diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index cf1b455..e6621d6 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -19,8 +19,11 @@ Suppressor = "0.2"
 
 [extras]
 Documenter = "e30172f5-a6a5-5a46-863b-614d45cd2de4"
+DSP = "717857b8-e6f2-59f4-9121-6e50c889abd2"
+FFTW = "7a1cc6ca-52ef-59f5-83cd-3a7055c09341"
+GR = "28b8d3ca-fb5f-59d9-8090-bfdbd6d07a71"
 LibSndFile = "b13ce0c6-77b0-50c6-a2db-140568b8d1a5"
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
 
 [targets]
-test = ["Documenter", "LibSndFile", "Test"]
+test = ["DSP", "Documenter", "FFTW", "GR", "LibSndFile", "Test"]
diff --git a/examples/audiometer.jl b/examples/audiometer.jl
index 3bac247..9800cfc 100644
--- a/examples/audiometer.jl
+++ b/examples/audiometer.jl
@@ -4,18 +4,23 @@ using PortAudio
 Continuously read from the default audio input and plot an
 ASCII level/peak meter
 """
-function micmeter(metersize)
-    mic = PortAudioStream(1, 0; latency = 0.1)
-
-    signalmax = zero(eltype(mic))
-    println("Press Ctrl-C to quit")
-    while true
-        block = read(mic, 512)
-        blockmax = maximum(abs.(block)) # find the maximum value in the block
-        signalmax = max(signalmax, blockmax) # keep the maximum value ever
-        print("\r") # reset the cursor to the beginning of the line
-        printmeter(metersize, blockmax, signalmax)
+function micmeter(seconds; metersize = 80)
+    PortAudioStream(1, 0; latency = 0.1) do mic
+        done = false
+        signalmax = zero(eltype(mic))
+        @sync begin
+            @async while !done
+                block = read(mic, 512)
+                blockmax = maximum(abs.(block)) # find the maximum value in the block
+                signalmax = max(signalmax, blockmax) # keep the maximum value ever
+                print("\r") # reset the cursor to the beginning of the line
+                printmeter(metersize, blockmax, signalmax)
+            end
+            sleep(seconds)
+            done = true
+        end
     end
+    nothing
 end
 
 """
@@ -52,4 +57,4 @@ function barcolor(metersize, position)
     end
 end
 
-micmeter(80)
+micmeter(5)
diff --git a/examples/lilyplay.jl b/examples/lilyplay.jl
index a9904f6..8dbc19e 100644
--- a/examples/lilyplay.jl
+++ b/examples/lilyplay.jl
@@ -1,22 +1,8 @@
-using Distributed, PortAudio
+using PortAudio
+using Base.Threads: @spawn
 
 # Modified from Jiahao Chen's example in the obsolete AudioIO module.
 # Will use first output device found in system's listing or DEFAULTDEVICE if set below
-const DEFAULTDEVICE = -1
-
-function paudio()
-    devs = PortAudio.devices()
-    if DEFAULTDEVICE < 0
-        devnum = findfirst(x -> x.maxoutchans > 0, devs)
-        (devnum == nothing) && error("No output device for audio found")
-    else
-        devnum = DEFAULTDEVICE + 1
-    end
-    return ostream = PortAudioStream(devs[devnum].name, 0, 2)
-end
-
-play(ostream, sample::Array{Float64, 1}) = write(ostream, sample)
-play(ostr, sample::Array{Int64, 1}) = play(ostr, Float64.(sample))
 
 struct Note{S <: Real, T <: Real}
     pitch::S
@@ -35,14 +21,13 @@ function play(
     if !A.sustained
         decay_length = div(length(timesamples), 5)
         v[(end - decay_length):(end - 1)] =
-            v[(end - decay_length):(end - 1)] .* LinRange(1, 0, decay_length)
+        v[(end - decay_length):(end - 1)] .* LinRange(1, 0, decay_length)
     end
-    play(ostream, v)
-    sleep(A.duration)
+    write(ostream, v)
 end
 
 function parsevoice(melody::String; tempo = 132, beatunit = 4, lyrics = nothing)
-    ostream = paudio() # initialize audio for output
+    ostream = PortAudioStream(0, 2; warn_xruns = false) # initialize audio for output
     lyrics_syllables = lyrics == nothing ? nothing : split(lyrics)
     lyrics_syllables != nothing && (lyrics_syllables[end] *= "\n")
     note_idx = 1
diff --git a/examples/spectrum.jl b/examples/spectrum.jl
index 2423fbf..badd769 100644
--- a/examples/spectrum.jl
+++ b/examples/spectrum.jl
@@ -1,20 +1,26 @@
 # plot a real-time spectrogram. This example is adapted from the GR example
 # at http://gr-framework.org/examples/audio_ex.html
 
-module SpectrumExample
-
 using GR, PortAudio, SampledSignals, FFTW
 
-const N = 1024
-const stream = PortAudioStream(1, 0)
-const buf = read(stream, N)
-const fmin = 0Hz
-const fmax = 10000Hz
-const fs = Float32[float(f) for f in domain(fft(buf)[fmin..fmax])]
-
-while true
-    read!(stream, buf)
-    plot(fs, abs.(fft(buf)[fmin..fmax]), xlim = (fs[1], fs[end]), ylim = (0, 100))
+function plot_spectrogram(seconds;
+    N = 1024, 
+    fmin = 0Hz,
+    fmax = 10000Hz
+)
+    PortAudioStream(1, 0) do stream
+        done = false
+        buf = read(stream, N)
+        fs = Float32[float(f) for f in domain(fft(buf)[fmin..fmax])]
+        @sync begin
+            @async while !done
+                read!(stream, buf)
+                plot(fs, abs.(fft(buf)[fmin..fmax]), xlim = (fs[1], fs[end]), ylim = (0, 100))
+            end
+            sleep(seconds)
+            done = true
+        end
+    end
 end
 
-end
+plot_spectrogram(5)
diff --git a/src/PortAudio.jl b/src/PortAudio.jl
index d8cd916..abdbf0d 100644
--- a/src/PortAudio.jl
+++ b/src/PortAudio.jl
@@ -1005,6 +1005,9 @@ function exchange(messenger, arguments...)
     take!(messenger.output_channel)
 end
 
+as_matrix(matrix::Matrix) = matrix
+as_matrix(vector::Vector) = reshape(vector, length(vector), 1)
+
 # these will only work with sampledsignals scribes
 function unsafe_write(
     sink::PortAudioSink{<:Messenger{<:Any, <:SampledSignalsWriter}},
@@ -1012,7 +1015,7 @@ function unsafe_write(
     already,
     frame_count,
 )
-    exchange(sink.stream.sink_messanger, julia_buffer, already, frame_count)
+    exchange(sink.stream.sink_messanger, as_matrix(julia_buffer), already, frame_count)
 end
 
 function unsafe_read!(
@@ -1021,7 +1024,7 @@ function unsafe_read!(
     already,
     frame_count,
 )
-    exchange(source.stream.source_messanger, julia_buffer, already, frame_count)
+    exchange(source.stream.source_messanger, as_matrix(julia_buffer), already, frame_count)
 end
 
 end # module PortAudio
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index ee2e5ac..b1ea345 100755
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -247,6 +247,14 @@ if !isempty(devices())
                 handle_status(Pa_SetStreamFinishedCallback(pointer_to, C_NULL)),
             ) == paNoError
         end
+        @testset "Make sure examples run" begin
+            include(joinpath(pkgdir(PortAudio), "examples", "audiometer.jl"))
+            include(joinpath(pkgdir(PortAudio), "examples", "lilyplay.jl"))
+            include(joinpath(pkgdir(PortAudio), "examples", "measure_latency.jl"))
+            include(joinpath(pkgdir(PortAudio), "examples", "spectrum.jl"))
+            # include("waterfall_heatmap.jl")
+            # include("waterfall_lines.jl")
+        end
     end
     doctest(PortAudio)
 end