hello, peter drescher here, i am currently sound designer at danger, inc., makers of the hiptop wireless internet device (aka the T-Mobile Sidekick), and o'reilly has been kind (and brave) enough to let me speak my mind (unedited! holy crap, batman!!) on interactive audio technologies, with an emphasis on the mobile space ... oh, this should be interesting! while i...

Visionary architect Buckminster Fuller reportedly liked to jumpstart his creativity by grabbing the magazine at the top right corner of the newsstand rack, no matter what the subject was. I'm trying the same experiment this week by attending O'Reilly's decidedly non-musical Where 2.0 Conference. Where 2.0 is all about digital map-making. The stars here are the creators of Google Earth...

I have seen a few posts on some of the podcasting forums that prove some people confuse audio v. data compression. Maybe this short post will help you learn the difference.

Wow, nail my hat to the ceiling! I'd never heard of the ANS synthesizer before. Its a 50's synth from Russia with 800 oscillators controlled by marks on a sheet of glass! I'm a fan of non-Moog music synthesis: any fan of Dr Who (BBC Radiophonic Workshop) would be, and I've released an emulation of the Mixturtrautonium, but the ANS...

I just heard a fascinating podcast interview with Michael Chorost, who had a computer implanted in his skull to regain his hearing. Chorost went completely deaf shortly after he completed his Ph.D. in English, and he speaks eloquently about the experience of losing an organic sense and gaining an electronic facsimile. Bionic hearing, it seems, is impressionistic. I was...

While die-hard engineer types might note that the C1000 isn't lauded for its specifications, specs mean nothing when compared with real-world use. And my ears don't lie. This mic sounds pretty good to me in every situation.

Want to show off your music and graphics skills? Check out CME’s UF Design contest. CME is a new manufacturer with some innovative music-technology ideas. We covered its Mobiltone U-Key keyboard (based on a cell-phone synth chip) in our 2006 NAMM Show report. The UF-series keyboard controllers are more upscale, with metal casings and cool features like motorized faders....

Just when you thought things couldn't get more bizarre -- listen to this. If you can believe it, an increasing number of mobile users are mistakenly hearing their ringtone, even when there is no incoming call. "This audio illusion - called phantom phone rings or, more whimsically, ringxiety or fauxcellarm - has emerged recently as an internet discussion topic and...

Even if you don't DJ, knowing the tempo of your music collection opens creative doors. For example, slide shows come alive when you synchronize the slide durations to the tempo of the background music. (See my tempo sync tutorial.) And playlists seem to flow better when you group songs by tempo. I'd been eyeballing the BPM field in iTunes...

I distinctly remember waiting for my band's turn to play in a Rome recording studio in 1990 or so. Suddenly, from the studio lounge area a hip-hop beat started, followed by a voice that sounded like Darth Vader. "What is that you're playing?" I asked the guy who sat on the couch, banging away on the mini-keys and singing in...