I tried the Levelator on several files and it works. It's very simple, doesn't offer any controls, and what you see is what you get. It's in BETA and may eventually need some tweaking. But I have no doubt that in its present form, it will be a very valuable tool for any podcaster.

The always insightful Eliot Van Buskirk just posted an entertaining interview with Justin Frankel, the programmer behind Winamp, Gnutella, and some visionary new music programs like Reaper and NinJam. In the interview, Frankel shares his design philosophy, discusses his own music, and explains why DRM is a bad idea. He even reveals the origin of the mythical Winamp Llama....

(Click to enlarge.) One of the best audio investments I've made was a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones. I bought my set for about $80 back around 1988 after noticing renowned recording engineer Roger Nichols checking mixes on his in the big L.A. studio where I worked. (I couldn't afford the glorious Meyer HD-1 powered monitors Nichols was using,...

One of my very favorite companies folded this past week Network Live. Network Live was started by Kevin Wall, who had been executive producer of both Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005 with Bob Geldof. Network Live was a phenomenal concept where a 'live' concert would be re-distributed across multiple platforms in real time (or delayed); and...

My two favorite things about these panels are their portability and flexibility. They're easy to move around. They have a sturdy carry handle attached to the hinge and Clearsonic also sells specialized carrying cases that help protect the panels when being transported.

There's 3 three things that annoy me about DRM (well, to be honest, there's puh-lenty of things about DRM that annoy me, but let's stick with these for the moment): 1. This is how i feel about any technology designed to prevent savvy users from doing what they're going to do anyway: the more you tighten your grip, tarkin, the...

We're O'Reilly readers. We're smart. And we've all had it happen to us. We're watching TV or browsing through the airline catalog, and then we see it: HEY! I THOUGHT OF THAT TEN YEARS AGO!!!!! (Go ahead, reply to this message with the idea you had that somebody else came up with, and which drove you crazy.) Well, that's a...

UPDATE, 2008-02-29: Many readers have been asking what I think of the new crop of Olympus voice recorders with "ultra high quality stereo recording mode." After poring over the specs for the new WS and DS models, I just requested a review unit of the WS-311M, which seems to have the best combination of features and price to meet the...

Along with the cast of This Week In Media I'll be recording a live podcast at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo on Saturday, September 30, from 2:45pm - 3:15pm

News analyst Richard Menta posted the following in a recent edition of Digital Music News. For touring bands, the 4-track cassette player was once the tool of choice for on-the-go recordings. But as MP3 players increase in power and capacity, musicians are likely to favor a burgeoning type of portable digital audio workstation. Two new models were recently announced. The...