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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

#21

Post by lsc »

rxhernandez wrote: post #20
lsc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 clas…

I think I said that it's turning down a bunch of people who are unwilling to practice.

And yes, turning down people who are unwilling to spend a week practicing is a cost... it could be a very big cost if someone else has a intake filtering procedure that allows them to snatch those people up at a lower cost, but it's also a really effective way of filtering out the people who can't learn those things after a few weeks of practice, which is super important.

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

#22

Post by anonova »

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 ;)

To learn synths, I highly recommend Syntorial: https://www.syntorial.com/. It's $130, but you can try quite a few lessons for free.

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

#23

Post by rxhernandez »

lsc wrote: post #21
rxhernandez wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 clas…

I think I said that it's turning down a bunch of people who are unwilling to practice. And yes, turning down people who are unwilling to spend a week practicing is a cost... it could be a very big cost if someone else has a intake filtering procedure that allows them to snatch those people up at a lower cost, but it's also a really effective way of filtering out the people who can't learn those things after a few wee…

> unwilling

Can't. I clearly said can't. It's irrelevant to my work and my work consumes all the time I can give to work before I burnout.

> but it's also a really effective way of filtering out the people who can't learn those things after a few weeks of practice, which is super important.

What's your source on that? Can I see the stats that say neglecting more talented engineers so that you don't have to deal with subpar engineers is better than having a larger amount of more talented engineers while having to intermittently deal with subpar engineers? We have brilliant engineers where I work and the average and subpar engineers are in and out inside of a month or two. Didn't seem to hurt us at all in being the leader in our industry.

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

#24

Post by lsc »

rxhernandez wrote: post #23
lsc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I said that it's turning down a bunch of people who are unwilling to practice. And yes, turning down people who are unwilling to spend a week practicing is a cost... it could be a very big cost if someone else has a intake filtering procedure that allows them to snatch those people up at a lower cost, but it's also a really effective way of filtering out the people who can't learn those things after a few wee…

> unwilling Can't. I clearly said can't. It's irrelevant to my work and my work consumes all the time I can give to work before I burnout. > but it's also a really effective way of filtering out the people who can't learn those things after a few weeks of practice, which is super important. What's your source on that? Can I see the stats that say neglecting more talented engineers so that you don't have to deal with…

"Hire easily, fire easily" is another strategy, it's true! but not one used by most places I've worked. It is a slower strategy when sorting through a pool of mostly not good enough candidates, and often makes employees more nervous (Just like how you "Can't" take three weeks off to practice, other people "Can't" get fired after a few months on a new job.)

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

#25

Post by pault »

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 ;)

Download VCV Rack (it's free and open source, and it has many digital models of real world modules) and start exploring the network of YouTube channels dedicated to analog synthesis. There's currently some kind of Cambrian explosion of small batch analog synth hardware happening, so there's never been a better time to learn. Be warned that the first time you open the app you will not be able to produce sound without help, but that's the same level of user friendliness you'll get from a real modular synth, so it will build character. :)

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

#26

Post by Scene_Cast2 »

rxhernandez wrote: post #20
lsc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 clas…

Out of curiosity, how do I find companies like the one where you work? Your comment resonated pretty strongly with me.

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

#27

Post by weatherlight »

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 ;)

Honestly, Pick up a Volca Beats and a Volca Bass and start experimenting. After a few weeks of playing with both, you'll start having more questions.

If you buy them used, you should be able to sell them for what you bought them used for.

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

#28

Post by anigbrowl »

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 ;)

Experiment. A Volca is a really cheap way to start, a minibrute is not much more but considerably more flexible. For ~$400 you could pick up and old Virus A, which is DSP-based but has a great sound all the same, especially in unison mode, and is such a well-specified and designed synth that you'll learn a ton of things that could take you several years to pick up on a piecemeal basis.

Of course software solutions abound but there is no substitute for knob twiddling, and doing it in software makes it too easy to look without really listening.

As far as reading material goes, this is the best course available: https://web.archive.org/web/20160403115835/http://www.soundo...

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

#29

Post by Gravityloss »

jakobegger wrote: post #10
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…

I think the takeaway is that he showed them a complete product, rather than a pile of schematics. Looking through Github accounts is extremely tedious and boring. On most profiles I’ve seen it‘s hard to tell what all the repos are about, and what the important stuff is. So if you‘ve made something awesome, you need to market it a bit. Don‘t point people to your Github account. Point them to the project website, where…

There could be a product in there - verified contributions of actual people?

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

#30

Post by renaudg »

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 ;)

You could learn the basics of substractive synthesis (the most common one) for free with software emulations, either on desktop (VST/AU plugins) or with iOS apps (Android is not very well served in this area)

Here's a free barebones synth plug-in (you'll need a VST/AU host, for example Garageband that comes bundled with macOS) : https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker

To be honest many producers in the younger generation haven't ever touched real hardware synths (let alone real analog synths) and do everything "in the box" using software. There's endless debate on whether this sounds the same (it's the "Emacs vs vi" wars of the synth world), but as Tatsuya says in the last paragraph of the interview, you'd be hard pressed to hear any difference once in a mix.

A few of the best sounding classic-analog-emulating software synths would be : Diva, Serum, SynthMaster, Sylenth1, Spire, and the Arturia collection.

Hardware synths are fun though, and most importantly their interface can spark inspiration where technically equivalent but mouse-operated software synths wouldn't.

A small selection of hardware synths, by rough ascending price :

- The cheap and fun Korg Volca range mentioned in the article. - The Boutique range from Roland. Spot-on virtual analog (=DSP-based) reissues of their classics, the JU-06 is probably the easiest to figure out and most faithful to the original Juno 106 (a staple of the 80s), but it's sold out in most places. - The Arturia microBrute and miniBrute. They spearheaded the cheap analog renaissance a few years ago and sound lovely and gnarly - The beautifully designed Korg Minilogue mentioned in the article. - My all-time favourite interface on a synth is the Nord Lead 3's. It's full-featured but especially suited to beginners because of a truly unique feature : endless rotary knobs with LEDs indicating current value. It's virtual analog (DSP-based) with everything you'd expect on the substractive synthesis front, plus the easiest FM synthesis interface you'll find anywhere. It's been discontinued for years (and its successors don't have the LED knobs), but some units pop up on eBay regularly. - At the higher end of the price range, there are also dozens of options : the Prophet 6 and OB-6 by Dave Smith Instruments (the inventor of MIDI) are poised to become modern classics. The DSP-based Virus TI is incredibly versatile (although it's getting long in the tooth, as CPU power has caught up with DSPs meaning a plug-in like Serum is just as good)

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