is ajax + flash the right tool to be able to record sound over the web

like certain kareoke social networking sites

[rfung]

I've seen some of the above mentioned sites with some sort of apps embedded on the page that allow the user to sing and it records automatically and uploads it back to the site. Is this the technology involved in doing such ? is it a hardware/software intensive application?

[gergoe]

Not that I would say. Look for the gong project (esp. the minigong), it's providing this functionality, although it gives you much more than just recording and playing back.