#audio-engineering
40 episodes
#3113: Baby Vital Signs: What Actually Works for Home Monitoring
Pulse oximeters, thermometers, and stethoscopes for infants — what's accurate and what's dangerously misleading.
#3097: Measuring Car Horns: Phone Apps vs. Court Evidence
Can a phone spectrogram app prove which car honked? Usually not — here's what you actually need.
#3076: Heat Shrink vs Sharpie: Cable Labeling That Actually Lasts
Sharpie labels fade in 12 weeks. Heat-shrink labels survive 18 months of touring. Here's what actually works.
#3047: Frankincense in Your Laundry: Scent Chemistry Explained
How ancient temple resin ended up in detergent, and the chemistry that makes it work.
#2964: The Physics of Tiny Speakers: How 46mm Fools Your Ears
How a 46mm driver uses psychoacoustic tricks to fake bass — and why it’s accidentally perfect for podcasts.
#2960: Small Camera vs Phone for Baby Videos
Can any compact camera beat a phone for capturing newborn moments in low light? We break down the options.
#2846: The Quest for Earbuds That Actually Fit
Why your earbuds won't stay put — and three paths to a secure fit, from aftermarket tips to custom molds.
#2845: Why Reading Patents Is Always Free
Google Patents, Espacenet, and the secret weapon of classification codes for tracking ANC innovation.
#2843: Why Solar Gadgets Fail: The Missing Battery Buffer
Why your solar USB panel can't run a Raspberry Pi — and the fix that actually works.
#2836: Can ANC Handle Real City Noise Now?
ANC has gotten smarter, not just stronger. Can it handle construction noise? And what about cancelling noise in a whole room?
#2821: The Trench Coat Is on Fire: Making Smart Home Parts Interrupt Each Other
Three engineering problems in a trench coat. Make Zigbee sirens, Snapcast speakers, and push-to-talk audio actually work together.
#2818: The Connector Built for War Zones
The chunky military connectors in control centers aren't USB. Here's what they are, and how to use them on a laptop.
#2783: Can a DAP Cure Your Distraction Addiction?
A listener asks if anyone still makes a decent non-phone audio player. The answer is yes—with a few important caveats.
#2767: The Anonymous Virtuosos of Elevator Music
The surprising history of Muzak, the military general who invented it, and the session musicians who made music designed to be ignored.
#2750: The Politics of Lighting Protocols
DMX, sACN, Eos vs. grandMA3—how the booth actually controls the lights.
#2707: Foot Pedals vs USB Buttons: The Ergonomics of Dictation
Foot pedals, USB buttons, and under-desk macro pads for voice dictation — a deep dive into the hardware that makes AI dictation work.
#2670: When Your Projector's App Store Dies
Brightness, screens, and software longevity — what to look for when buying a portable projector.
#2625: White Noise vs Pink vs Brown: What Actually Works
What makes mechanical sound machines like the Dohm different from digital ones — and which noise color actually helps you sleep?
#2603: Defining the Agentic Workspace
How composable AI agent skills turn tedious media tasks into one-instruction operations for creatives.
#2602: Letting Non-Experts Direct Audio Tools Through Conversation
How to use AI for podcast mastering — and why agentic AI works better for small tasks than big promises.
#2598: Why Israeli Walls Fail at Sound — and How to Fix Them
Why noise isolation in Israeli apartments fails, and what actually works for soundproofing walls and windows.
#2554: Bluffer's Guide to Car Talk: Sound Like You Know Engines
Stop saying "it went clunk." Learn the phrases that make mechanics think you know what you're talking about.
#2543: Why Base64 Adds 33% Overhead (And Why You Still Need It)
Base64 isn’t compression — it’s a safe transport encoding. Here’s how it works with audio APIs and where its limits are.
#2501: Describing a Neighborhood: Databases Without Screens
Can you design a relational database using only your voice? We coach a beginner through PostgreSQL from scratch.
#1952: Why We Built a 24/7 AI Radio Station
We turned our 1800-episode archive into a continuous AI-powered radio stream. Here’s the tech stack and the philosophy behind it.
#1903: The Streaming vs. Disc Quality Trade-Off
Streaming 4K movies hits 25 Mbps, while Blu-rays push 100 Mbps. Here’s why your shadows look gray and your audio lacks punch.
#1898: The Vinyl of Video: Why Laserdisc Refuses to Die
It spun at 1800 RPM, stored movies analog, and cost a fortune—yet Laserdisc’s legacy endures.
#1895: Why QVC Thrives in the Age of Amazon
Forget the death of TV shopping. QVC and catalogs are a $12B powerhouse. Discover why seniors and millennials are choosing phone calls over clicks.
#1875: Why TOSLINK Beats USB for Noisy Mini PCs
Is optical really better than USB? We break down the noise, jitter, and bandwidth trade-offs in your home audio setup.
#1545: Containers vs. Codecs: The Black Box of Export Settings
Stop guessing at export settings. Learn the difference between codecs and wrappers and why your Bluetooth audio might be losing quality.
#1372: Why 18.9 Hertz Makes You See Ghosts
Explore the eerie science of infrasound, from haunted laboratories and elephant rumbles to the legendary "brown note" urban legend.
#947: Pro Audio in Acoustic Nightmares: Mobile Recording Tips
Learn how to turn a marble-floored room into a studio using your phone, simple blankets, and the right USB-C gear.
#868: When Your Phone's Mic Beats Your Expensive Gear
Stop holding your phone like a piece of toast. Explore the best mobile microphone setups for high-quality AI voice transcription.
#732: Why Your Recorded Voice Sounds Wrong
Use AI to find your perfect EQ profile and build a pro vocal chain. Fix nasality, master de-essing, and sound your best on any device.
#731: The EQ Lasagna Problem: A Signal Processing Hierarchy
Stop layering filters on top of filters. Learn the technically correct way to sync your home audio without creating a muddy "EQ lasagna."
#725: Finding a Speaker That Loves Voices
Stop listening to podcasts through tinny speakers. Learn how to choose hardware optimized for the human voice and clear, room-filling audio.
#647: The Golden Rule of Audio Engineering
Why does digital data need to become analog? Explore the physics of sound and the critical role of the DAC in modern audio engineering.
#598: Audio Engineering as Prompt Engineering: Better Sound, Better AI
Can better audio quality actually make an AI smarter? Discover how audio post-production functions as a new form of prompt engineering.
#120: Silencing the Siren: Real-Time AI Noise Reduction
How do phones remove sirens and crying babies in real time? Explore the neural networks and hardware making crystal-clear audio possible.
#69: Why the Gooseneck Mic Beats Studio Gear for AI
The gooseneck mic: a humble hero with surprising AI power. Discover its secret to crystal-clear speech-to-text accuracy!