Windows only: Free record-and-compress utility JDVoiceMail might make you think twice about taking the time to send your parents a voice message, or make it easier to explain something in your own voice to a co-worker. Set JDVoiceMail to a high-compression codec like TrueSpeech, GSM, or MP3, and hit the red button to start recording. You'll see on-screen just how much time and space you're using. Set up email access, and your files get auto-attached to an email with its subject already set. You can also use JDVoiceMail to simply save a small voice file for your web site or other uses. JDVoiceMail is a free download for Windows systems only.

All platforms: Free audio editing application WavePad Sound Editor can help you cut down an MP3 to ringtone size or remix that cute voicemail. It has basic editing features such as cut, copy, paste, insert and auto-trim and effects such as amplify, normalize, envelope, sample conversion and more. WavePad has support for many audio formats including WAV, MP3, VOX, GSM, Real Audio, AU, AIF, FLAC, and OGG. WavePad also comes with voice-activated recording and a built-in CD ripper with CDDB music database lookup. For another robust sound editor, check out Audacity. WavePad is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Windows only: Free application Xrecode converts your audio files from popular formats to any of the same formats. While it may not have the complexity and advanced features of previously mentioned MediaEncoder Audio Edition, it's also less complicated to use—just drag files you want to convert into Xrecode, choose the output format, and get started. Xrecode also sets itself apart with smart options for splitting audio by CUE files or by silence—perfect for quickly splitting large audio files, like your vinyl-to-MP3 conversion. Xrecode is freeware, Windows only.

Web site I Dose offers several downloadable, streaming binaural beats designed to alter your mood. With offerings like Intelligence Increase, Aspirin (recommended against headaches), and Chakras opening, I can't vouch for the claimed restorative benefits of binaural beats, but at the very least they provide some solid white noise.

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Web application SimplyNoise provides a no-frills interface to configure relaxing white noise right in your browser. Just fire up the web site and adjust the sliding orb to the intensity of white noise that's your sweet spot. As the site points out, white noise can be helpful for everything from aiding sleep to blocking distraction, and SimplyNoise is a no-nonsense application that does just that. If you'd prefer a little more depth and customisation from your white noise application, check out previously mentioned desktop apps like the Windows-only ChatterBlocker or the Mac-only Noise.

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Linux only: If you've got a batch of audio files to convert, or you're just not keen on messing with a full-fledged editor to do the job, Audio-Convert-Mod, a free Linux utility, has you covered. The straight-forward app takes in files, asks you how and where to convert them to, and does the work—no fuss, no muss. You'll need a few packages related to the various formats you'll want to work with, but the app seems to handle MP3s, M4P/M4A (unprotected, of course), Ogg Vorbis, and other formats with relative east. Audio-Convert-Mod is a free download for Linux systems only; it comes pre-packaged for Fedora systems, but I had no trouble installing using the alien tool in Ubuntu.

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Instructables poster Justin Seiter didn't let a slightly cheesey but expensive Hallmark card with audio go to waste. Using a glue gun, a junky set of old headphones, electrical tape, a utility knife and a mini-cereal box, he created a speaker for his iPod (or any stereo-jack-accepting device). It might not power your home theatre, but it gets stereo sound from the headphone wires and might make for a geek-pride spare speaker in a bedroom or bathroom. Hit the link for full instructions on piecing your childhood breakfast favourites and throwaway electronics into modern audio accessories.

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For YouTube videos, presentations, or even just system sounds, having the right sound effect file can make all the difference. FindSounds, a search engine focused on audio files, is a heck of a lot more convenient than typing ".wav" into Google and wading through inconsistent results. Type in what you're looking for and specify parameters, and the results are offered in playable previews and waveform diagrams. I almost always found relevant results in the 10 or so test searches I performed, and being able to see how long the sound helps winnow down results when you're hunting just the right sound to fit into a project. Got your own sound clip search methods? Share 'em in the comments.

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Linux only: Control the volume of individual Linux applications and other sound-producing items with PulseAudio Volume Control, a free download for Linux systems. That in itself is a pretty handy feature, given how often many of us watch and listen to streaming, Flash-based media, but PulseAudio's volume control applet remembers your settings when you log in, lets you kill sound support to particular apps, and control microphone and other input volumes in a similar manner .The Volume Control applet requires use of the PulseAudio sound driver, enabled by default in Ubuntu 8.04 (now in beta) but installable in nearly any Linux distro. PulseAudio Volume Control is a free download, available in source packages and in some repositories; hit the via link for the Ubuntu installation line.

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If you've spent hours ripping a DVD or downloading a video just to find—when all's said and done—that the audio and video aren't matching up, reader Will suggests using video-Swiss-Army-knife VLC's desynchronisation feature to sync up the audio.

In the VLC Preferences, click on Audio and then tick the Advanced options checkbox; there is an Audio desynchronization compensation setting that allows you to set a positive or negative time delay between the video and audio tracks in milliseconds. I find unsynchronized video/audio unbearable, and have been known to delete files without watching them for it. It never occurred to me that there would be such a simple solution!