Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
1–10 of 31 posts
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#2Tatsuya Takahashi understands the importance of accessibility in design. He has lowered the barrier to entry for new instrument buyers that want to get into analog synthesis, and that’s what has made him so successful.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#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'll be mostly a formality.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#4Not 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...
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#5Not 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...
i could be wrong but i owned a minilogue and don't think it supports microtuning. only some really fanxy synths do.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#6Not 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...
i could be wrong but i owned a minilogue and don't think it supports microtuning. only some really fanxy synths do.
They recently released the Monologue, which supports it.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#7"[T]he stuff I was making was really weird, because I didn't have real-world, existing examples to work from. I mean, they were around, but I guess I wasn't interested enough. It just seemed beyond what a kid could buy with his pocket money."
His good intuition and willingness to disregard tradition seem to be the key to his success. Studying examples of the "right" way to build something might be a useful learning exercise, but it can also be mentally constraining.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#8"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 interviewers get you resume like 5 minutes before the interview and start asking you standard interview questions.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#9"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…
I remember getting a Korg interview in SV many years ago when I was really into synthesizers and owned quite a collection. The interview was a massive disappointment as it was all about passing a written C++ (feh) test with no room musical passion or domain knowledge - and I was an expert C programmer at the time too.
Re: Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun
#10"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…
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 they see a screenshot or a demo video, a short, easy to grasp description of your thing, and some impressive stats of your choice that convinces everyone that this project is brilliant.
And make sure the project page also prominently credits you as the author!