Sound Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

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 ...

TUAW Tip: Use ambient noise reduction for chats and sound recording

by David Chartier (Feb 28th, 2007)

I do a decent amount of audio recording and chatting, but I don't ever remember seeing this option in System Preferences until last night. Turning on the "Use ambient noise reduction" feature under the Input tab of the Sound pane can help cut out the TV or dogs barking in the background, though ...

Goofy iPod Accessory: iSoundCap

by David Chartier (Aug 5th, 2006)

I guess the $2 billion iPod accessory market is inspiring everyone to snag a piece of the pie, no matter how... unique their accessory concept might be. Behold: the iSoundCap, a 'breakthrough' way to carry your iPod nano or shuffle. As you can see from the diagram, this stylish cap comes with a ...

Star Wars Kid revisited with MacBook

by David Chartier (May 24th, 2006)

I'm finally done being in pain from laughter to post this hilarious revisit of the Star Wars Kid using that MacSaber app we found over the weekend. Great work, YouTube user mathowie. [via Waxy.org] ...

iTMS introduces "New Rock Revealed" weekly band explorations

by David Chartier (May 23rd, 2006)

The iTMS has introduced an intriguing new service called "New Rock Revealed", where one band's music will be dissected each week to find who their roots and inspirations were, as well as similar sounds you can find today. This first week looks at Pearl Jam's new album (which rocks, by the way), ...