Sound Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

TUAW's Daily App: Soundrop

by Mike Schramm (Aug 17th, 2010)

Soundrop isn't really a game -- it's more of a musical instrument, although you can play with it for quite a while. The app presents a small hole that constantly drops balls out at a certain rate, while you draw lines on the screen with your finger. Where the balls hit the lines, a tone is sounded, ...

Rumor: Apple prepping HDMI Macs

by Mike Schramm (Mar 1st, 2010)

The picture above comes from AppleInsider, who are claiming that Apple is about to release a Mac mini with an HDMI port in place of the current DVI connector. And that sound you just heard was hundreds of thousands of mini-based entertainment center owners everywhere crying out in excitement, as a ...

Interview with the creator of the Apple startup sound

by Mike Schramm (Feb 26th, 2010)

We met them while they were shooting on the Apple Campus, and now the creators of the Dutch site onemorething.nl have posted their interview with Apple sound designer Jim Reekes (who also appears in Welcome To Macintosh). They met up with Reekes while at Macworld in San Francisco a little while ...

Mac 101: 3 volume control tips

by TJ Luoma (Feb 25th, 2010)

Adjusting the volume on your Mac via the keyboard is pretty easy: there are 3 buttons, one for Volume Down, one for Volume Up, and one for Mute. When you adjust the volume, a sound is played to help you determine when it is loud enough or quiet enough. Most times I find this helpful, but ...

5 tips for switchers

by Sang Tang (Feb 23rd, 2010)

Every now and then I'll have an "I never knew about that" moment as I come across a setting or nuance in Mac OS X that I never realized existed. Take, for instance, character viewer, which allows you to display a variety of characters in your document. Whether you're a switcher or seasoned Mac ...

An iPhone orchestra -- something you don't hear every day

by Mel Martin (Dec 4th, 2009)

The department of Computing and Engineering and the School of Music at the University of Michigan have teamed up to offer an interesting course as part of their music program. Students are learning to make music using an iPhone or iPod touch. The generated tones can be altered by moving the phone ...

Mujik for the iPhone. I'm scratching my head but enjoying it

by Mel Martin (Aug 7th, 2009)

Every so often something hits the App Store that is interesting but difficult to explain. At the same time, it is enjoyable to use, and you tip your hat to the people who thought it up, even if it has no real practical use. Mujik [App Store] is a free (for now) app that allows you to create musical ...

WWDC Demo: Parranda for iPhone and iPod touch

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Jun 26th, 2009)

The enthusiastic developers of Parranda were at WWDC to show off their app, a simple one-man-band party in your hand. Parranda (iTunes link) has a lot of polish, too, with instruments that aren't just one big button, like some "soundboard" music apps. The cowbell, for example, allows you to tap ...

3G S application that Apple forgot to mention: dog whistle

by Casey Johnston (Jun 22nd, 2009)

Update: The plot thickens: the phone also emits the noise just after recording video, and for a much longer period of time. An Apple discussion thread about the noise is here. Are dogs unusually attentive to, or angry at, your new iPhone 3G S? The folks over at Boy Genius Report have an inkling as ...

Bebot turns your iPhone into the cutest instrument ever

by Mike Schramm (May 15th, 2009)

I don't think I've ever fallen in love with an app as quickly as Bebot. Not only is it a pretty darn powerful synthesizer with an interesting touchscreen interface, but that robot. That robot! He makes you want to play something, anything, with those cute little closed robot eyes and that dashing ...

Capo gives you play-along tempo controls for $39

by Mike Schramm (Apr 21st, 2009)

Capo is a new app from the makers of TapeDeck, and it's the talk of the town amongst musicians -- it allows you to simply change the speed or pitch of any songs you happen to have laying around your computer, so that you can play or sing along with them at your own pace. We got a chance to try out ...

A fistful of apps: WideNoise, Labyrinth 3D, Penalized, Pure Sleep, Army Knife

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Feb 26th, 2009)

Instead of rounding up 16 apps in one review, I'll just tackle five. Links from the title of the app take you directly into iTunes and the App Store. WideNoise measures the noise in an area (using the mic on an iPhone, of course) and registers that online with your location. WideTag will show you ...

Create Digital Music rounds up iTouch / iPhone music apps

by Joshua Ellis (Sep 3rd, 2008)

The lovely and talented Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music has posted a round up of music apps for the iPod / iTouch platform. The list includes tools for using your iPhone as a MIDI/OSC controller, making random weird digital art, visualizing your music and, er, listening to Snow Patrol's ...

SoundMeter for iPhone

by Steven Sande (Aug 13th, 2008)

Do you need to make basic sound level measurements? For example, do you want to prove that your next door neighbor really is playing music loud enough to make your ears bleed? Faber Acoustical is coming to your rescue with their US$19.99 SoundMeter for iPhone. They discovered that both the built-in ...

See your sounds with AudioFinder 4.7

by Brett Terpstra (Jan 4th, 2008)

AudioFinder fits a niche that I admittedly don't have a lot of experience in, but I just gave version 4.7 a test run and I'm impressed. OK, so it got me with its not-bad looks to start with, which gave it a leg up on most of the other prosumer-level audio asset managers I've played with. But it ...