Did you know you can enjoy six-channel sound from iTunes? All you need is a decoder, six amplified speakers, and this squirrely software trick.

I'm in hardware now! Well, firmware at least. I posted a little comment to the electro-music.com DIY synthesizer forum about using FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) as a synthesis method, and Scott Gravenhorst took the idea and implemented it as an 8-voice, dual oscillator polyphonic synthesizer-on-a-chip using an FPGA (Field Programmable Gatorade)! How cool. He has posted some audio. I had...

The Documentary http://absurdity.biz/CircuitBending/Bent.htm If it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not, because then it's circuitbreaking. This is the best presentation I've seen yet on the mystical art of circuit bending. Finally we actually see that it's so easy a kid could do it, and so cool that you can trip out on it late into your late, late...

Late 1980s, deep in the basement of the Oberlin Conservatory: Strolling past the broken-down harp cases, a surprise visitor enters my electronic music class.

Sounds like . . . Sennheiser. While updating my business card the other day, I started to think it would be cool to have an audio logo as well as a graphic one. You've certainly heard these "earcons" — the THX Deep Note, the Duracell coppertop clank, the Intel Inside chimes. . . . With just a few notes and...

With close to a thousand forest fires fouling the air, it was time for some indoor creativity. Making a digicam spy movie revealed some cool QuickTime tricks and ridiculous workarounds.

What are you doing with your portable recorder? Former O'Reilly producer Justin Watt and partner Stephanie Soleil capture whispery ambiences and upload them to the White Noise Lounge. They complement each brief aural trip with an artsy black-and-white photo. The project started as a joke, but like everything Justin touches, it's elegant and thought-provoking.

Wondering which handheld digital audio recorder to buy? Guitarist and recording engineer Mark Nelson just compiled this helpful comparison chart based on his detailed reviews. Mark is one of the few people on the planet to have used each of the top recorders extensively, recording everything from Hawaiian surf to wild coyotes, so he has an especially deep perspective. As...

Just for a little levity, I came across this quote from Joel McHale on "The Soup" about American Idol contestant runner-up, David Archuleta mangling Beatles lyrics from a recent song he did on the show: "Congratulations Yoko Ono, assassins, cancer, and one-legged gold diggers: you're no longer the worst thing to happen to the Beatles". I don't know about you,...

every time i do linear audio (i.e. create a quicktime soundtrack), i always have the same reaction: "this is SO much easier than doing interactive audio!" ... but it got me thinking about how to generate an Audio UI that sounds more like the ones in the movies.