This application note describes how to record, store and play back sound using any AVR microcontroller with A/D converter,the AT45DB161 DataFlash memory and a few extra components. This application note shows in detail the usage of the A/D Converter for sound recording, the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) for accessing the external DataFlash memory and the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) for playback. Typical applications that would require one or more of these blocks are temperature loggers, telephone answering machines,or digital voice recorders.