<div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 25, 2026 at 6:35 AM Florian Anwander via Synth-diy <<a href="mailto:synth-diy@synth-diy.org">synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><u></u>
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<div>Am 24.04.26 um 20:45 schrieb Eric
Brombaugh via Synth-diy:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite">A more
interesting topic to me is the use of machine learning and AI
methods for realtime synthesis / effects and music creation. <br>
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Hmm, there we are again, where Roman wrote "I really like to know
exactly how the thing I'm making is doing what it's doing in every
detail." Also in synthesis for me it is the most satisfying part,
that I know what I am doing. I don't want to use, what comes from
the blackbox - even if it sounds "cool". I want to have it on my
own.<br></div></div></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Inspired by these discussions, yesterday I picked up Claude code and applied it to a project that had lain fallow for 3 years, a trigger sequencer project using a PIC. It had been 90% done when I set it aside because of some glitching that I suspected was my code but couldn't find. Claude found the bugs quickly, explained them clearly so I learned something about using an ISR and also about the logic mistakes I had made, and now except for one unimplemented feature, it works perfectly.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">This was more "expert advice" than "vibe coding" and the result is definitely not a black box.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">It's also not quite what Eric was meaning 🙂....</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">For my second trick I applied it to something much more mushy--I have kicked around an idea for an aeolian harp module for several years now. Dr Rod Selfridge did his dissertation on and published a couple of papers about the physics involved and the math needed to simulate this to generate such tones. He also put a pure data implementation out in the world. I have reread and studied and tried to pick apart the Pd to understand it, but the academic writing style and the byzantine nature of deeply layered Pd code has consistently blocked me from understanding it enough to implement. <div style="font-size:inherit" dir="auto"><span style="font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline!important;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(0,0,0);color:rgb(0,0,0)"> (to be fair to him, I have very little experience with Pd so that perception of the implementation </span><span style="font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inline!important;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(0,0,0);color:rgb(0,0,0)">could easily be my own limitations)</span></div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I pointed Claude at the papers and the Pd implementation and within a few minutes it was able to digest the complexity and provide a block diagram laying out the parts of the math and how they fit together. I recognize the parts from my own attempts to dig into this, but had never been able to fully grasp the connections because the connective tissue and idioms of pure data weren't natural to me. I now feel I understand it well enough to implement, and I will probably lean on Claude to assist with that part as well.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">This too is not a black box, and the final result will be sound generation code that I am intimate enough with to understand and modify to refine it on my own. Again it is much more in the vein of expert advice. Perhaps it would be feasible for a complete stranger to reach out to Dr Selfridge, and his advice would be better and 100% human, but I expect he has better things to do than tutor some dilettante who is just interested in a very narrow implementation of what he understands so well.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Still probably not quite what Eric was meaning, I don't think, but my point is that these are tools that can be used without them turning into a black box. It's about how you engage with them.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Pete</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><br>
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