I’ve learned a lot recently about feedback. As an audio engineer, it’s something I know a lot about in practice. But I’d done so little thinking about it as a means for understanding systems. I was too busy toiling in the field of electronics, to realize that feedback takes place in nature all around us, and is key to understanding knowledge itself. Feedback is a simple concept with overwhelming, enormous implications.…

Caesars don’t fear the pirate. For 24 years, the song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by the band, Blue Öyster Cult, was nothing more than a rock n’ roll smash hit with countless hours of radio play. It put the band on the map and made them rich. The album that featured the song initially, Agents of Fortune, went platinum in the US, meaning it sold at least 1,000,000 copies. A very impressive feat.…

Musicians everywhere want more - and they want it yesterday. But the answer has been here for two decades. Musicians are complaining about the raw deals they are getting from streaming. That’s no surprise to anybody who has dealt with “DSPs” such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer. Anyone who’s dealt with these services knows what little actual revenue they can expect to receive. However, isn’t it curious that all three of these companies also operate in the podcasting realm, where these kinds of complaints are rarely ever heard?…

How to drive your user interface with browser-based audio analysis The browser has gotten surprisingly good at processing real-time audio FFTs, thanks to the Web Audio API. As a result, incredible dynamic musical interfaces are now very achievable on the modern web, and it’s a heck of a lot easier than most developer resources would have you believe. Above is a screengrab from my musical homepage, Multipli.city. There, I host all of my music from over the last ten years for free streaming and lossless download.…