Top all-time · #5642
Perfect Circuit
Company blog · perfectcircuit.com/signalhardwareculture
Perfect Circuit is the company blog at perfectcircuit.com, writing about hardware and culture. Since 2020, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Perfect Circuit's SIGNAL articles on synthesis and sound, such as physical modeling synthesis, the history of Harald Bode, and differences between WAV audio formats. Some comments also just mention the shop.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Perfect Circuit is the premier source for cutting edge Electronic Music, Tools, and Techniques.
What Hacker News says?
I'm no audio engineer either, but those computer voice sound "saw-tooth"y to me. From what I understand, it's more basic models/techniques that are undersampling, so there is a series of audio pulses which give it that buzzy quality. Better models are produced smoother output. https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/difference-between-wav...
Comment linking /signal/difference-between-waveforms
on “VibeVoice: A Frontier Open-Source Text-to-Speech Model”Submitted Musical Notation for Modular Synthesizers as a story · 154 points
HN discussionYou might be interested in physical modeling synthesis. It's got a long history. Here's a good run down: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/what-is-physical-model...
Comment linking /signal/what-is-physical-modeling
on “They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard”Submitted Synthesis Methods Explained: What Is FM Synthesis? as a story · 127 points
HN discussionWonder if we'll see Sweetwater & Musician's Friend open physical stores in the future around major hubs. Or if small boutique music stores like https://www.perfectcircuit.com/ will become more of the norm, instead of the big chains.
Comment linking /
on “Guitar Center files for bankruptcy”Submitted Electronic Music: Allen Strange's Classic Book Reissued as a story · 43 points
HN discussionMusic coding technology has been around a long time - think of tools like csound and pd and Max/MSP. They're great for coding synthesizers. Nobody uses them to do songs. Even Strudel has tools for basic GUI components because once you get past the novelty of 'this line of code is modulating the filter wowow ' typing in numeric values for frequency or note duration is the least efficient way to interact with the mach…
Comment linking /signal/the-programmable-eurorack
on “How to Synthesize a House Loop”Submitted Hands Off: The Roland D-Beam's Lasting Musical Legacy (2023) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionGeiskes makes a series of aftermarket bent Walkman like cassette players aimed at musicians. I remember spending a lot of time as a kid half pressing buttons to hear the song playback in reverse or chipmunked. https://www.perfectcircuit.com/gieskes The TE recorder is beautiful. I hadn’t heard of that term captures it perfectly. The itch is only scratched once it’s owned though right? O_o Their OB-4 has a similar whe…
Comment linking /gieskes
on “Why Sony Can't Bring Back Its Classic Walkman Models”Submitted Ether Anti-Radio V2 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's available now, PerfectCircuit has it in stock: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/expressive-e-osmose.html The presets make really good use of the poly-aftertouch, which is way more comfortable than on my Hydrosynth Explorer. For pitch bend/vibrato the Osmose relies on the sideways key motion. Personally I'm a long-time piano player just lately getting into synths and recording, so I'm not sure how I'll use it exac…
Comment linking /expressive-e-osmose.html
on “Ravenchord – A Radical Redesign of the Piano”Submitted History of the PT2399 Delay Chip (2025) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionPerfect Circuit (a music gear shop in CA) have very interesting set of articles in their "SIGNAL" ( https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal ) online publication that are probably of interest to some slice of the HN-readership. Here are a few other articles worth reading if you're interested in sound and synthesis: • Inventing Electronic Music: Harold Bode -- https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/harald-bode • Mutable…
Comment linking /signal/mutable-instruments-retrospective
on “Sound as Code: The Intelligence of Listening”Submitted Sound as Code: The Intelligence of Listening as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Superbooth 2022: New Synthesizers, Eurorack Modules, and More as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
