Mission to Zyxx might be the best podcast. This science fiction comedy -- a mix of Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- that leans on original jokes instead of references, is definitely the best of the current wave of fictional podcasts, partly because of its unique process. The cast improvises each episode with just a loose premise to guide them.

Then a three-person team edits and sound designs the show, cutting it down by over half and adding sound effects, voice effects, music, transitions, and ambience. The end result is as fresh as any improv show, but as slick as anything scripted. In a detailed instalment of How I Work, all seven of the show's cast and crew broke down their creative and technical process for each episode. There's lots to learn in here for comedians, actors, writers, editors, and sound professionals.

Lifehacker recently published a video in which two subjects test the functions of an Amazon Echo. Soon after, our Senior Technology Editor, David Murphy alerted the video team that anyone watching the video at home through speakers would find their Echo repeatedly activated each time someone in the video spoke the wake word “Alexa.”

Mac: If you need to route audio from one Mac to another, say, from a microphone to Skype to Audacity, the go-to tool has long been the often baffling, occasionally unreliable Soundflower. Loopback is a new app that does the same basic thing, but makes it a heck of lot easier to manage.

Capturing crystal-clear audio with an external microphone can be tricky -- especially if you're recording from a cluttered desk. Here's a simple sound-vibration hack from IKEA Hackers designed to make the life easier for bloggers, journalists and bedroom musicians.

If you need a soundtrack to go with your film project, or you're a musician looking to produce the next big hit, a good audio editor is necessary to eliminate noise, convert files, edit tracks and output the finished product. We've rounded up five of the best audio-editing applications in this list, which includes both pure audio editors and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).

Myna, a free online audio tool from the makers of reader favourite image editor Phoenix, lets pretty much anyone jump into recording, arranging, and mixing audio tracks for quickie soundtracks, or just for the fun of it.

Windows only: Lengthy MP3s, like a poorly converted audiobook or an analogue to digital recording, often need to be chopped into smaller, easily managed MP3s. MP3Extractor will make short work of it.

Windows/Linux only: LMMS puts a powerful set of music-making tools into one window, letting those who can't swing a home studio roll samples, bass grooves, synths, and other effects into high-quality audio files.

Windows only: MP3DirectCut is a non-destructive MP3 editor. Quickly slice and dice your MP3 files without having to decompress them for editing. If you need to quickly alter an MP3 without compromising quality MP3DirectCut allows you to cut, copy, paste as well as change the volume, fade and normalize MP3 audio all without having to decompress the file. In addition to the basics functions it has a built in ID3 editor, cue sheet support, loop play, and command line support. Save yourself the hassle of decompressing and re-encoding your files over simple edits. Although it the download is an installer, all application settings are written to the local folder. The application is fully portable, simply delete the desktop shortcut it creates after you install it to your flash drive. If you're looking for a straight forward way to quickly merge your MP3s together, check out MP3 Merge. MP3irectCut is freeware, Windows only. MP3DirectCut

Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): The latest beta of Audacity, the open-source, all-purpose audio editor, integrates the FFMpeg tool to allow working with Windows Media, MPEG-4 and Dolby Digital (i.e. M4A and AC3) files, along with a lot of other new features for its fans. Those with FFMpeg already installed only have to locate their avformat-52.dll file in the Import/Export preferences setting to enable the (beta-level) support for non-standard files. Those without will get direct download links to the needed package in Audacity's preferences window. One neat new feature on the editing end is sound-activated recording, which is definitely helpful for grabbing sounds from other apps. Audacity 1.3.6 beta is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Audacity 1.3.6 beta

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.

Windows only -You know that big collection of LPs and tapes you don't play anymore? Well the Giveaway of the Day website is offering a free app which looks like a great way to kick off the move to digitising your music collection. Similar to open source app Audacity, Cool Record Edit Pro is a Windows-based app which allows you to record and clean up sound files from a range of sources.It includes a click and crackle filter for cleaning vinyl records, a
noise filter for cassette-tape recordings, and an equaliser to enhance
the sound quality of all recordings.Cool Record Edit Pro supports MPEG (MP3, MP2), WAV, Windows Media
Audio, Ogg Vorbis, Audio Tracks and Dialogic VOX) audio formats, and you can convert audio files from one format to another. The system requirements are:
Windows 98/Me/2000/2003/XP, Windows Vista or better; CPU: >750MHz Intel or AMD CPU; RAM: 64 MB RAM or above.Sounds like a good potential weekend project. If you try it out, let me know how you get on. :)Cool Record Edit Pro

Windows only: Free open source conversion app MediaCoder Audio Edition is like the audio-geek cousin of its easy-to-use, all-purpose brethren, MediaCoder. The main difference is in the sheer breadth of audio file types supported (including the iTunes default M4A, FLAC, and really esoteric stuff like "Enhanced 3GGP" and "OptimFrog Encoder") and the many ways you can grab that audio—from DVDs, video files, or even web playlists. MediaCoder Audio Edition even supports the sound-tweaking DSP plugins made for Winamp, but offers a wealth of audio tweaks on its own. MediaCoder Audio Edition is a free download for Windows 98 and later systems, with 32- and 64-bit versions offered.
MediaCoder Audio Edition

Windows only: It's no secret we're a fan of the free, open source, cross-platform audio editor Audacity for most editing needs, but anyone looking for a lighter-weight, portable editor might do well by free application Wavosaur application. Running from one file that's less than 1MB, Wavosaur can perform most basic cuts, effects, and encoding tasks, as well as handle MP3s without requiring a plugin. If you can't fit Audacity and the rest of the Portable Apps Suite onto your thumb drive, Wavosaur could make for a worthwhile tool. Wavosaur is a free download, works on Windows systems only.
Wavosaur