Sound Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Sound Uncovered is a gateway to the fascinating world of sound

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 12th, 2013)

The San Francisco-based Exploratoruim has a long history of promoting science, arts and hands-on learning. The science museum has a physical location with more than a thousand exhibits, a website with more than 50,000 pages of content and now it is launching its second interactive iPad app, ...

WaveTap snags audio on your Mac with a keyboard shortcut

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 24th, 2012)

Recording audio on the Mac just got a little easier thanks to WavTap, a nifty audio utility created by Github user Patrick Ellis. Spotted by Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music, the tool lets you record audio on your Mac using a keyboard shortcut. You can use the customizable shortcut to both ...

Mountain Lion 101: Updated high-quality voice synthesis

by Michael Rose (Jul 28th, 2012)

Most of the speech hubbub around Mountain Lion has centered on the OS's marquee Dictation feature, which happily accepts your spoken words as a substitute for typing them in. Dictation works in almost any text entry field, and it's surprisingly effective; Steve even dictated his entire post about ...

Eco-Amp: environmentally smug sound

by Erica Sadun (Jun 27th, 2012)

It didn't start when Henry-the-iPhone's owner Joe decided to go eco. No, it went way back. It started when he and Joe fought about sound amplification. Henry's sound output was never "good enough" for Joe. Then Joe found eco-amp. For just US$7.99, Joe bought about $0.15 worth of materials and ...

Friday Favorite: Audacity 2.0 delivers free audio editing for Mac

by Mel Martin (Apr 13th, 2012)

Audacity, the venerable and much loved open source audio editor, has a 2.0 release out (as of March 13) in versions for OS X, Windows and GNU/Linux. Here's a rundown of what has changed: Many effects are significantly improved, especially Equalization, Noise Removal and Normalize. Vocal ...

Sound Sofa is a sofa with an iPod dock

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 11th, 2012)

If you want to use your iPod in the living room for ambient sound, but abhor the look of a black, plastic dock, then you should check out the Sound Sofa by CSL. The Sound Sofa is a sectional sofa that houses a built-in audio system with an iPod dock. You can pick among different combinations of ...

Sony introduces stereo systems for high-end iPhone audio without breaking up the dash

by Mike Schramm (Aug 24th, 2011)

Sony Mobile Audio today introduced a new car stereo system that brings high-quality sound to cars that aren't already equipped with the latest and greatest in car audio. The XDP-PK1000 (and its companion unit the MU110, whose only difference is that it requires a third-party subwoofer and ...

TUAW's Daily iPad App: Decibel Meter Pro

by Steven Sande (Jul 5th, 2011)

Have you ever wondered just how loud a noise is? During a recent review of the SoundJaw iPad accessory, I needed to see if it really increased the volume of the iPad's speaker. What did I use to measure the sound level for the review? The iPhone version of Decibel Meter Pro (US$0.99, ...

Quick-change your audio devices

by Michael Rose (Jul 3rd, 2011)

The stealthy and powerful Option key strikes again. If you need to quickly switch between audio input or output choices, no need to open up System Preferences and click around. Just hold down Option and left-click on the Sound menu icon at the right side of the menu bar. You can adjust your ...

TUAW's Daily Mac App: DeepFocus

by Samuel Gibbs (May 19th, 2011)

When you're in a noisy environment, such as a café or study room, or even when there's just the odd sound to distract you in a room of silence, concentrating can be difficult. You could play some music, but often music can be just as distracting as the background noise, especially when ...

Apple hires THX inventor to head up audio projects

by Michael Grothaus (May 4th, 2011)

Apple has reportedly hired the inventor of THX to head up all its audio projects, Leo Laporte said. Earlier today Laporte tweeted "I have it on good authority that Tomlinson Holman (of THX fame) is joining Apple to run audio. Major upgrade." Holman is a legend in the audio industry. Among his ...

Apple patent features sound-driven commands

by Mike Schramm (Feb 21st, 2011)

A new patent by Apple reveals that the company has been working on gesture-based commands determined with audio transducers on the corners of a given surface -- in other words, as your fingers press and tap on a surface (like a keyboard or a computer casing or even the bezel around an iPad), the ...

Dear Apple: It's (past) time to let us customize our alert tones

by Chris Rawson (Jan 9th, 2011)

Picture this: you're hanging out at a friend's house, and the familiar "doodle-dee!" of the iPhone's Tri-tone alert sound goes off. But four people simultaneously start reaching for their iPhones, because they're all using that sound for SMS/MMS alerts. Or how about this: you're on a bike ride and ...

WOWee portable speaker brings the bass through gel and your table, window or wall

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Jan 6th, 2011)

WOWee (not the robot company) launched in mid-2010, selling a rechargeable portable speaker slightly larger than the original iPod. The WOWee One features a 20-hour rechargeable battery that you charge via USB, a small speaker on the top and a pulsing bass driver that transmits your lower ...

Logic Pro and Logic Express updated

by Matt Tinsley (Oct 29th, 2010)

Apple has released updates for Logic Pro 9, its flagship digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer application and Logic Express, its lighter counterpart. Both the Logic Pro 9.1.3 update (193.1 MB) and the Logic Express 9.1.3 update (139.68 MB) improve general stability and compatibility and ...