Sound Strength
At the top of the Tape Deck is the recording level monitor. While recording, you can monitor the sound strength of your recording by watching the line. The louder your noise is, the higher the bar will climb.

Current Mics
You will also see an indicator of how many mics you currently have in a small white box appearing at the bottom of the Sound Strength portion of the Tape Deck.

Recording Time
You have 5 seconds to record the sound for your opponent to guess. As you are recording, the timer will show you how much time you have left. If you don't like your recording, you can always re-record.

Gaffes
There are two red dots just benearth the Recording Time box. To make the game funnier, the first two flubbed attempts by you in trying to record your sound (a "gaffe") will be available to your opponent to hear. Sometimes, hearing a gaffe will actually help in correctly guessing the sound. The red dots will turn green if you have recorded a sound and then rejected it. Only the first two gaffes are saved for your opponent to hear.

Record
To start recording your sound, tap the Record button. The cassette tape will begin to turn as you are recording and the Recording Time will begin to count backwards. At the end of 5 seconds, the cassette tape will stop turning. At that point, you have four options: Replay, Trash, Submit or Home. Tapping Replay will cause the cassette tape to rewind so you can listen to your recording before deciding if you want to keep it. Tapping Trash will delete your current recording (and create a gaffe for the first two attempts). Tapping Submit will submit your sound to your opponent for guessing and take you back to the Main Menu. Tapping Home will cancel the current recording session and take you back to the Main Menu.

Guessing mode
When you see "Play", it is your turn to guess your opponent's sound. The top of the screen will show you the current round as well as remind you which opponent you are playing the particular game with. Tap "play" to continue".
In the guessing mode, the Tape Deck looks similar to the Tape Deck in the recording mode, with a couple of exceptions:
The Sound Strength monitor is replaced with the guessing window. This is where the letters for the word corresponding to the sound you are trying to guess will appear. Note that one letter is automatically supplied by us. Aren't we nice?!

Play
Tap the Play button to hear the sound your opponent recorded. You can listen to the recording as many times as you like.

Hint
Tap Hint to reveal a picture that is a hint. Note that the Hint is not supposed to give away the answer. It is a vague hint. You still need to rely primarily on your listening skills to guess the right answer. But, the clue should help point you in the right direction. Hints cost 1 mic per use. There is only one Hint per word. If you tap on Hint, the cassette deck will open up and a clue will pop out. When you are done, tap the "x" in the upper-right hand corner and the Hint will disappear.

Clear
While guessing the letters in a word, if you want to clear all of the letters, tap this button.

Gaffe
If this button is grey, that means that your opponent did not "trash" any of his or her recordings before sending one to you. In other words, your opponent was satisfied with his or her first attempt at recording a sound and sent it to you. If, on the other hand, the button is not grey, this means that there may be one or two flubbed recordings that you can listen to. Sometimes, these are very funny, because your opponent was trying to figure out how to come up with a good recording. Other times, you may find that listening to a gaffe actually helps you guess the correct answer. Listening to gaffes does not cost any mics.

Answer (keyboard symbol)
Tapping the Answer button brings up a board with all of the letters that you will need to complete the correct answer. There are also some additional letters included that are not needed. You didn't think we were going to spoon-feed you, did you?! Tap the letter you wish to appear in the word. As you tap a letter, it will appear in the next open spot in the word. If you make a mistake and wish to remove a letter, simply tap that letter (in the answer board that popped up) and it will disappear. You can also tap the Clear button to clear all letters. As you use a letter, it will be greyed out. If the same letter appears multiple times in the correct answer, there will be sufficent numbers of that letter for you to use. If you input the letters for the correct answer, the game will automatically advance. If you do not, you will be prompted to try again.

Pass
If you simply give up, tap the Pass button and the game will advance. The current round will re-set to 1. On the screen that allows you to continue playing, the correct answer that you should have guessed will scroll across the screen.

Susie
Tap the Susie Soundmaster button if you think your opponent's sound is worthy of recognition. If you nominate your opponent's sound, both you and your opponent will be eligible for Listen Up! prizes. One nominated sound per week will be selected by Susie Soundmaster as the weekly winner. Both the recorder and the nominator will get a shout out on the Listen Up! Facebook page and Twitter page. Of the 4 weekly winners, one will be selected as the monthly winner. If the sound you nominated wins, both you and the recorder will receive official Listen Up! t-shirts! What could be better than that?! Note that when you nominate a sound, the sound is attached to an e-mail on your device and you need to tap "send" to send it to Susie Soundmaster for consideration. Be sure to tap "send" so that Susie Soundmaster receives your nomination.