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Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

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Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#11

Post by indigochill »

dominotw wrote: post #8
trevyn wrote: post #3

"I called them up and they asked me to come in for an interview — so I brought this thing I'd made, this sequencer synth thing. I showed it to them and they gave me the job." https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/12/08/tatssynth_custom... This is how you get a good engineering job -- show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible (and everyone else). You'll still have to do a whiteboard interview, but it…

> show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible How do you even get access to ' people as high up', most programming jobs make you go though "Standardized screening" programming puzzles before they even look at your github, if at all. Many high profile sfo tech companies straight up told me that github is merely a formality in the application and that they don't have time to look at it. Many interviewer…

Networking. Work with and impress people who know people, then ask for an introduction if need be. My experience has been that "volunteering" (working for free, if you prefer) has helped me make connections I wouldn't otherwise have the skills/experience/connections to get through conventional means.

Granted, I've actively avoided California, so YMMV.

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#13

Post by kindohm »

urig wrote: post #12

Any tips or online guides for newbies wishing to pick up electronic music via analog synthesizers? Asking for a friend with no experience and no knowledge of music theory etc ;)

By far the most helpful resources for me have been product reviews and demos. Specifically the Sonicstate Sonic Lab reviews.

https://youtu.be/eR1PrKfUvsQ

Not really a "guide" like you're asking for, but for me these have been the best because they expose a wide array of products and ways of using them.

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#14

Post by anigbrowl »

dominotw wrote: post #8
trevyn wrote: post #3

"I called them up and they asked me to come in for an interview — so I brought this thing I'd made, this sequencer synth thing. I showed it to them and they gave me the job." https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/12/08/tatssynth_custom... This is how you get a good engineering job -- show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible (and everyone else). You'll still have to do a whiteboard interview, but it…

> show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible How do you even get access to ' people as high up', most programming jobs make you go though "Standardized screening" programming puzzles before they even look at your github, if at all. Many high profile sfo tech companies straight up told me that github is merely a formality in the application and that they don't have time to look at it. Many interviewer…

Music equipment corporations are pretty small on the whole, and Korg in particular was originally formed by engineering refugees from a larger gear company, so their culture is a bit more open.

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#15

Post by lsc »

dominotw wrote: post #8
trevyn wrote: post #3

"I called them up and they asked me to come in for an interview — so I brought this thing I'd made, this sequencer synth thing. I showed it to them and they gave me the job." https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/12/08/tatssynth_custom... This is how you get a good engineering job -- show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible (and everyone else). You'll still have to do a whiteboard interview, but it…

> show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible How do you even get access to ' people as high up', most programming jobs make you go though "Standardized screening" programming puzzles before they even look at your github, if at all. Many high profile sfo tech companies straight up told me that github is merely a formality in the application and that they don't have time to look at it. Many interviewer…

People complain about the coding tests at interviews. I don't think it's as big of a deal as people say. Treat it like a social skill or any of the myriad other unrelated things you are evaluated for at an interview and spend some time practicing.

I think for a reasonable programmer, yes, you are probably going to have to practice your whiteboard interview.[1] But no, it's not that hard, and it's pretty standardized, so you don't have to practice differently at each company you interview.

I personally think that practicing for the programming test is usually way easier than the social test... and I think the programming test is less biased than the social test.

on the other side of the fence, I think it's a good failsafe. Yes, it will fail many qualified people who don't practice, but it will also fail a lot of people who talk a good game but can't code their way out of a wet paper bag.

Overall, I think it's a great counterbalance to how overvalued confidence is at most interviews.

[1]I personally think that you should use one of the screen share programs designed for this; I like https://codepad.remoteinterview.io/ but anything that reduces the amount of handwriting required is going to vastly reduce your false negative ratio without impacting your false positive ratio (unless you code using whiteboards at your company)

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#16

Post by alfiedotwtf »

indescions_2017 wrote: post #4

Not bad $300 retail. Looks like a great way to get into microtuning and atonal scales for electronic music as well ;) https://www.midi.org/articles/microtuning-and-alternative-in...

If you're interested, you should check out Roland's SE-02 https://www.roland.com/global/products/se-02/

Also, here's a nice video on 3-Oscillator synths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7RlLZrnugQ

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#17

Post by schwabacher »

urig wrote: post #12

Any tips or online guides for newbies wishing to pick up electronic music via analog synthesizers? Asking for a friend with no experience and no knowledge of music theory etc ;)

I don’t have any recommendations for reading, but do enthusiastically recommend the korg volcas from the article - they are self contained, fun and intuitive to use, and very affordable. They sound good enough that you will continue to use them even if you have more expensive gear, and what you learn about synthesis transfers easily.

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#18

Post by hashmal »

urig wrote: post #12

Any tips or online guides for newbies wishing to pick up electronic music via analog synthesizers? Asking for a friend with no experience and no knowledge of music theory etc ;)

the short answer will disappoint you: pick one you like and experiment.

the long answer: entire genres were built on not knowing music theory or disregarding it (techno, i'm looking at you). most music producers started by turning knobs without knowing what they were doing. most music producers continue to turns knobs just to see what happens, even after learning stuff about synths. the knowledge will come over time ; if you get "the bug" you will inevitably start reading stuff about all this.

of course, there may be exceptions. most "worldwide mainstream" electronic is obeying the usual codes of popular music, so if that's what you want to do, don't listen to me (and maybe produce on a computer).

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#19

Post by laumars »

hashmal wrote: post #18
urig wrote: post #12

Any tips or online guides for newbies wishing to pick up electronic music via analog synthesizers? Asking for a friend with no experience and no knowledge of music theory etc ;)

the short answer will disappoint you: pick one you like and experiment. the long answer: entire genres were built on not knowing music theory or disregarding it (techno, i'm looking at you). most music producers started by turning knobs without knowing what they were doing. most music producers continue to turns knobs just to see what happens, even after learning stuff about synths. the knowledge will come over time…

> the long answer: entire genres were built on not knowing music theory or disregarding it (techno, i'm looking at you).

Thats putting things mildly. The entire electronic music scene was born from experimentation. From the Kraftworks and other synth pioneers, to the beginnings of the dance scene with Chicago house and Detroit techno. From sample heavy genres like Jungle and Hard House, to synth heavy genres like trance. Even IDM was born from producers disregarding popular conventions and look how much that has since bled into the mainstream with tracks incorporating glitchy effects into pop songs.

But it's not just the domain of electronic music either. Prog Rock existed because uni students wanted to push the boundaries. Then Punk came about because they wanted to redefine what it meant to writing music and play an instrument.

So long as music remains an art form, it will be subjected to ignorant hobbyists with a creative flair. And that is what I love most about music; when people say "I have an idea, it might not work but we will have fun trying". But very occasionally, those hobbyists create something so popular they then become trendsetters themselves, like Prodigy, Orbital, Aphex Twin, and the other artists I alluded to above.

Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

#20

Post by rxhernandez »

lsc wrote: post #15
dominotw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> show your impressive thing to people as high up as possible How do you even get access to ' people as high up', most programming jobs make you go though "Standardized screening" programming puzzles before they even look at your github, if at all. Many high profile sfo tech companies straight up told me that github is merely a formality in the application and that they don't have time to look at it. Many interviewer…

People complain about the coding tests at interviews. I don't think it's as big of a deal as people say. Treat it like a social skill or any of the myriad other unrelated things you are evaluated for at an interview and spend some time practicing. I think for a reasonable programmer, yes, you are probably going to have to practice your whiteboard interview.[1] But no, it's not that hard, and it's pretty standardized,…

> I think it's a good failsafe. Yes, it will fail many qualified people who don't practice, but it will also fail a lot of people who talk a good game but can't code their way out of a wet paper bag.

I don't. I do R&D for a living and have next to no time to relearn those types of undergrad programming techniques because it doesn't apply to the work I do at all. Ask me to create a model for a system, implement a classifier that hits 90% in a way that no one has ever done before and publish a paper on it, I can do that. Ask me about a breadth first search on some tree and I'll look at you blankly. It seems a bit ridiculous that some of my cookie-cutter engineering colleagues(some that relied on me to help them with homework) can make it into places like Google but I can't make it past the 3rd or 4th interview. I can also assure you that none of my colleagues where I work could make it past that same stage of interviews despite having a PhD and despite them being great researchers.

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