audicity

Audacious audio editing to go with Audacity Portable

Audacity is one of our favorite audio tools, so we were interested in seeing Audacity Portable, a fully portable version from PortableApps. Like the installed version, Audacity Portable edits your MP3s, WAVs, and other digital audio files. You can remove long intros, extract clips, and change the pitch, tempo, and other parameters of your song files or any audio recording. But, as the name indicates, Audacity Portable is completely portable, which means it runs as soon as you click the program's executable file without having to be installed. You can carry Audacity Portable with you on a USB drive, … Read more

Listening in on Audi 3D audio

LAS VEGAS--Yesterday CNET reported on Audi's announcement of its concept Q7 featuring 3D Audio at CES 2013. Today I got to listen to it.

How do you describe an audio experience? Inside the Q7, the first word that came to my mind was "bigger." In standard, 2D mode, the audio sounded excellent, mostly due to the Bang & Olufsen hardware making up this system. Having driven to many Bang & Olufsen-equipped cars, I did not detect any degradation in the standard audio.

However, when I switched the stereo to 3D mode, the audio seemed to rise up … Read more

The unstoppable advent of the connected car

LAS VEGAS--Sporting booths and displays suitable for a full-fledged car show, major automakers showed off their varying connected car strategies at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

But the automaker displays at CES only held a smattering of cars, the space primarily being taken up by standalone dashboards and kiosks showing in-car navigation, audio, phone, and app screens. I never doubted the benefits of data feeds in cars, as integrating Google search with a navigation system is far better than relying on some static, outdated points-of-interest database.

Knowing the glacial pace of automotive development, what surprised me was how quickly automakers … Read more