"In a world..." voiceover legend Don LaFontaine died yesterday. After watching a few brilliant YouTube videos of him in action, I thought I'd download them for posterity. Fortunately, I'd just found an excellent tool for that.

I just set up my best-sounding podcast playback system ever, but there was one problem: I missed the first ten seconds during the time it took me to hit Play and then scamper down the stairs to the kitchen. AppleScript and speech synths to the rescue....

Guitarist and programmer Lucas Gonze made an interesting observation about my new experimental Web audio player. Although it's clunky compared to his work, he focused instead on its "cool new ideas" and how they evolved.

While editing a podcast in BIAS Peak 6 recently, I was disturbed to hear the audio distorting even though the peak levels were below 100%. Turns out the culprit was a stealthy slider.

Film composer Mark Isham has written zillions of elegant soundtracks. Now he's posted some rare cues (including one of my favorites) in a slick online player. The technology has some interesting twists — and you can use it for free.

My favorite electronic instrument this year is the Korg Kaossilator, a pocket-size synth with built-in loop recorder. I bought one after spending some quality time with it during a magazine review. But what really loosened my credit card was a secret hack I discovered during fact-check.

When half your population can't read, the spoken word becomes crucial. The Literacy Bridge project is designing a portable voice recorder that third-world populations can use to share news, history, and educational texts. In addition to recording and playing back audio, the Talking Book Device (hardware specs PDF) has buttons for basic interactivity — think quizzes and branching. Furthermore,...

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.

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...