mmalex
@mmalex.bsky.social
synth tinkerer (plinky); midjourney; NVResearch (InstantNGP/NeRF); cofounder MediaMolecule (Dreams, LittleBigPlanet); demoscene/vj (statix/bluespoon)
i also some youtube short vid where he had a spectrum that lit up the spectrum on the 'instantaneous' levels, but had the curve be smoothed ones. that also made a big difference. its funny how tiny visual details make me happier to grind on bugs in the thing. lol.
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
i also some youtube short vid where he had a spectrum that lit up the spectrum on the 'instantaneous' levels, but had the curve be smoothed ones. that also made a big difference. its funny how tiny visual details make me happier to grind on bugs in the thing. lol.
via the magic of laion_clap embeddings and umap, my live coding thingy has a sample browser at last!
October 31, 2025 at 6:27 PM
via the magic of laion_clap embeddings and umap, my live coding thingy has a sample browser at last!
what if we hilighted every 4th line of my text editor and then put tidal mininotation in every line and then... called it a tracker.... 🤔 wcgw
October 25, 2025 at 10:29 AM
what if we hilighted every 4th line of my text editor and then put tidal mininotation in every line and then... called it a tracker.... 🤔 wcgw
still messin' with this thing. so many yaks to shave when you start from scratch. autocomplete, filter dsp, sample loading, even json parsing. an eternal pile of todos, but each one small enough I'm making slow but continual forward progress...
October 6, 2025 at 8:54 PM
still messin' with this thing. so many yaks to shave when you start from scratch. autocomplete, filter dsp, sample loading, even json parsing. an eternal pile of todos, but each one small enough I'm making slow but continual forward progress...
also added 'keypoints' (by saying that space means 'unset', and . or A means 0) and actually they're more useful than i expected. (wait for it.... a to z!)
October 1, 2025 at 6:15 PM
also added 'keypoints' (by saying that space means 'unset', and . or A means 0) and actually they're more useful than i expected. (wait for it.... a to z!)
leaning into this text editor/visual editor dual, i've made the code colourer detect comments like /*====*/ and turn them into sliders. I really like how plain old source code remains the 'source of truth' for all state and the editor just doodles over it.
October 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
leaning into this text editor/visual editor dual, i've made the code colourer detect comments like /*====*/ and turn them into sliders. I really like how plain old source code remains the 'source of truth' for all state and the editor just doodles over it.
when you have your own text editor, everything starts to look like a .... textnail? behold, I can now edit my LFO shapes with copy and paste...
September 30, 2025 at 10:24 PM
when you have your own text editor, everything starts to look like a .... textnail? behold, I can now edit my LFO shapes with copy and paste...
i love the colour palette of Scavenger's Reign so much. it feels like 1970s pulp comics' colours have been transported onto my tv.
September 30, 2025 at 9:39 PM
i love the colour palette of Scavenger's Reign so much. it feels like 1970s pulp comics' colours have been transported onto my tv.
i started to make a live coding environment for myself! its currently basically shadertoy but on my mac with compiled c for the audio. its not a particularly unique wheel, but it's *my* wheel, so I am mostly experimenting with the details to see what makes me feel productive & creative.
September 25, 2025 at 7:45 PM
i started to make a live coding environment for myself! its currently basically shadertoy but on my mac with compiled c for the audio. its not a particularly unique wheel, but it's *my* wheel, so I am mostly experimenting with the details to see what makes me feel productive & creative.
jlc day! while on vacation i speed designed a tiny 'mini pedal' - a rechargeable freeze reverb/glitch effect you can just put inline in a eurorack cable. to my surprise the design mostly worked... so i ordered 20 to take to maschina bristronica. sw? 90% done... ish. wcgw
September 9, 2025 at 5:08 PM
jlc day! while on vacation i speed designed a tiny 'mini pedal' - a rechargeable freeze reverb/glitch effect you can just put inline in a eurorack cable. to my surprise the design mostly worked... so i ordered 20 to take to maschina bristronica. sw? 90% done... ish. wcgw
i put in a vectorscopey type thing into it, im sure subconsciously i was channeling @aras-p.bsky.social (have to edit #define TV to 1 in the shader)
September 8, 2025 at 1:08 PM
i put in a vectorscopey type thing into it, im sure subconsciously i was channeling @aras-p.bsky.social (have to edit #define TV to 1 in the shader)
i mean... its not really a pathtracer until you've done hall of mirrors is it
September 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
i mean... its not really a pathtracer until you've done hall of mirrors is it
been a couple years since I wrote a dumb pathtracer-in-a-shader; felt that itch again and decided to brush off the cobwebs by 'covering'/'blatantly ripping off' noby's brilliant 10yo 4k www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r8p...
September 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
been a couple years since I wrote a dumb pathtracer-in-a-shader; felt that itch again and decided to brush off the cobwebs by 'covering'/'blatantly ripping off' noby's brilliant 10yo 4k www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r8p...
i finished it! had to reprint the case to correct a lack of cable access & a missing lip over the back of the keys but - it all works! 'design for manufacture' is very questionable but hey i know what not to do now :)
January 8, 2025 at 1:33 PM
i finished it! had to reprint the case to correct a lack of cable access & a missing lip over the back of the keys but - it all works! 'design for manufacture' is very questionable but hey i know what not to do now :)
and then today this happened. and it all works (one flipped sot23 bodge later).
January 2, 2025 at 9:39 PM
and then today this happened. and it all works (one flipped sot23 bodge later).
the problem with the modern world of 3d printers and cheap assembly services is... this happens (printed in 3 interlocking pieces, held together by the keybed and slider boards)
January 2, 2025 at 9:38 PM
the problem with the modern world of 3d printers and cheap assembly services is... this happens (printed in 3 interlocking pieces, held together by the keybed and slider boards)
and so here we are, with a 40 slider mega beast. its just a virtual thing at this point, but just look at it! i want it
January 2, 2025 at 9:36 PM
and so here we are, with a 40 slider mega beast. its just a virtual thing at this point, but just look at it! i want it
but, and bear with me, have you heard of copy paste? its so easy! and hey, the jlcpcb moq is 5.... wait wait ctrl+c vvvv OOPS
January 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
but, and bear with me, have you heard of copy paste? its so easy! and hey, the jlcpcb moq is 5.... wait wait ctrl+c vvvv OOPS
however, i started learning fusion to make the case, and... well.... SURELY some sliders would be fun. i love my @tomwhitwell.bsky.social mu8, so i whipped up an 8 fader i2c adc/led driver board . thus, the zacslider was born
January 2, 2025 at 9:33 PM
however, i started learning fusion to make the case, and... well.... SURELY some sliders would be fun. i love my @tomwhitwell.bsky.social mu8, so i whipped up an 8 fader i2c adc/led driver board . thus, the zacslider was born
happy new year! in between mince pies i decided to make a midi keyboard controller, with a fatar keybed, rp2040, small display and 2 encoders... the project was suggested by my friend zac. this the zacboard was born
January 2, 2025 at 9:31 PM
happy new year! in between mince pies i decided to make a midi keyboard controller, with a fatar keybed, rp2040, small display and 2 encoders... the project was suggested by my friend zac. this the zacboard was born
currently it looks like this. it has a couple of midi, clock and audio connections, plus usb. but mostly its a beautiful grid of touch sensors & rgb leds. it'll be a self contained music box, but thats not done yet; what is done is monome grid compatibility, so its already somewhat useful.
December 9, 2024 at 5:21 PM
currently it looks like this. it has a couple of midi, clock and audio connections, plus usb. but mostly its a beautiful grid of touch sensors & rgb leds. it'll be a self contained music box, but thats not done yet; what is done is monome grid compatibility, so its already somewhat useful.