Andrew McPherson
@apmcpherson.bsky.social
230 followers 170 following 96 posts
Professor in Design Engineering and Music, Imperial College London. Researcher, composer, violist, engineer, instrument designer. Leader of the Augmented Instruments Laboratory instrumentslab.org. Co-founder and director of Bela.io.
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apmcpherson.bsky.social
This is grotesque: the Trump regime wants to give 9 universities, including my alma mater MIT, a leg up on federal funding in exchange for their servitude. I have to hope MIT and the others have the integrity to tell them where to shove it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...
Trump Offered Universities an Invitation for a Deal. Some See a Trap.
www.nytimes.com
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Why, for the love of all things good and holy, do so many journals still require submissions in Microsoft Word format?
Reposted by Andrew McPherson
mdavison.bsky.social
Great to have the opportunity to present a paper by @francisco-bernardo.bsky.social, myself, and @apmcpherson.bsky.social at DAFx 2025: "Impedance Synthesis for Hybrid Analog-Digital Audio effects". The work, led by Francisco, integrates digital systems into analog circuits bidirectionally.
Matt at a podium with a projected title slide behind him, presenting at DAFx conference
Reposted by Andrew McPherson
fabbiaccio.bsky.social
AI music promised freedom from hard-coded rules that were needed in pre-ML approaches to music generation. No theory, no grammar, no bias — just pure music learned directly from data. Our new @tismir.bsky.social article tears down that myth.

transactions.ismir.net/articles/10....
Reductive, Exclusionary, Normalising: The Limits of Generative AI Music | Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval
transactions.ismir.net
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Looking forward to giving a keynote talk today at DAFX 2025 in Ancona. It's going to be ... different. Introducing my new conspiracy theory (ask at your own risk!).
apmcpherson.bsky.social
The Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London is hiring a full-time electronics technician. Come join a wonderfully eclectic group of staff and students, and help us support great facilities and build cool stuff! Applications close 12 September: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOF152/t...
Technician at Imperial College London
Apply for the Technician role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
www.jobs.ac.uk
apmcpherson.bsky.social
We're approaching the last 24 hours of the Bela Gem campaign. Check out all the campaign updates on technical details and stories from the Bela community. The campaign offers the lowest pricing and the earliest delivery, so this is the time to sign up! www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...
Bela Gem Stereo and Multi
A high-performance audio and sensor system for the PocketBeagle 2
www.crowdsupply.com
Reposted by Andrew McPherson
xeniapestova.bsky.social
New release alert! My new piece GLOW featuring @apmcpherson.bsky.social Magnetic Resonator Piano + Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble comes out this Friday on @nmcrecordings.bsky.social @prsfoundation.bsky.social pre-save link here nmcrecs.lnk.to/Glow
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Meanwhile, PDM (pulse-density modulation) mics are tiny microphones with a digital output which can reduce electrical noise. You can use 8 of these (and maybe even 16!) on Bela Gem Multi to make mic arrays, useful for robotics, beam-forming, field recording and other applications.
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Bela Gem Multi already supported 10 audio inputs and 10 audio outputs, 8 of which are DC-coupled. A new design change lets you use DC-coupled signals like CVs or sensor readings on 8 of the audio *inputs* as well. (Some level shifting is needed to situate these inputs between 0 and 3.3V.)
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Update from the Bela Gem campaign: interviews with members of Studio Olafur Eliasson, who used Bela for sound in their latest installation, and with Halldór Úlfarsson, creator of the amazing halldorophone feedback instrument. Those and more projects here: www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...
What People Are Building with Bela Right Now
Bela Gem is now officially funded and will be coming to you all soon! One of the best ways to understand what Bela Gem is capable of is to see how people are using it in the real world. This week, we...
www.crowdsupply.com
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Amazing Tom - thanks!

(Also everyone should check out Tom's SPOKE project at the MIDI Innovation Awards: midi.org/innovation-a...)
SPOKE
midi.org
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Bela Gem (the ultra-low latency embedded audio platform) is 99.8% funded on Crowd Supply. Literally the next backer will take us over the line! Keep an eye on the campaign for a bunch of great updates over the next couple weeks: www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...
Bela Gem Stereo and Multi
A high-performance audio and sensor system for the PocketBeagle 2
www.crowdsupply.com
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Just launched! Bela Gem is our new family of ultra-low-latency embedded audio boards based on PocketBeagle 2, with a quad-core 1.4GHz processor, 24/96 audio, 16-bit analog inputs. Comes in stereo and 10-channel versions. www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...
Bela Gem Stereo and Multi
A high-performance audio and sensor system for the PocketBeagle 2
www.crowdsupply.com
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Bela Gem is launching soon on Crowd Supply. This is the biggest overhaul of Bela since 2016, with a quad-core 1.4GHz processor, up to 10 channels in/out of 24bit/96kHz audio, and a brand new browser-based IDE. Subscribe to be the first to know when it launches: www.crowdsupply.com/bela/bela-ge...
Bela Gem Stereo and Multi
A high-performance audio and sensor system for the PocketBeagle 2
www.crowdsupply.com
apmcpherson.bsky.social
NIME 2026 is coming to London! 23-26 June 2026. General chairs Courtney Reed (Loughborough University London, Augmented Instruments Lab alum) and me. More details soon!
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Xiaowan Yi and Jordie Shier present “Diffy” on the last night of NIME 2025.
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Nicole Robson presenting at NIME 2025 on sonic entanglements in the composition of an ultrasonic art installation (paper: nime.org/proceedings/...)
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Charis Saitis on timbre at NIME (paper: nime.org/proceedings/...): “NIME has a difficulty of talking about musical aesthetics. It is much easier to talk about control structures!”
apmcpherson.bsky.social
Otherworldly sounds from an electromagnetically bowed autoharp by Adam Schmidt, ahead of a poster/demo session on the Sparksichord (paper: nime.org/proceedings/...)