Flap t is not a ''d'' but a ''t''.

Hey, i'm confused, what do you mean with fronted?
and how i'm supposed to know where to use each different (ae) sound?

so when you say madder you pronounce a D sound
and when you say matter you pronounce a R sound like in spanish ?
right

"Fronted" means a vowel more in the front of the mouth than in the back of the mouth. "Raised" means it is spoken more towards the roof of the mouth. A "tensed" ae sound is one that is both fronted and raised. Most Americans invariably tense the /ae/ sound before nasals like /n/, such as in the words "pants" and "can."

So can someone upload a audio file with their pronunciations of either "matter" and "madder", and see if others can guess it right?

here's my sample... im not from the US, but does the following audio file sound like matter or madder to you?

http://www.geocities.com/chris_denzie/1.wav

i hope someone from the US can upload another audio file. Thanks!

Sorry, I found out that you can't click on the address that I posted last time, but you have to copy and paste the URL on ur address bar and press enter. Looks like Geocities is restricting direct link to this file. Thanks.

P.S. Can someone guess where I'm from?

It's such a subtle difference that I doubt an American would even be able to tell the difference.

Guy,
With that kind of American pronunciation (the wav file), the vowel stress/duration of "a" in matter and madder could be pronounced identically. It's like... many Americans pronounce "ferry" and "fairy" identically; the duration of the vowel is compromised so its neither long nor short, but in between. I think most other English speakers always make the distinction.

"Ferry" and "Fairy" It never even occured to me that there was a diffference. No one that I have ever heard makes the distinction between those words in the US.