
Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun - jcrabtr
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/22/569092364/analog-for-the-people-synth-master-tatsuya-takahashi-on-engineering-fun
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trevyn
_" 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...](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/12/08/tatssynth_custom-4dff28462b287bd25600226339c3c9952995f293-s700-c85.jpg)

 _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.

~~~
dominotw
> 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.

~~~
jakobegger
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!

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

~~~
tomcam
Yes. And I shall call it “my GitHub repo!”

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urig
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 ;)

~~~
hashmal
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).

~~~
laumars
> _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.

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jedanbik
Tatsuya 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.

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indescions_2017
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...](https://www.midi.org/articles/microtuning-and-alternative-intonation-
systems)

~~~
dates
i could be wrong but i owned a minilogue and don't think it supports
microtuning. only some really fanxy synths do.

~~~
ericwood
They recently released the Monologue, which supports it.

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jcrabtr
_" [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.

