Sound

people in a public square

Barcelona is one of Europe’s loudest cities. It’s trying to turn down the volume.

Around 60 million adults in European cities are exposed to noise that’s harmful to health. 

A baseball player watches a foul ball go into stands filled with photos of fans.

Can artificial crowd noise match the thrill of packed stadiums?

Sports
a black and white Herrera and her band in a recording studio

Exclusive 360-degree video: Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider perform ‘Balderrama’

Is It Live or Is It Memorex?

Arts, Culture & Media

Watch a Water Droplet Dance in a Field of Sound

Arts, Culture & Media
Ben Mirin, beatboxer, bird watcher

His beats are pretty fly for a bird guy

Music

“My craft is about using beatbox to build a bridge to the natural world,” says Ben Mirin, a world-traveling field ornithologist who mixes his passion for beats with his beatboxing ability to create music.

Pianos rest in the Case Department of the Steinway piano factory in Astoria, Queens, awaiting finishing. Once each is complete, it will have its own, specific sound.

Science tries to understand what gives a piano its voice

Music

Each piano sounds different, based on the wood its made of, the way its strung, even the “heaviness” of its hammers. Scientists at NYU want to understand those minute differences, and where different sounds come from in a piano. So they’ve started an incredible recording project.

Pianos rest in the Case Department of the Steinway piano factory in Astoria, Queens, awaiting finishing. Once each is complete, it will have its own, specific sound.

Science tries to understand what gives a piano its voice

Music

Each piano sounds different, based on the wood its made of, the way its strung, even the “heaviness” of its hammers. Scientists at NYU want to understand those minute differences, and where different sounds come from in a piano. So they’ve started an incredible recording project.

Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax

Meet the ‘dangerous Belgian’ who invented the sax

Arts, Culture & Media

Belgian Adolphe Sax invented a number of musical instruments, though none has had quite the impact of the saxophone. When a listener to PRI’s The World asked us to dive into Sax’s story, Clark Boyd took the challenge.

Music Heard on Air for September 10, 2013

Music Heard on Air

Tunes played between reports and interviews for The World on September 10, 2013 include songs by: The Spy from Cairo, Kentyah Presents, Jayme Stone, Tareq Abboushi & Shusmo and Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba