Podcast 213: James Grahame (MeeBlip)

This is the third episode in a collaboration with Synthtopia.com, featuring open source developers of both hardware and software. More information is available at synthtopia.com... The MeeBlip synthesizer has quietly shaken up music technology. It showed the way for a lot of innovations: small run manufacturing of synthesizers, open-source hardware and software production, desktop format synth tools. While touched on by others, the MeeBlip brought it all together in a way that shocked the system - and was on the front of today's affordably synth revolution. The MeeBlip was designed by James Grahame and Peter Kirn (of Create Digital Music fame), and is the embodiment of many of their personal goals: make things affordable, make things open and make them fun. The fact is that they were able to hit these goals squarely on the head, and the result is a fun little synth that shows up everywhere. James himself is articulate about his vision for the product, and how it holds up to the interests and concerns of a lot of people. By paying attention to both his own voice and that group of users that demand open development, he's created a roadmap to meet the needs of a surprisingly large group of people - and also made the entry path into synthesis much more accessible. If you aren't familiar with the MeeBlip system, you really need to dig into it at https://meeblip.com/. And enjoy this conversation with the amazing and insightful James Grahame!