Podcast 212: Tom Whitwell (Music Thing)

This is the second episode in a collaboration with Synthtopia.com, featuring open source developers of both hardware and software. More information is available at synthtopia.com... What do you call the guy behind the Turing Machine, Radio Music module, Chord Organ and more? I call him a hero, but his name is Tom Whitwell. From the humble beginnings of the Music Thing blog to the current work (particularly in conjunction with Thonk Ltd), Tom is helping us all embrace our passion for cool gear and left field ideas - and is doing it with a personal twist that is unique among all module creators. I've long been a Radio Music user; my module, replete with a bizarro collection of samples, is a goto transition tool for live performance, and a nice addition to a lot of my more relaxed pieces. So many people use the Turing Machine that it's almost a ubiquitous sight in my friends' rigs. So Tom has definitely had an impact! But perhaps more important is the dedication that Tom has to the open hardware and open source nature of these modules. By creating these devices as open tools, it has allowed people to continuously improve the result, and even for interesting extensions (like the Chord Organ alternate software for Radio Music) to be built upon existing hardware. It's an impressive body of work, and a strong addition to the DIY modular community. I hope you enjoy my chat with Tom, and that you'll forgive me a little fan-boyishness...