AudioCubes, part 1

Here's a little preview of the new software I'm developing for Percussa. Their AudioCubes are really amazing controllers and offer a unique opportunity to design music interfaces that are truly original. Here's my first step in that direction...

Radioactive Delay

My buddy Fitz, one of the best guitarists I know and a terrific luthier to boot, just started a new band playing instrumental surf music. While I'm stuck on this left end of the continent and won't be in the room to hear his new group anytime soon, I figured I could help the cause by creating this pedal for him. Housed in a crybaby chassis, its actually a delay. I've always loved the sound of changing the delay time knob while playing (shifting the pitch and creating cool squeals and squawks). Here it's done by moving the rocker pedal. The chip itself is one that's commonly used in old karaoke machines---it sounds pretty amazing! Fitz, I hope you enjoy playing though this at least as much as I enjoyed making it!

Assets 08

Halifax was amazing and Assets 08 was really interesting. There were plenty of great presentations and we got a whole lot of interesting feedback on the Flote. Amal and I got VSTi and MIDI support working just in time. We also rewrote the internal synthesis engine and it's sounding better than ever. And now we have a bunch of new ideas percolating...

Halifax

With only a couple more weeks until Amal and I leave for Assets 2008 (the ACM SIGACCESS conference in Halifax) to present our paper, we're feverishly trying to get universal VSTi support working for the Flote. We're also trying to update the GUI and simplify the whole thing.

Make TV

I just got some photos from David Kerr of the video shoot we did a couple weeks ago up at CCRMA for an episode of Make TV (a collaboration between Make Magazine and PBS that will debut in January). I demonstrated how to build a feedback piano from start to finish. Hacking apart an upright is always an adventure and I'm really pleased with how this one turned out (feedback piano #4). My favorite DSP supergenius Jonathan Abel dropped by to help explain it all.

getting started

This week I'm starting the Ph.D. program in Computer Music at UCSD. My main areas of interest are designing musical instruments and creating audio effects. Here I'll post various projects and works in progress.