Andrew McPherson

Magnetic Resonator Piano

Silver stiletto

Yesterday I spent the afternoon making video recordings on this beastie at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social for @apmcpherson.bsky.social. I also purchased pre-loved silver stilettos of extreme height at a nearby thrift fashion store. A truly perfect day.

YouTube video by Bela Platform Introducing Trails: Polyphonic Touch Recorder

The latest from Bela -- TRAILS is here! See what it can do here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVpv.... Pre-orders are live now on shop.bela.io, estimated shipping in June.

YouTube video by Bela Platform Trails: Compose in Shapes

We've been busy at Bela lately. Having recently released Bela Gem, our new module Trails is just about to drop! Sneak peek: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNw...

Join the (low-traffic) mailing list at bela.io/trails to be the first to know when it launches.

Bela Gem is here: the biggest upgrade to the Bela platform in a decade, with a quad-core processor (PocketBeagle 2), up to 10ch audio I/O, and a completely new IDE.

We've delivered the boards to our Crowd Supply backers and it's now available on our shop: bela.io/products/bel...

One week left to apply to this PhD studentship! Fully funded, covers fees and stipend; UK home student applicants only (due to funder rules).

In residence at the Guildhall School of Music today with @xeniapestova.bsky.social and the magnetic resonator piano. New pieces by Guildhall composers in preparation!

Audio Effects: Theory, Implementation and Application Audio effects are used pervasively in music performance and production, and the creation of new digital audio tools is a significant industry. They are also commonly used in game production, broadcast...

Just published: the second edition of the Audio Effects textbook by Josh Reiss and me. Featuring new material, including on phase vocoders, spatial audio, and practical topics in audio programming, plus updated code examples. www.routledge.com/Audio-Effect...

Grieving for my home state of Minnesota again tonight, but also proud of the courage of Minnesotans. If only the US “leadership” class had 1% of the decency and moral clarity of ordinary citizens.

Is this man the future of music – or its executioner? AI evangelist Mikey Shulman says he’s making pop, not slop Worth a staggering $2.45bn, Suno is an AI music company that can create a track with just a few prompts. Why is its CEO happy to see it called ‘the Ozempic of the music industry’?

And the answer is... the CEO of Suno! www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

It's fascinating and problematic how big AI companies and research communities like NIME both adopt a discourse of "anyone can make music thanks to these new tools". Would NIME of 10 years ago have loved LLM music generators?

I'm recruiting a PhD student for autumn 2026 on a project on accessibility in musical instrument design, in partnership with disability arts charities OHMI and Drake Music.

Application deadline 15 February 2026. More info and contact details: liss-dtp.ac.uk/project/inst...

Where do the following quotes come from? (Hint: not from a NIME paper.)

"The format of the future will be interactive. It should be social."

"There’s not a right or a wrong answer. [Music is] not a problem to solve."

I'm recruiting a PhD student for autumn 2026 on a project on accessibility in musical instrument design, in partnership with disability arts charities OHMI and Drake Music.

Application deadline 15 February 2026. More info and contact details: liss-dtp.ac.uk/project/inst...

I'd appreciate if any audio tech folks could help circulate this exciting call for a fully-funded PhD position working in multichannel audio design for galleries.

It's part of an ARC funded project 'From Noise to Signal: Improving Sonic Experiences in the Gallery'

www.unsw.edu.au/research/hdr...

Do you teach in the area of sound or music interaction? Giacomo Lepri (University of Genoa) wants to hear from you! Take this survey and enter to win a Bela Gem Stereo: sondaggi.unige.it/index.php/39...

We Can Make an Impact. Stop the suspension of undergraduate music courses at The University of Nottingham

Bonkers that the University of Nottingham is planning to suspend its undergrad music courses. Cancelling music anywhere is a travesty, and Nottingham has such an impressive and standout department. A pointless self-own by short-sighted management. Sign the petition here! c.org/FTjbxY2vp7

Bravo MIT! How reassuring to see this dignity and strength. www.mit.edu/response-gov...

Trump Offered Universities an Invitation for a Deal. Some See a Trap.

This is grotesque: the Trump regime wants to give 9 universities, including my alma mater MIT, a leg up on federal funding in exchange for their servitude. I have to hope MIT and the others have the integrity to tell them where to shove it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Why, for the love of all things good and holy, do so many journals still require submissions in Microsoft Word format?

Matt at a podium with a projected title slide behind him, presenting at DAFx conference

Great to have the opportunity to present a paper by @francisco-bernardo.bsky.social, myself, and @apmcpherson.bsky.social at DAFx 2025: "Impedance Synthesis for Hybrid Analog-Digital Audio effects". The work, led by Francisco, integrates digital systems into analog circuits bidirectionally.

Reductive, Exclusionary, Normalising: The Limits of Generative AI Music | Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval

AI music promised freedom from hard-coded rules that were needed in pre-ML approaches to music generation. No theory, no grammar, no bias — just pure music learned directly from data. Our new @tismir.bsky.social article tears down that myth.

transactions.ismir.net/articles/10....

Looking forward to giving a keynote talk today at DAFX 2025 in Ancona. It's going to be ... different. Introducing my new conspiracy theory (ask at your own risk!).

Technician at Imperial College London Apply for the Technician role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

The Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London is hiring a full-time electronics technician. Come join a wonderfully eclectic group of staff and students, and help us support great facilities and build cool stuff! Applications close 12 September: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOF152/t...

Xenia Pestova Bennett, Hard Rain Soloistensemble - Glow Listen to Glow by Xenia Pestova Bennett, Hard Rain Soloistensemble.

Out now! GLOW for Magnetic Resonator Piano, chamber ensemble and electronics - delighted to be featured on @nmcrecordings.bsky.social

nmcrecs.lnk.to/Glow

@apmcpherson.bsky.social @cmcireland.bsky.social

Bela Gem Stereo and Multi A high-performance audio and sensor system for the PocketBeagle 2

We're approaching the last 24 hours of the Bela Gem campaign. Check out all the campaign updates on technical details and stories from the Bela community. The campaign offers the lowest pricing and the earliest delivery, so this is the time to sign up! www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...

New release alert! My new piece GLOW featuring @apmcpherson.bsky.social Magnetic Resonator Piano + Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble comes out this Friday on @nmcrecordings.bsky.social @prsfoundation.bsky.social pre-save link here nmcrecs.lnk.to/Glow

Meanwhile, PDM (pulse-density modulation) mics are tiny microphones with a digital output which can reduce electrical noise. You can use 8 of these (and maybe even 16!) on Bela Gem Multi to make mic arrays, useful for robotics, beam-forming, field recording and other applications.

Bela Gem Multi already supported 10 audio inputs and 10 audio outputs, 8 of which are DC-coupled. A new design change lets you use DC-coupled signals like CVs or sensor readings on 8 of the audio *inputs* as well. (Some level shifting is needed to situate these inputs between 0 and 3.3V.)

I/O & Parallel Processing With this update we bring you some exciting news of extra features we have unlocked on Bela Gem Multi. The Multi has always supported DC-coupled audio outputs on eight of its ten channels. With our la...

Bela Gem Multi just got more capable! Our latest Crowd Supply update describes the new features on DC-coupled audio inputs and PDM microphone support: www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...

Prototyping With Neural Networks There's growing excitement around running neural networks on embedded systems. As software libraries become more sophisticated and embedded computers more powerful, real-time machine learning on small...

New on the Bela Gem campaign: a look at running AI models on Bela, featuring Augmented Instruments Lab PhD student @tpelinski.bsky.social who explains her pybela package for exchanging data between Bela and python notebooks: www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...

What People Are Building with Bela Right Now Bela Gem is now officially funded and will be coming to you all soon! One of the best ways to understand what Bela Gem is capable of is to see how people are using it in the real world. This week, we...

Update from the Bela Gem campaign: interviews with members of Studio Olafur Eliasson, who used Bela for sound in their latest installation, and with Halldór Úlfarsson, creator of the amazing halldorophone feedback instrument. Those and more projects here: www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...