-C cable (or any USB port of another device). Your phone then automatically switches the audio input from its microphone to Howler. For iPhones with lightning ports our Lightning Pack adapter is needed.

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Obviously right now Howler is audio only, but users can launch their camera apps and then record with Howler connected. Are you at any point going to launch a version of Howler that has its own visual recorder built in?

We're focusing on audio quality for now as your phone already has a very good camera (and connection to the internet!), but we're always exploring ways to enhance the user experience. We have some new products coming up, so stay tuned! :)

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