When a HPF Causes Clipping (Filtering, Phase, & Constructive Interference)

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How can a low-pass filter increase amplitude even though filters remove frequencies?

In this video, I explain how *phase shifts* introduced by your filters can cause constructive interference, increasing amplitude and even leading to clipping. We’ll explore:
-Why filtering can boost amplitude
-How phase changes affect waveform shape
-Strategies for filtering in synthesis and mixing

Understanding this concept can up the game of sound designers, mixing engineers, and anyone working with EQ or synthesis.

More synthesis and MIDI fundamentals here:

Feedback Loops & Acid House (“Hum” live set)

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“Hum”: Acid house meets analog chaos, live feedback loops performance

This is my live performance set “Hum”, blending digitally controlled analog synthesizers, surrealist acid house grooves, and feedback textures. Recorded in my home studio, this video revisits the set I played live at Synth-tember / Mini-Blorp at New Alliance Gallery in Somerville, MA.

Featuring chaotic 303 basslines (from Herbs & Stones Liquid Foam), evolving feedback loops (from the Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ), and hybrid digital/analog sound design, this should satisfy fans of modular synth performance, experimental electronic music, and custom audio setups.

🎧 If you enjoy this, check out my previous live set from Bleep/Blorp 2024 on Bandcamp:

Embrace the Random (Algorithmic Synthesis Nuances)

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Composing small elements of randomness into your synths to add nuance, movement and human feel.

In this video, I “embrace the random” and show some ideas for adding dimension to your synths by passing off some parameters to randomness, exploring how introducing small elements of randomness to a synth in Native Instruments Reaktor. These kinds of details help synths feel less rigid and more expressive, especially when looping or playing repetitive patterns.

  • 0:00 Introduction
  • 1:25 Simple Sawtooth Synth
  • 2:36 Random Filter Cutoff
  • 8:31 Random Panning
  • 13:06 So What?
  • 13:40 Arpeggios in Logic Pro X
  • 15:23 Closing Thoughts, Next Steps

More Reaktor tutorials available here:

“Speculation and Imagination”

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New music! 🎛️ 🎵

Check out my latest release “Speculation and Imagination”, combining gentle melodic sequences with harsh, noisy feedback.

These tracks are an edit of my live analog synthesizer improvisation from a online “session” with painter Onozaki Takuya. Onozaki and I meet monthly for jam sessions over Zoom, him in Hanamaki and me in Connecticut, where he paints, and I play my synths, exchanging artistic ideas across our mediums.

If you happen to be around Toyko this week, Onozaki’s works, some of which were created in these sessions, are on display 2/7/25-2/16/25 at “Gallery Camellia”in Ginza.

Karplus-Strong Synthesis in Reaktor Primary

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Patching up a Karplus-Strong synth from scratch in Reatkor 6 Primary.


Karplus-Strong synthesis is a digital synthesis technique that simulates the sound of plucked strings by using a feedback loop to model the behavior of a vibrating string. Developed by Kevin Karplus and Alex Strong, this method generates resonant waveforms by feeding back a short noise signal through a filtered delay line with feedback.

In this video we build a simple K-S synth from scratch in Native Instruments Reaktor 6, exploring what happens based on the design decisions that we make. By the end of this video, you should understand both the theoretical concepts and practical implementation in Reaktor, giving you a unique tool for your music production arsenal.

Check out more intermediate Reaktor Tutorials here:

Artificial Neurons for Music and Sound Design (5-minute lecture video)

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Video presentation I made for the 2024 “Explainable AI for the Arts” (XAIxArts) Workshop, part of the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference 2024.

A lot of these points I’ve discussed elsewhere (see playlist below), but this quickie presentation brings together these ideas, focusing on the aesthetic potential of this approach.

Check out the complete playlist for more hands-on creation of neurons and neural networks:

Mixing Synths: Early Reflections for Added Dimension

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Adding some subtle dimension to your synthesized instruments with early reflections.


Synthesized instruments, unlike recorded sounds, have never existed in the acoustic world. This means that these synthesized sounds are 100% direct signal. To add some subtle dimension to these synthesized sounds, then, we can craft some “early reflections” on these tracks.

Here, I demonstrate this concept using ChromaVerb in Logic Pro X.

0:00 Introduction
0:55 Understanding Reverb and Early Reflections
2:18 Creating Early Reflections
3:18 Project Setup
4:26 Early Reflections Aux Track
5:15 ABing on the Synth Track
6:19 Why Separate these from the Main Reverb?
6:40 ABing on the Whole Arrangement

More Logic Pro X videos here.

Compression-Controlled Feedback Loops in Your DAW

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Creating DAW-based feedback loops, then using side-chain compression to regulate them.


Here, working on a project with @SpectralEvolver , I show in Logic Pro X how we can use a compressor side-chained to a beat to control a feedback loop for some noisy, industrial sounding music that sounds evocative of the artist Emptyset. I found this was a great way to create a chaotic sound, but keep it under control (and out of the way of the drums).

0:00 Intro
0:29 The audio tracks
1:15 Side-chain compression
2:03 The feedback loop
3:13 Controlling the loop with compression
5:00 Emptset
5:13 Two aux tracks sending to each other
6:23 A note about time-based effects
6:50 Will it blow up?!
8:06 Closing, next steps

Check out Emptyset’s bandcamp here. Here’s Emptyset talking about their ionospheric propagation work, “Signal”:


More Logic Pro Tutorials from me here:

Spotting Subaudio

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Finding and removing subaudio from sample files with a waveform editor.

Subaudio are frequencies below the range of human hearing (below 20Hz). These frequencies can sneak into our recordings, and work against us in a number of ways. If we can address subaudio in our samples, we can do ourselves a favor in the later stages of our mixing process.

0:00 Defining Subaudio
0:59 Example 1: Spotting Subaudio
2:04 Example 1: Doing the Math
2:50 Why Did This Happen?
3:11 Removing Subaudio with Parametric EQ
5:53 Example 2: Not Really Subaudio
7:27 Harmonics of Subaudio
8:31 Example 3: Trimming
9:15 Example 4: Bringing It All Together
10:16 Closing. Next Steps