The latest episode of the Art + Music + Technology podcast is an interview with synthesist Robert Rich.

Host Darwin Grosse talks with Rich about how he got his start making instruments, his work with synth manufacturers like Sequential and Synthesist Technology, modular synthesizers, user interface design, the importance of ‘playing’ in your work and more.

You can listen to the interview below or at the A+M+T site:

Video Summary:

Robert Rich is one of my favorite musicians in the world, and I’m always happy for the opportunity to have a chat with him. With his current efforts – working with Paul Schreiber of Synthesis Technology – in developing on a new effects platform, it seemed like a chance to talk to my friend about something that is somewhat different.

In this case, we do get a chance to talk about some music (I’d been dying to ask him about his percussion background), but we quickly move to effects development, and it is pretty fascinating to hear how a musician can have a critical role in the development of something as highly technical as a hardware effects module.

From algorithm ideation to howling filter blowups, we get a great view of being on the inside of working on a development team for a hardware device. This is something that we don’t often hear about, so it was pretty cool to get the blow-by-blow view of the project in action.

The E520 early bird offer is only available for another week, but the device will probably be available for the long run. Hopefully you get a chance to play with the E520 at some point, and get a chance to hear the chowder delay, spectral delays and other bleeding-edge effects in action.

You can check out the module at the Synth Tech site.

You can subscribe to the A+M+T podcast by adding this URL to your podcast client:

http://artmusictech.libsyn.com/rss

Photo by Brian Tirpack