audio

OK, so I get the iMac, the iBook, the iPod, iTunes, and even (grudgingly) the iPhone. Apple thought up the moniker, so we can't begrudge them for expanding on the very successful franchise. But the iTrip, the iRiver Clix and Cowon's range of iAudio products tested the limits of my patience. And I could have held my tongue if BMW's iDrive had been the end of iOpportunism.

But when I noticed the iLoad--a device for ripping CDs and DVDs to iPod without a computer--on Senior Editor Donald Bell's desk this morning, I felt the need … Read more

With professional music software selling for hundreds of dollars, finding a comparable freeware program is no small potatoes. Audacity is an impressive open-source audio editor that has upped its own ante in the new beta version, Audacity 1.3. If you're attuned to the basics of fading and trimming, this guide urges you on the next step of your journey, mastering MP3 files for Web publishing, cell phone ringtones, and podcasts. Here are a few pointers.

If you haven't yet, download the suite of Windows plug-ins from the Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API (LADSPA). When using plug-ins, remember to select the section of track you wish to affect before opening the tool. Also, if you're planning to make ringtones, check out the special tips at the end of this article.… Read more

Audacity's follow-up to its cult-classic audio editor, Audacity 1.3, warrants the attention of amateur and "prosumer" music editors. Audacity 1.3 adds minor (though useful) editing effects, and greases the wheels with some time-saving functionality. Of Audacity's recently integrated features, the new repair tool, improved equalizer, and souped-up selection bar will have the biggest impact on track masters.

The repair effect bridges two sections of a track over a minor audio irregularity, such as a distortion spike. Docked at the bottom of the app, the selection toolbar adds control to set a track's audio … Read more

I don't know about you, but there was a lot of excitement at the Tiemann household when this image popped up on the screen. It meant that nights of field work, evenings of programming, and a weekend of multimedia production all pointed at one, inescapable conclusion: my crazy bat project was a SUCCESS and the promise I made to my daughter was KEPT!!

First things first. If you have been following this blog, you know that a week ago I had the crazy idea of trying to record bats. After finally having an opportunity to use my aforementioned SONY PMC-D1, and after spending another few hours trying to convince myself I had captured something, in the end I felt a bit like one of the members of the Warren Commission looking at the Zapruder film and asking "you want me to make a finding based on this?" If I was going to convince my daughter that we had, in fact, captured and identified bat sounds beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was going to take more than a few suspicious noises of post-processed audio before I could be satisfied that the burden of proof could be met. In the days after my first blog posting, things were looking fairly bleak for the project, but I was determined to prove that with a little technology (a little more than you might suspect), I could, in fact, make good.… Read more

RealPlayer was the king of streaming media in the early days of the World Wide Web, but its importance has waned in recent years. Rather than focus entirely on streaming video and audio developments, RealPlayer branched out into paid content offerings and drifted away from the core free media player that everyone adopted to watch streaming movies in the first place. Also, Web 2.0 video sites such as YouTube, Google, Viddler, and Revver--mostly utilizing Adobe Flash Player--have owned the streaming video market.

The Web browser is now the dominant software for streaming media, and a new beta version of RealPlayer represents that shift in the media landscape. While RealPlayer seemed to originally be designed to prevent users from downloading music or video content locally, the new version 11 beta specifically allows users to save streaming content to their hard drives with the click of one button.… Read more

I enjoy walking my dog (a Shiba Inu) with my daughter, especially when the weather is pleasant. Earlier this week it was a particularly pleasant evening in Chapel Hill: the sweet air was cool like nighttime in summer, but the sun had at least 10 minutes to go before setting. All of a sudden, we both saw a bat swoop around a street lamp, eagerly pursuing its evening meal.

"IT'S A BAT!" my daughter exclaimed.… Read more

A few months ago, JimmyR-dot-com (aka Jimmy Ruska) posted a YouTube video that showed users how to conduct a Google search for free, unprotected music files. Essentially, by modifying search terms with a few extra key words, a user can limit results to underlying directory pages rather than user-facing Web pages. The video proved quite popular, garnering more than 300,000 views.

Recently, he went one step further and created a Web page that modifies the search for you--all you have to do is enter the song title, and you'll receive a Google search page with links to directories … Read more

We reported earlier on Cowon's announcement of their flash-based iAudio 7 MP3 player, and now we have the photos to prove it exists. We've heard directly from Cowon that the iAudio 7 will be available for purchase in the U.S. the first week of July. The product we received is still not the finished version, so we can't subject it to a real review yet. So far, it looks and behaves nearly identical to its microdrive predecessor, the iAudio 6. That's not such a bad thing, given what an outstanding player the iAudio 6 was. … Read more

Tivoli Audio is well known for its tabletop radios, but the company has always remained somewhat on the conservative side when it comes to features: AM, FM, and CD, plus the occasional iPod dock and satellite radio. But the company is taking a firm step into the 21st century with a new pair of products, the NetWorks Table Radio and NetWorksGo. The models are essentially network-enabled updates of the Model One and the SongBook, respectively, with the Table Radio intended for stationary duty and the NetWorksGo offering space for six rechargeable C batteries (which you have to supply). Both models … Read more