On Monday, a team of scientists in Australia announced an exciting breakthrough: For the first time, researchers were able to turn light into sound on a microchip. But—as crazy-sounding new physics applications tend to be—it’s probably going to be a long time before you see one of these chips on a computer you can…
Google has surveyed the advertising landscape that it dominates and determined that it’s time for a change. Beginning in January, its Chrome web browser will mute autoplay video ads with sound by default. The effort is being framed as a drive to clean up the web, but it could just as easily be interpreted as a…
Ever notice how Christopher Nolan’s movies (Interstellar, Inception, The Prestige) feel like an anxiety attack? Well, maybe that’s overstating things a bit. But the director does have a knack for creating an unnerving degree of tension. Turns out he’s using a little bit of musical magic to do it.
There’s an old mantra in the security world that anything can be hacked. And the more complex our devices become, the more methods hackers dream up to break into them. Case in point: A team of researchers can use sound waves to control anything from a smartphone (seriously) to a car (theoretically).
Vworp. Kapow. Biff, bang, pow! The onomatopoeic words we’ve seen splayed out across comic pages over the years are some of the most important parts (and iconic) of the medium. But how do artists and writers actually come up with the words? For legendary Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, there’s a lot of fun involved.
We’ve all been there: building a scale model of the Death Star in our basement and thinking, “I just wish this had a tractor beam to grab onto my tiny styrofoam Millennium Falcon.” Now, thanks to a team of scientists, you can put the finishing touches on that model with your very own sonic tractor beam. Okay, maybe we…
When the first trailer for The Mummy dropped a few weeks ago, it was, like most action movie trailers, a cacophony of sound and fury... but thanks to a delightful IMAX goof, now we sort of can imagine what it sounds like during filming, which it turns out is kind of silly.
You no longer have to be a Stradivarius, a Gibson, or even a Steinway to make your own musical instruments. Anyone with access to a 3D printer and this simple software, developed by Autodesk Research, can turn any 3D model into a wind instrument capable of playing a variety of different notes.
Whether you’re gaming, watching movies, or streaming Spotify, there are likely to be times when your laptop’s default sound setup doesn’t quite hit the highs and lows you’re looking for. If you don’t want to settle for subpar audio any longer, there are ways to improve it, and we’ve outlined some of the best below.
None of us will probably ever make it to the red planet but if you want to get a feel for what Mars would sound like (or hear what it’s like from inside an airlock), saddle up with this video from Cody’s Lab. He drops a camera inside a vacuum chamber and then turns down the pressure to mimic what it’s like on Mars. He…
To an audiophile, there’s no such thing as ‘too expensive’ if it means an upgrade to their setup could improve their listening experience. And in Japan, some acoustic connoisseurs are now installing their own utility poles, with custom transformers, to ensure all of their audio gear is getting the purest power…
Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad sits down to talk about music—its purpose, its function, its meaning—with filmmaker Mac Premo in this wildly frenetic video and somehow manages to explain why music is so special. Abumrad says that unlike words, which are basically just a code or an agreement between people, music just is what…
I’m not sure what I love most about foley artists: is it their wildly creative ways to recreate sound? The totally locked-in concentration they have to follow a scene? The all-around goofiness of the gig?
Turtle Beach’s Hypersound Glass speakers use a sheet of transparent glass to drive sound in a highly focused beam directly in front of them while being inaudible outside the beam’s range. Welcome to never knowing why you’re hearing ads all the time—our Blade Runner hell future has arrived.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is the closing chapter of Nathan Drake’s treasure hunting adventures. The game is made by Naughty Dog, a developer known more recently for the survival thriller The Last of Us. The unifying thread among developer’s projects is that they’re exceptionally cinematic, even more so than most…
When a pigeon flies, you can hear it sloppily slap its wings as it makes its way through the air. When a peregrine falcon flies, the flight is powerful and beautiful, but you can still hear the movement. When a barn owl flies? Complete silence. It’s amazing to see. BBC Earth set up microphones along the flight path of…
When Brendan Farrell was shopping for a house in Los Angeles, he noticed how real estate sites readily listed a property’s walkability and nearby schools. But the presence of noise—one of the most important quality-of-life factors—remained elusive, and invisible. Farrell realized he could use his skills as an applied…
God, what a special movie. One that not only could I watch over and over again but also just listen to. Here is Zackery Ramos-Taylor splicing scenes that highlight the sound of Mad Max: Fury Road. They all combine to do such a good job in making you feel as if you’re inside the desolate wasteland.
What noise does a zebra make, again? There’s no need to guess, because now you can search for “animal noises” and you’ll be presented with a panel that lets you hear roars, oinks, quacks and more. Silly, yes—but also oddly compelling, especially if you have children.
The urban aural landscape has a huge impact on our lives—from the roar of traffic and clatter of jackhammer, to the groove of music and lullaby of birdsong. These maps roll that information together to let you explore how cities around the world sound.
