kindohm

I've used the RYTM for the past five years and I feel like I know its synthesis engine inside and out. The one thing I always wish it had was a digital synth voice. I pretty much stick to the first row of RYTM pads: bass drum, snare, rimshot and clap. If I use the Dual VCO for melodic elements then I lose some drum sounds on that first row. Looks like the Syntakt will open up all of this flexibility that I've been desiring.

One correction: the ALGOBABEZ project should be attributed to the duo of both Shelly Knotts and Joanne Armitage.

Not seeing any comments here about the music itself. I enjoyed it: a soothing soundtrack for the beginning of my work day.

I agree with invoicing everyone. Invoicing a client from your own business also helps distinguish you from being an employee, should that ever come into question.

I bill by the hour and agree with a client up front about an invoicing schedule: usually the 1st of each month, and sometimes on the 1st and 15th of each month.

I ripped off an invoice template for Excel and I just use Google Sheets. I send the invoice via email. This has worked for me for 10 years. As a single-person corp I don't need anything more complex.

I also view invoicing as a completely separate activity from time tracking. I log time every week either in my client's system or in my own independent time sheets. I reference those numbers when I create the invoice.

I work about 8 hours every day. Sometimes less. Sometimes more, but never more than 40 hours in a week.

After work, I balance hobbies with family time. To be honest I have a harder time balancing hobbies with family time than I do balancing work and family.

Family mealtime in the evening is critical. It's the one constant every day, and it's a chance for all of us to talk and laugh together. It's usually the best time of the day for me. I try to persuade my daughter to help me prepare the meal too, which is fun to do together.

So for hobbies + family, on a work day it's anywhere between 3-6 hours.

I am generally healthy but should get more exercise. I play ice hockey about one day a week, every week of the year. At times I have felt like quitting, but I force myself to keep playing because without it I wouldn't get any exercise. I've learned that this 90 minutes of playing a sport is very therapeutic for my brain. I forget about everything in the world and just play. Nothing melts away a hard day at work like skating hard for 90 minutes and trying to pass and shoot (I'm a beginner).

My productivity tips: stop using social media, close/remove anything on screens that show popups or alerts, and get at least eight hours of sleep every night.

I grew up in the U.S. We were taught to use the metric system throughout my schooling and used it (metric) for all science courses in university.

But in my university engineering labs on machining and machine tools, it was all taught in inches and feet. Not sure if that's because that's what industry used. I never entered my career as a manufacturing engineer.

I attended a performance of Four Organs in April 2017. There was an incredible amount of tension in the room because the performers looked like they were at their limit of being able to successfully pull off the performance. They did succeed, and the audience roared with applause and cheers.

Facebook can't be the only app that has collected this data, can it? What about every other app that requests permission to see that data?

I'm always curious why non-gaming streamers would choose Twitch over YouTube or other services. Does Twitch just offer the best features?

By far the most helpful resources for me have been product reviews and demos. Specifically the Sonicstate Sonic Lab reviews.

https://youtu.be/eR1PrKfUvsQ

Not really a "guide" like you're asking for, but for me these have been the best because they expose a wide array of products and ways of using them.

It was named long before the music service came out.

I've given Sonic PI multiple good tries. I really have. TidalCycles is much more of a natural fit for me (which is an emphasis on rhythm and time manipulation rather than chords/melodies/synths). To each their own. Sonic PI resonates with a lot of people.

I don't think there's a right answer, but I think it might come down to budget. If you want to pay $1000 for an off-the-shelf drum machine, sequencer, or synth, modern musical hardware is pretty easy to use and you can go far. However, live-coding software is free software and open source. As for ease-of-use, I think it really depends on the person. If you have some programming experience, then a live-coding musical environment might be fairly easy. It's a different set of challenges.

No, I think it has always been "a language for live-coding pattern". I might agree that it is a bit unclear. Music is the the most common use case, but it can do a lot more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrv_wEFdqE

I produced this album with TidalCycles: http://shop.conditional.club/album/risc-chip. Controlled samples and hardware synths (via tidal-midi) from code.

If you're interested in rhythms and are open to using samples, you could take a look at Tidal (http://tidal.lurk.org). Tidal is a DSL embedded in Haskell, and can be used to very quickly create patterns of sound: everything from house music to chaotic breakcore to abstract textures. It's great for rhythm-based performance (and composition). It isn't as good at melody, but it does have some support for MIDI output and melodic expression, and with some effort your library of samples can support melody easily. I found Tidal's learning curve to be very shallow, but I think it depends on how you perceive music and rhythm. The Tidal community is working on a better install experience right now (in the meantime you'll need to compile a few things from source, etc). It primarily supports Emacs and Atom (Emacs appears to be the most stable).

Edit: Tidal is great for both live-coding and static-composition scenarios. In my opinion, it's ideal for live coding performance because minimal code is needed to get sound going quickly.

There is a difference between finding and making time. I'm married, have one child, play hockey 1.5 times a week, write and record music, and try to cook. When I have a pet project in mind, all of that gets put on hold. I have to _make_ time and shove some things aside.

There are boundaries though. I don't hide in a hole away from my wife and daughter for a weekend. It goes in chunks of time. Family is a priority for me, and I can't justify shutting them out so I can code for a weekend. As a result, I need to work in 1-4 hour chunks. Four hours is pushing it (either because of sleep or a daughter craving time with me on a saturday). Hockey, music, cooking... those things can always wait when I choose.

I also constrain myself to small pet projects. Many times the projects cannot be completed, and I'm ok with that. I usually work on projects to prove out ideas or learn something... not finish them. Sometimes I share stuff on my blog or github. However, my work is usually rough around the edges. My pet projects are not meant to be polished and beautiful. They are for me to learn or just do something crazy and cool.

Having a child will cut off your free time like a tourniquet. However, I've found that having a child has also helped me focus. My seven years as a father have arguably (and ironically) been my most productive for my career. I have a hard time explaining that, other than I've had to focus and really come to terms with what is important - both at the macro level of choosing an activity and at the micro level of how pretty I want my side-work to be.

I'm an independent contractor working on a Windows desktop app used in the casino industry.