Movin' Right Along...

I won’t lie to you. The main point of this post is to roll that Doctorow photo below the fold so I don’t have to see his stupid face when I check the site. However, I will use this opportunity to provide a general update as to the State Of Things here at the Audio Damage Logistics And Research Facility. In no particular order.

1. My personal experiment time of late has largely revolved around C. Elegans, pictured above. This lowly nematode is unique inasmuch as it is the only living creature to have its brain entirely mapped, neuron-for-neuron. This intrigued me for a number of reasons, and I’ve spent the last few weeks tinkering with the brain model, trying to come up with musically useful applications of a fully functioning nematode brain. Believe me when I say this isn’t as easy as it sounds. (And since it doesn’t sound easy at all, well, you get the idea.) I’ve been using a Python script developed by this fellow running on a Raspberry Pi, but that’s mainly served to teach me two things: first, that Python is stupid for this sort of thing, and second, the Raspberry Pi might be a fun piece of equipment to tinker with, but for the kind of shit we do, it is retarded. Especially when it is weighted down by Raspbian. So I’ve moved my experiments back to C++11 (via Cinder) and a real computer, and we shall see what we shall see.

2. We are currently out-of-stock of DubJr, and are running low on Sequencer 1. I re-ordered panels for DubJr some time ago, but due to a communication error on Metalphoto’s part, they weren’t actually ordered until today. I have two units left currently, and they are in our Amazon store. If you want a DubJr, long story short, either get it at Amazon, or via one of our retail partners. Vis-a-vis Sequencer 1, we’re not going to do a second run of these for a while, so if you want one, best get on it, either direct or via one of the retailers that stock it. We’ll have the first major software update for it here in a week or thereabouts, which will add the most-requested features.

3. Not next week, but the following week, we will have an addition to the small modules line, ADM07. For this, we’re not announcing anything until we have units here shipping, but suffice to say you didn’t know you needed it, but once you see it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. Yeah, one of those.

4. And finally, I’ve been asked to give a seminar/talk at UC Santa Barbara on March 2nd of next year. Other than “music tech” I have a pretty broad palette to choose from for the subject matter. I was thinking of a brief overview of what it is I do and have done, then a talk about massive design failures and why failing matters and is useful (both my own and other peoples’.) Unless I’m still interested in nematodes by then, of course.