sound

Alexander Graham Bell's voice captured from old recordings

Alexander Graham Bell is known for inventing the telephone; but for someone so associated with sound, it's curious that no one living has actually ever heard the tenor of his voice.

However, as of Wednesday, anyone can hear what he sounded like. New technology has brought a 128-year-old recording made by Bell back to life, according to Smithsonian magazine.

The artifact, a wax and cardboard disc, has most likely been unplayable for at least a century. According to Smithsonian, Bell worked on several different ways to record sound, including using foil, wax, glass, paper, plaster, metal, and cardboard. Not … Read more

Producer-engineer Young Guru on what good sound sounds like

Last Wednesday, I went to the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU to meet with Young Guru. He was in New York with The Recording Academy's Grammy U 13-city tour visiting colleges across the country. The tour started on April 8 in Philadelphia and concludes on April 28 in Memphis. Young Guru has collaborated with Beyonce, Drake, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Snoop Dogg, among others.

I didn't know how much time I would have with the engineer/producer/DJ, so I went straight to the heart of the matter and asked him to define what good … Read more

At what age did you start thinking about sound?

Most folks rarely focus on music; it's background to other activities like talking, reading, working, exercising, and so forth. They don't really think about sound that much, as long as it's loud enough, or they can follow the dialogue, or there's enough bass, they're happy. Audiophiles are more likely to really listen, so we care about how our music or home theater sounds. The more you listen, the more you hear, and the opposite is also true.

I always liked music, but it was the sound of Jimi Hendrix's guitar feedback and distortion that … Read more

Edit audio clips with NGWave

If you've ever dubbed LP records to your PC, you have already figured out that it's a whole lot easier to record each side as one big WAV, cut them out into singles, and convert them with audio editing software. The same goes for editing MP3s, movie sound clips, ringtones, and other digital audio files. NGWave is a shareware audio editor with plenty to recommend it to music lovers and others who need something more than they can find in freeware, such as 32-bit processing for fast editing, unlimited undo and redo, filters and effects, and a sound … Read more

Change your Notification Center sound

When you receive a notification in Apple's Notification Center for Mountain Lion, the system will use the built-in "Basso" sound. If you do not want this sound to play whenever you receive a notification, then you have a couple of options.

The first is to disable the sound completely, which can be done on a per-application basis in the Notifications system preferences. Simply select an application and then uncheck the "Play sound when receiving notifications" option, which should silence it.

Unfortunately this is a relatively limited option and one that requires you to change it … Read more

Audio-based virtual gaming aims to help the blind navigate

A video game that uses audio cues and computer-generated building layouts has proven to be better at improving a blind person's spatial awareness of that place than does actually walking them through it, according to new research out of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

The findings could have implications for how visually impaired people -- and possibly those without impairments -- best learn to navigate unknown territory.

"It is a tool to build a map of a place you have never been to before," Lotfi Merabet, the neuroscientist whose team developed the software used in the study (which appears in the Journal of Visualized Experiments), told Reuters. "The video game not only allows you to build a map in your mind, it allows you to interact with it mentally in a way that you wouldn't be able to if you were taught explicitly by walking through it."… Read more

Dazzle your ears with KEF's X300A powered speakers

KEF's new X300A is a nifty desktop speaker, but it can also be used as a hi-fi or stereo home theater speakers. Granted, it's a bit pricey, but it sounds a lot better than say, a $699 Sonos Playbar. The X300A is a bona-fide high-end speaker system, so it sounds clearer and all around better than all the high-priced sound bars I've heard to date. After all, performance goals for most sound bars are pretty low, they just have to sound better than the iffy speakers built into TVs, and that's easy. Compared with a decent … Read more

Have a 'blast' with animal sounds and more with Sound Effects Free

Sound Effects Free is exactly what it sounds like: a repository of various sound effects that you can use for free on your iPhone. Like many other free apps featuring sound effects, GIFs, videos, or icons, the app is ad supported and has a paid upgrade that gives you more of the sound effects and removes the ads. In this case, the upgrade is relatively limited in scope, but if you enjoy the sound effects -- which are generally decent -- it is a worthwhile purchase.

The interface is simple. When you open the ad, you'll be asked a … Read more

Sound bar buying guide: What you need to know

For most people, sound bars are the best way to get better sound quality in the living room. They're simple and inexpensive, and don't have all the frustrating wires that come with a true surround-sound system. Sound bars don't sound as good as true separate speakers -- especially with music -- but if you're mostly looking for better sound with movies and TV shows, they're vastly better than your TV's built-in speakers.

So which sound bar should you buy? A good place to start is CNET's list of best sound bars. At the … Read more