Sorry for the delay, but as promised, I have returned! Julie and I have settled in nicely in San Francisco, living downtown for a while as we decide on a more permanent locale.

A lot to cover, so I’ll try to split this up into sections.

Out With The New, Too:

As i last left my captive audience, I was about to embark on a momentous journey across the country. There, in San Francisco, I would start my career at Songbird. Right? Things didn’t go as planned.

Unbeknownst to me, the company was coming up on some pretty hard times. The outcome was a substantial reduction in staff, and as the last in I was also the first out. After this I did a contract gig at a startup in the area, but as of now I am in-between jobs.

I’ll just put this here….

www.linkedin.com/in/robbygrodin

And I’ll put this over here…

My Resume

So that’s the state of things professionally. I have been keeping busy though, and wanted to announce a new project!

Pocket FMA for Android:

If you remember my post from last Boston Music Hack Day, my good friend Jeremy Sawruk and I wrote a streaming radio web app for the Free Music Archive. The FMA is close to me as I’m a firm believer in the copyleft movement, and even better, it’s in my home state of New Jersey!

Well I had a blast working on the app for them, but neither Jeremy nor I had the time to continue development on the project. My senior year was in full swing, and his work stack wasn’t shrinking. I had a blast working on the app with the help of Jason Sigal, FMA Host and Directing Manager, and wanted to keep the project alive.

Over the past few months I’ve been working on learning new technologies that I haven’t worked with before. Being a new college graduate I find it is important to experience a little bit of everything before settling into a long term position. I’ve taken quite a liking to Android development after writing a simple calculator app. At the point it hit me- let’s bring the FMA to your phone.

The idea is this- I will open source the app as soon as I have a working prototype (which I’m working on as I write this post). It will be a web radio app with an emphasis on music discovery. It will be written in Java on the Android SDK, using the FMA and EchoNest API’s. This project is currently unofficial, but I plan on working closely with Jason to make sure it conforms to the FMA’s needs.

What Else:

Seeing as how I can never only have one thing going on at the same time, I’ll be updating this website along with my portfolio materials to include some new projects and older ones that slipped through the cracks. I’ll also be gearing up for another year of Together fest- really exciting things in store!

Check back soon for more updates. If you’re interested in working on the FMA radio app drop a line in the comments!

Officially my all-time favorite picture of myself. Ever.

Dear Friends,

As I wrote in my 2011 recap post, 2012 is going to be a big year for me- and it’s off to a magnificent start. The past few months have been full of friends, adventures, music, achievements, projects, stress, work, ideas, struggles, and completely void of sleep. Luckily I have a reason to celebrate (still no time to do it though). Tomorrow I’ll be graduating from Northeastern with a dual BS in Computer Science and Music Technology, and exactly one month later I’ll start working at Pioneers of The Inevitable (makers of Songbird) in San Francisco. Everything is going to change very, very fast, so sorry if you don’t hear from me for a little while. I promise I’ll be back soon with something even better

Cheers!

–R

As Daytime Coordinator, I’ve dedicated the past 6 months of my life to Together Boston, New Englands largest Art, Music, and Technology festival. I was able to have a huge impact on the festival experience, and with the help from the steering committee, promo team, and various volunteers, we’ve paved the way for amazing things to come. Since this festival has kept me too busy to update this blog, I feel that I owe my readers a recap of what I’ve been up to. Without any further ado…

Together 2012: 7 Days of Art, Music, and Technology

Sunday/Monday: The Hack Together

This year, Together hosted the first ever Hack Together at Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville. Having participated in numerous coding hack days, I thought an installation building event would be a new take on a classic event. We were able to tie the three themes of art, music, and technology together with this event. Participants were given 24 hours to build an installation that would then be placed in various venues throughout the week. The winner, Kedaar Kumar, built a Metatron’s cube out of balsa wood and EL wire that lit up in reaction to music.

Photo Credit Nick Minieri

Kedaar’s work was shown at Feed Me, WHIRL, the Get Together, and it sat next to Photek in the DJ booth at Machine. I had a great time with this event, and it will surely be a staple at the next Together festival. I know we’ll be looking into holding this event more than just once a year, so stay tuned!

Press:

Dig Boston Preview

Shutter Story Event Coverage

Tuesday: Fun With Music Data

Paul Lamere, of the Echo Nest, kicked off the daytime events by giving a talk on music analytics at the Together Center. Many of the festival participants are quite knowledgable about music, but few know about the new technologies regarding Music Information Retrieval. Paul’s talk gave an interesting and amusing look into the power of MIR and analytics, by comparing  dedication levels in fan bases and determining degrees of separation between artists. In addition to being entertaining and educational, Paul’s talk demonstrated the level of innovation going on in our local communities, a presence of technological advances in boston/cambridge that will further cement the cities as a world center of art, music, and technology.

Press:

Dig Boston Preview

Wednesday: Technology Panels

Wednesday saw the first round of panels. In the morning, we had the Patently Stupid discussion on copyright/patent law. The panelists included James O’Keefe of the MA Pirate Party, David Herlihy of Northeastern University, Mike Weakley of Discmakers, Adam Jackson of Red Hat, and was moderated by Andy Sellars of the Citizen Media Law Project and the Berkman Center. The debate on the future of intellectual property law was intense, and everyone brought a unique view to the discussion. It pleased me to have the panels start off with a highly intellectual conversation. While much of Together involves letting loose and enjoying ones self, we are here to provide a forward thinking environment looking to positively impact the entertainment industry through conversation about hotbed issues.

Speaking of debates, the afternoon panel, titled Needles Vs. Buttons, brought together some of the top regional DJ’s hailing from NY, MA, and VT to discuss the ongoing war between digital and analogue performance mediums. Joe Nice, Bamboora, Geoff White, Nick Concklin and Dev/Null participated in the debate moderated by Together’s Creative Director, David Day. It was awesome to see such a legendary lineup of musicians all on the same stage, and to hear their perspectives on the subject.

Needles Vs. Buttons Panel

Thursday: Art Panels

Thursday saw two panels focusing on digital art mediums and the life of a starving artist, titled The New Canvas and Beyond Ramen, respectively. The first panel featured Nick Gillian and Ben Houge of the MIT Media Lab, Matt Boch of Harmonix, Dennis Miller and Terrence Masson of Northeastern University, and local artist Joey Asal. George Fifield of Boston CyberArts moderated the discussion, which covered topics including ways that music and animation can be composed in parallel and how the recent developments in firmware allow for more advanced multi-sensory experiences.

The second panel, Beyond Ramen, discussed ways to thrive as an artist. The discussion was moderated by Together’s Art Advisor Adrienne Debigare, and included Brian Kane, Ben Cantil, Nick Colangelo and Maria Rice.

I think the art panels were an excellent addition to this years festival, and I look forward to seeing what new topics we come up with for next year.

Friday: Music Panels

The Friday panels were a crazy, eclectic display of Together’s true reach. The morning started with the Boston EDM discussion, with Cambridge City Councillor Ken Reeves, Travis Mcready of the Kendall Square Association, Anna Carver of Celebrate the Startup, Erin Anderson of Go Local Boston, Together’s own David Day, and local celebrity Akrobatik. Malia Lazu, Director of the Future Boston Alliance, led the discussion about how Boston can embrace electronic music, digital art, and technology startups to further cement the city as a world center of modern culture. Many good points came out of the discussion, and we hope it will not only make way for bigger and better opportunities for the Together Festival, but for the city as a whole.

Photo Credit Nick Minieri

The afternoon panel featured local startup owners and employees giving advice to those who are looking to work at our start their own business. War Stories from the Startup Front was moderated by my friend Brian Whitman of the Echo Nest, and featured Damien Smith of Yelp, Nooka Jones of Percussion Lab, Nadeem Mazen of Danger!Awesome, Trish Fontanilla of Vsnap, Scott Bailey of MassChallenge and Jay Neely of Barcamp Boston. It was wonderful having such a diverse group of professionals on the same panel, and I look forward to finding more ways to incorporate small businesses in future Together events.

The third and final panel, titled Investigating the “Post-Geographic”,  discussed music without borders. DJ’s Ripley, Poirier and Chief Boima joined Jesse Kaminsky of WMBR and Max Pearl of Cluster Mag to discuss global bass music, and the politics surrounding it. The discussion was moderated by Wayne Marshall, and was organized by our good friends at Pico Picante.

All in all, the panels this year were a huge success. Last year, they weren’t well thought out, and were poorly attended. I want to thank the Together 2012 steering committee for all the help they provided, and the promo team for really getting the word out. I’m proud of the work we did, and very grateful to all the panelists who shared their time and views with us on topics that are very important to our community. I’ve already got a bunch of ideas swimming in my head for next year, and if you have any thoughts feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Saturday: Joe Paradiso and WHIRL

On Saturday, Together teamed up with the MIT Museum to put a spotlight on the amazing work of Joe Paradiso. A local tech hero, Joe’s work with the Media Lab has had a lasting impact on the world of physical computing through multi-sensory networks. Recently, Joe installed a massive modular synthesizer that he built between 1975-85. The synth plays itself, and is being streamed online. The museum was packed with attendees, eager to hear about Joe’s experience and to see his creation. This was a great experience to bring a crowd of people to Together who haven’t been involved in previous years. It also opened the eyes of many of our fans to how electronic music is made. I look forward to seeing what comes of our relationship with MIT in future years.

Photo credit Nick Minieri

After leaving the MIT Museum and stopping by the Get Together to pick up a few records, I headed over to Machine to help set up WHIRL. Curated by my good friends Kawan Virdee and Joey Asal, WHIRL is a party like none other. It begins by perusing through the many installations put together by local artists- lights that react to music, a digital etch-a-sketch, laser harp, film art, even a real life android! As the night progresses, Kawan and Joey- also known as PC//MM- weave mystical sounds throughout the room, generated by their massive array of samplers, synths, and processing units. WHIRL was amazing, and keep your eyes open for the next one- it will be soon.

Photo credit Nick Minieri

Wrap-up.

HOLY CRAP I NEED SLEEP. But really, I had an amazing time this year working with the Together family. They’ll never know the impact this event had on me, as someone who is more used to working in small groups on non-mainstream projects. The daytime events went off without a hitch, and again I would like to thank everyone who made this possible. Next year will be big, and if you want to get involved or just keep an eye on what’s going on, check out Together on facebook and twitter, or at www.TogetherBoston.com.

But really, I need sleep. I won’t get any, of course, because I’ll be heading out to CA in a few days for a week of interviews. Now that Together is over, real life is back on. The next blog post will most likely reveal where I will be after I graduate from Northeastern next month! But regardless of where I live, I will remain a part of the Together family. 2013 is going to be a huge year for the festival, so get ready!

Special Thanks Section::

Thank you to: Alex Maniatis, David Day, Gareth Middlebrook, Cole Goughary, Polina Volchek, Joe Grafton, Koren Bernardi, Dan Hogan, Julie Vera, Charles Mazzola, Joanna Di Tullio, Corina Hernandez, Commandah Panda, Jonny Baruc, Vicky Cai, Angela Bray, Adrienne Debigare, Artisan’s Asylum, all the panelists, speakers, artists, DJs, movers and shakers that were involved in these events, and the rest of the Together 2012 family. Also, thanks Mom and Dad, sorry about being MIA the past six months, I’ll call you soon!

L-R: Angela Bray, Julie Vera, Me, Commanda Panda. Photo credit Nick Minieri.

<3 Together!

The Toscanini Gestural Control Interface was a big project for me, and involved a lot of heavy coding in Max/MSP. At the time user experience was important, but still secondary to working algorithms. At this time my partner (Kyle Montag) and I are beginning a user experience overhaul, which will include the following steps:

1. Improve the UI.
   The minimalist modular UI is useful for MSP hackers, but inefficient for musicians who are unfamiliar with MSP programming. We aim to enhance the UI by adding a better control system and a more user friendly control flow.
2. Expand the documentation.
   The documentation for Toscanini is severely lacking. This is ok for experienced users, but we want to make the initial user experience easier to get into. Improved documentation will help highlight the more subtle uses of the interface.
3. Broaden the target audience.
   The following two steps will make Toscanini more acceptable to a wider range of users. From amateur DSP hackers to experienced interactive musicians, my interface is abstract enough at its core to  appeal to a large audience, but not without a better UX and documentation.

Our process will follow a two prong approach. The first course of action is to collect data on usage from multiple subjects with varying of degrees of experience in audio software. We will accomplish this through video taped sessions in which the user will be walked through actions and will asked to complete tasks un-aided. After the session has concluded, we will collect more data via a questionnaire to be completed by the subject. We will also evaluate the video taped sessions. This is our data collection phase.

The information gained from the data collection phase will fuel our UX overhaul. As we reach milestones we will bring the subjects back in for further evaluation. This iterative process will result in a wealth of information that will assist in finalizing the new and improved UI/UX.

At the conclusion of our process, we will have a new user interface for the core Toscanini application which will be available from the git repository, along with improved documentation. If there are any users who would like to be involved in this process, feel free to contact me to express interest.

The Needs of an Agile Team

[A research report written exclusively for CS 5340-Human Computer Interaction, Spring 2012 @ Northeastern University]

Investigate the kinds of interactions that occur in development teams. What does a typical “conversation” look like? What are the communication needs of the different team members?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about effective management of development teams. As you may know, the most popular software development paradigm (especially in the music technology industry) is the Agile method. Through self-organizing and constant communication, smaller teams within the company are able to complete sections of a product and assemble them together. One key stage in Agile development is Scrum, a term taken from rugby, referring to a play where the team stays ‘on top’ of one another to protect the ball and move forward. This iterative process results in quality releases in a timely manner.

There are 12 principle tenets in the “Agile Manifesto”. Many of the principles dictate how a team should work together, including the following two:

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

This point seems fairly simple: no segregation in the work place. The reason behind this rule is that transparency is essential on a development team. Each team needs to know what the others are doing, and where they are in the process. As each element of the product is being built separately, proper communication is required to ensure a cohesive result. But in today’s business environment, it is rare to find a business where all departments are under the same roof- or even the same flag.

• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

And therein lies the rub. As anyone with development experience can tell you, communication over the phone or email can be frustrating and slow down the process. For example, while working at various software companies I have had the pleasure of having coworkers in far off lands trying to describe how to recreate bugs. The process tends to go like this:

1. Receive a bug report. The description is either not in english, or doesn’t appear to be, and very few details are included, i.e. “press a button and something might happen.”
2. Send the obligatory “Can we try that again?” email. At this point in time I typically catch up on some light reading, because e-mail as we know is anything but instant.
3. Receive the original bug report with a few words rearranged. No, that did not clarify anything. Let’s try for some media…
4. Receive a screen capture of the bug. Screen capture software, such as PicPick, is commonly used to This may be enough to help, but by now it has been roughly 24 hours (if we’re lucky) since the original report. If the screen capture isn’t enough, we move on to step 5.
5. Telecom. This could be either a phone, internet based chat, video chat, or in more dire situations a teleconference session with typically >2 participants.

Teleconference systems are pricy, and can be very difficult to use. Some companies have employees whose sole purpose is to facilitate these exchanges. In situations such involving audio software development, hardware peripherals (MIDI controllers, mixing consoles, rack mount systems, etc.) are often present in Digital Audio Workstation systems. When bugs are encountered between software that is in development and proprietary hardware, it is essential to get everyone in the same room to view the relationship between the multiple elements.

Again, this is easier said than done. When I was working at Cakewalk here in Boston, we had to interface with our hardware development teams at Roland’s Japan location. The language barrier was difficult enough to overcome, but without a feasible teleconferencing system it was nearly impossible to clearly get the message across. Design meetings were impossible as well, resulting in products that just didn’t work properly.

Teleconference Systems

Imagine your job is to outfit a small company with a new teleconferencing system. They can’t afford a top-of-the-line Cisco system, so that’s off the table. So instead you turn to a new solution- personal computer based systems. There are many out there, including Skype, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, and more. We’ll focus on iMeet, a browser based system with two relatively inexpensive plans:

• $39/mo, unlimited VoIP connection, 2.9¢/min phone connection
• $69/mo, unlimited VoIP connection, unlimited phone connection

Both plans include:

• Unlimited video meetings with up to 15 people
• Secure sessions on desktops, laptops, even mobile devices
• One on one training with their specialists

Using iMeet to chat with multiple people in different locations can be useful in an Agile environment. However, as it is browser based, users are limited the their PC hardware. The video quality is poor, as is the audio. With large groups of people this can lead to issues in clear communication, and slow interactions are directly opposed to the Agile philosophy.

iMeet is very easy to get started with, and it’s easy to invite people to a meeting. The elegant design and personal URL complete the experience with what is supposed to have a minimalistic feel. But does it work for a music technology company? iMeet doesn’t provide the picture perfect experience promised- it only runs on OS X and Windows, and will only work on mobile devices running those operating systems. Screen sharing is curiously absent, making exchanges such as bug descriptions and design reviews difficult. It appears that the product managers were more interested in enabling social media sharing (which they call “apps” in what one hopes was a tongue in cheek decision) than actually useful telecom functionality.

Proposed System

I propose a system that allows audio technology companies to integrate software and hardware visibility in a telepresence setting. My system is low cost, and would be easy to implement with existing technology.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the solution to our audio software company’s telecommunication troubles: EPIC. (No I don’t have a cool anagram, I’m in development not marketing).

The EPIC system consists of two identical mock production studios in each location. It is made up of five key components:

• A – Screen Sharing Monitor: Your typical computer monitor, with the ability to switch between viewing the local or remote screen. Each location can freely switch between views, allowing for ease in communication.
• B – Telepresence Screen: Anyone who has been in a recording studio knows that there are two rooms, the control room and the performance space, often separated by a window. In place of a window we have a teleconference screen, which places the participants in the remote location on the other side of the mixing console. Ideally this screen will be very large to complete the experience, and will be equipped with cameras to broadcast the local participants. Each screen is outfitted with a re-positional camera that can be used to display hardware interactions, such as  MIDI controllers, rack mount systems, direct input boxes, etc.
• C – Virtual White Board: Software developers, hardware engineers, and business teams rarely see eye to eye, but they all have one mutual friend in common: the whiteboard. This will allow marketing to draw what they envision, software engineers to diagram the program architecture, and hardware engineers to explain the signal flow.
• D – Mixing Console: It’s very important to be able to represent interactions between hardware peripherals and software applications. The age of digital music brought about computerized faders and digital encoders, both of which are standard in modern mixing consoles. Using this technology, EPIC creatives a responsive environment where actions on one console are mirrored in real time on the remote system.
• E – Wacom Tablet: To be used in conjunction with the virtual white board. Arguably the most fun part of our system.
• The Software: Everything will be controlled by a cross-platform application with a simple, straight forward UI. Simple controls will allow the user to change which screen is displayed on the Screen Sharing Monitor, turn remote console fader controls on/off, adjust microphone levels, etc.

In many business situations, meeting participants may look at presentation notes and visuals, but the majority of their attention is directed at each other. Existing teleconference and telepresence systems are useful in those situations, but not for a music technology company. In a situation such as ours, the interactions and responses occurring in the hardware and software environment drive meetings in an Agile development cycle.

The EPIC system is not only useful, but it is practical. The screen, monitor, whiteboard and tablet elements all exist and are fairly affordable. A mixing console would be found in house at any company of this ilk, and the software can be easily built. Businesses often underestimate the importance of a strict Agile development schedule, and skimp on teleconferencing tools. A system such as EPIC would equip teams to effectively coordinate their work and provide salient solutions for disruptions in the development cycle.