microphonics

The best sounding songs you'll ever hear are the ones you record yourself. Just like amateur photography or amateur film making, amateur musicians take a lot of pride in their art and are always looking for new, affordable tools to take things to the next level.

Computer-based recording software, such as Pro Tools and Garage Band, have gone a long way to help today's musicians create digital recordings that rival the results from professional recording studios. But even the best laptop-based recording rig can be limited by battery life and a less-than-convenient jumble of components (external sound cards, … Read more

Donald and Jasmine try to make the most out of their limited in-studio time slot by talking as quickly and clearly as possible about the new Samsung P3 and SanDisk's unusual SlotRadio player.

Also, Nixon enters the headphone market with a new line a fashion-friendly 'phones that any surfer is sure to love. Plus, find out about our Top 5 iPod-recording accessories and top 10 portable speakers. Finally, see if you can wager a guess as to who came out on top in the latest Prizefight, "The Evisceration."

Portable audio recorders are useful tools for capturing live music or lectures, and creating podcasts. Unfortunately, the best-sounding recorders tend to be bulky, and they can get pretty complicated.

The Yamaha Pocketrak CX ($299) is a powerful handheld audio recorder that keeps things simple. The little recorder fits in your shirt pocket, runs off a single AA battery, and keeps confusing buttons and settings to a minimum.

Of course, simplicity doesn't come without sacrifice. If you're the type who wants to record bird calls with a phantom-powered boom mic and sophisticated onboard compression, this isn't the right … Read more

First, there were bone conduction earpieces. Now, microphones are going the way of the *cough cough* throat. Apparently, no part of the human body is inviolable when it comes to tech accessorizing.

Inspired by the military, Japanese company Sanwa's Throat Microphone design is fortunately styled to appear more like a slim necklace than a neck brace. Though whether this odd gadget will actually improve call clarity using neck vibrations rather than the spoken word has yet to be put to the test, since this is still vaporware now awaiting commercial takeoff.

(Source: Crave Asia via Akihabara News)

Webcams aren't the first product to spring to mind when you think of Blue Microphones. The company has a solid reputation in the pro audio world for making high-end boutique microphones, but they've been slowly dipping their toes into the waters of consumer audio products, such as the Snowball USB podcast mic, and its baby brother, the Snowflake.

Now we have the Eyeball, a $99 Webcam that borrows on the design of the Snowflake, but leaves behind the intolerably cute product name. We compared the Eyeball with the Logitech Pro 9000 and the MacBook's built-in iSight camera … Read more

Update (4/19/2009): CNET now has a full review of the Zoom H4n.

I practically squealed when I saw Zoom's new H4n professional handheld audio recorder on display at CES 2009. The $350 recorder was announced just a few days ago with hazy details on when it might hit store shelves, but lo and behold, here it was hanging out in the Samson booth, dressed up with full retail packaging.

To read my first impressions, take a look through our Zoom H4n slide show, fresh from the showfloor of CES 2009.

In today's Friday episode, I go hands-on with the Heil PR-40. Check it out.

And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!

It's not the cheapest or the smallest way to go, but if you want the best-sounding pocket-size audio recorder on the market, you needn't look any further than the Edirol R-09HR. As an update to the original Edirol R-09 that debuted in 2006, the new HR edition addresses nearly every complaint we had of its predecessor, and even adds a few tricks we didn't know we wanted (like a remote control).

Curious to see how Edirol's extreme product makeover turned out? Take a look through our Edirol R-09HR photo gallery and then head over to our … Read more

We recently took a look at two new wireless headsets available on the market and pitted them against one another. The Creative Digital Wireless Gaming headset HS-1200 and the Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless headset both offer similar functionality, but only one can be worth your hard-earned cash.

Both the Creative and Logitech are rechargeable units that use USB dongles to transmit audio to their respective headset. However, we were much happier with the transmission radius of the Creative. The Logitech gave us up to 20 feet of freedom, but the Creative was able to let us travel up to 60 feet away from our PC. This was especially nice while using the VoIP chatting program Skype.

Speaking of Skype,… Read more