mp3

Dynamic Range Day comes to us from Turn Me Up, a non-profit music organization working with artists and recording professionals who are promoting more dynamic recordings. Most contemporary recordings are anything but; they are mixed to sound loud all the time.

I know that might seem ridiculous, every music player--radio, iPod, hi-fi, or home theater system--has a volume control. You can listen quietly or turn it way up, but do you realize that every recording--every album, video, movie, or TV show--has been mixed with a fixed relative loudness level? Many movies have extremely wide soft-to-loud dynamic range, but nowadays music … Read more

I'm looking at my hopelessly low-tech 1940s-era doorbell. Its most impressive feature is a light-up button outside. If only I could make it play "Friday" instead of "ding-dong."

For $50, I can upgrade to MP3 doorbell technology, thanks to Swann's MP3 DJ Doorbell. The wireless design makes installation easy. It consists of a speaker unit that you mount inside and a push button doorbell unit that you mount outside. … Read more

Apple doesn't want consumers to buy tablets, it wants them to buy iPads.

That's likely the thinking behind Apple's head-scratching move to dub its latest product the new iPad, dropping any numbers or suffixes.

By moving back to just iPad for the name, Apple can better crystalize its marketing effort under a single brand. More importantly, the company can take its dominant market position and push to have "iPad" supersede "tablet" as the generic name for a tablet computing device. Think Kleenex for tissues, Photoshop for image manipulation, or Apple's own iPod … Read more

It's been a rough week for the Cheapskate. The blog, I mean, not the man. (I'm doing fine.) First that super-cheap powerline Ethernet kit sold out in what seemed like minutes, then yesterday's free DVD ripper caused all kinds of confusion (as these things always seem to do, despite my best efforts at making the instructions clear).

But do I buckle? Do I bend? Hell, no! I come roaring back with a week's worth of goodies in a single post! Because no way can five deals sell out. Bring it on, universe!

1. This is probably … Read more

Forget spending countless hours and dollars on a viral video--hello OK Go!--one band is doing viral the old fashioned way.

You probably haven't heard of Dry The River, but come this March you will, and if you're in London it will be via the old fashioned "lover's phone": a tin can on a string.

Twelve posters are scattered around London which, if you hold the can up to your ear, will play a track from Dry The River's new album "Shallow Bed."

The posters feature animals constructed from wires pulled from … Read more

Sony is warning consumers in Japan that a defect may cause their Walkman music player to malfunction.

According to the warning, the 2GB Sony NW-E052 Walkman can simply stop turning on or remain stuck at the boot screen. The company warns that other unrelated issues may cause similar errors but is confirming an issue within the integrated circuit for several large ranges of serial numbers: 7120001 to 7160000, 7190001 to 7210000, 7250001 to 7350000, and 8150001 to 8220000.

While this Walkman is limited to Japan, it is worth noting that Sony produced a very similar Walkman, the NWZ-E460 series, in … Read more

Happy Valentine's Day, peeps! (Actually, shouldn't that be "cheeps"? Hey, I like that. From now on, you're all my cheeps.) I love you guys and gals--even when you accuse me of running scams, ha-ha.

I thought I'd switch things up today. Instead of my usual deal (see this early-morning Marketplace post if you still need your fix), let's talk about something a little more abstract.

Yesterday, I learned that music-on-demand service Spotify now streams at 320Kbps via its iOS app. That's CD-quality, which got me thinking: do we really need CDs anymore?… Read more

Audio Hijack Pro is an affordable audio-recording workhorse for the Mac, capable of capturing audio from applications, devices such as microphones, or any other source that runs through your machine.

Audio Hijack Pro's clean, two-paned, iTunes-like interface focuses on sources that you can capture--which means just about anything, from software to hardware. By default, the left pane includes some of the usual suspects that you might want to record (DVD Player, iChat, iTunes, QuickTime Player, RealPlayer, Safari, Skype, your system audio, and default system input), but you can easily add additional sources, such as other apps or devices.

You … Read more

High-resolution formats like Blu-ray, DVD-Audio, SACD, and LP are all capable of delivering superb sound quality, but having music in those formats doesn't automatically guarantee great sound. The recording itself would first have to sound great, or to put it another way, a great sounding MP3 would sound better than a heavily compressed and studio processed 192-kHz/24-bit Master Audio Blu-ray.

Worrying about what sounds better--FLAC, WAV, or AIFF files--is a total waste of time if you're listening to an Adele or Black Keys album: the music's processing levels are so extreme, there's nothing for … Read more