record

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out with Grammy Award winner and multi-Platinum recording artist Nelly. He talks about all the tech he can't live without, and how he co-founded Vatterott College in St. Louis and the Extreme Institute to teach students skills for making music.

Nelly also talks about his MacBook Pro, Canon EOS 7D that he uses for shooting videos, and the Monster Diamond Tears headphones that surprised him with their sound.

I'll break down the best dSLR cameras for shooting video with Kevin that broadcast professionals are using today. And … Read more

If you're looking to attract attention, setting a Guinness World Record is probably a good way to start.

That was the goal -- attracting attention, that is -- for a group of IBM Research scientists who recently set out to make what turned out be the Guinness World Record-certified smallest stop-motion film ever.

Called "A Boy and His Atom," the animated film features a small boy having a good old time as he bounces around, playing catch, and dancing. The twist? The film was shot at the atomic level and features 130 atoms that were painstakingly placed, atom by atom, as the researchers shot 250 individual frames. The images were created at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and were magnified 100 million times. … Read more

A lot of audiophiles love tube amplifiers, and I've owned my share, but I don't currently have tubes in my main hi-fi system. I instantly remembered what I was missing when I hooked up the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum integrated amplifier with my KEF LS50 speakers. They're good together.

Before founding Rogue Audio in 1996, Mark O'Brien worked for Bell Labs and other companies doing electronics development, lasers, and transformer design. Like so many audio designers I've met over the years, O'Brien started building amplifiers when he was a little kid. Audio is a … Read more

Our iPhone already came equipped with a Voice Memo app, but, hey, we're all about choices. iTalk Recorder claims to be a "full-featured recording app with a streamlined and intuitive user interface." And after putting it to the test, we'd have to agree with that statement.

iTalk Recorder does indeed offer a simple and intuitive interface. Users are greeted with a large, prominent red button that you press to start recording. To get started, simply give the recording a name, select from the three different recording quality options (Good, Better, Best), and press the Record button; … Read more

Alexander Graham Bell is known for inventing the telephone; but for someone so associated with sound, it's curious that no one living has actually ever heard the tenor of his voice.

However, as of Wednesday, anyone can hear what he sounded like. New technology has brought a 128-year-old recording made by Bell back to life, according to Smithsonian magazine.

The artifact, a wax and cardboard disc, has most likely been unplayable for at least a century. According to Smithsonian, Bell worked on several different ways to record sound, including using foil, wax, glass, paper, plaster, metal, and cardboard. Not … Read more

If you still buy music in a physical format, Record Store Day is for you. Stores stock special releases and have sales on LPs and CDs, so if you're lucky enough to live near a record shop, drop by on Saturday and see what's up. Check the RSD Web site to find participating stores, and touch some (physical) music.

Here in NYC, two of my favorite shops, Downtown Music Gallery and In Living Stereo, are pulling out all the stops. Downtown's Bruce Lee Gallanter and Manny Maris are two of the guys I count on for their … Read more

Anyone who misses the fuzzy quality of old VHS tapes can take a nostalgic tour courtesy of YouTube.

Celebrating the birth of the first commercial videotape recorder 57 years ago, YouTube has added an option to certain videos to let you view them in old VHS mode. Instead of sporting today's cleaner digital look, the videos appear in a scratchy, static-filled screen.

One such video to get the VHS treatment is a clip from the Pixar film "Ratatouille." Just click on the Enable Tape Mode icon to travel back in time and watch the video in all … Read more

If you want to ditch your personal recording device, you can use your smartphone to replace it. iRig Recorder is an app specifically designed to capture the full power of your smartphone's microphone to record audio. Its layout is smooth, but the features and recording quality leave a lot to be desired.

The app doesn't put any limit on your recording and even lets you know how much data you have left. That makes it easy to know when you should cap your recording for space concerns. The app's menu also tells you how much battery life … Read more

Users who want to apply audio files to their project may need to edit them first. Ondesoft Audio Recorder for Mac, despite its basic interface, applies desired, albeit limited, modifications to songs or other audio files.

Ondesoft Audio Recorder for Mac offers a free trial version, which limits playback to two minutes of audio. Unlocking the full version requires a $29.95 payment. The program's small size allowed for a fast installation. Other than a pop-up menu describing the trial version and requesting a key to unlock the program, setup did not require any user actions. It is unclear … Read more