A while back, we all wrote introductory posts about ourselves for the blog. You all seemed to really enjoy them, so we decided to revisit the series with some life updates and behind-the-scenes of what’s going on in our lives.
Today, we check in with Markus, the Chief of Destruction at Noise Engineering, and see what they’ve been up to.
How’s it going?
Life is good! I wrote my intro post about four years ago at this point so a lot has happened since then. I’ve now been at NE for nearly seven years, which is pretty wild to think about. I’ve been involved in over 50 product launches – I test almost every product we release, as well as write most documentation and help with QA. I’ve also written over 150 blog posts, tabled at dozens of shows, and chatted with hundreds of you awesome people in the community. Before I started at NE I was spending all of my free time playing with synths and making noise, and I never expected what the better part of the next decade would have in store. I’m really grateful that I get to spend my working hours doing synth stuff – how cool is that?
What’s changed since you wrote your intro post?
Pretty much everything. I’ve moved a few times, I have an even wider variety of tasks at work, I’ve discovered a bunch of new hobbies outside of work, I’m getting married soon, my synth got even taller… Everything feels like it’s moving pretty fast these days, but I’m really happy with how life has progressed over the last few years.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that my apartment decor confuses the general population. I don’t own a TV but I do own a very tall synthesizer. I think I’ve made good life choices.
What are you working on that you’re excited about?
Recently, I’ve taken on the role of helping with project management here at NE, which has been a fun challenge. If you’ve followed NE for a while, you’ll know that we tend to release products quite frequently, and that hasn’t changed – right now, we have a much bigger variety of products in the works than we have before. Keeping all of our tasks organized is an ongoing challenge, so I’ve been learning the best ways to keep things tidy, help move things forward, and make sure details don’t get lost along the way.
It’s been particularly fun for me since I get to have my hands on all of the things we’re working on. For example, I’m not a pedal expert, but as we’ve released more pedals, I’ve still gotten to see all of the cool behind-the-scenes bits of their development and help with their production and release.What’s something fun you’ve been doing outside of work?
I’ve gotten really into coffee. Like, REALLY into coffee. I’ve always enjoyed it – I started making pourover about a decade ago – but a few years back I decided to start making espresso at home. Instead of getting a standard espresso setup, I discovered the world of traditional lever machines and decided that I wanted to combine my morning coffee with mandatory upper-body workouts.
I bought a La Pavoni Professional, which has turned out to be a great investment. I pull 2-4 shots a day, and you get a really good feel for the coffee as you’re dialing in since you have direct feedback from the puck as you (literally) pull a shot. It’s also an incredibly simple machine to maintain – some people in the community still use lever machines like this that were made in the ‘60s.
Making a latte with strenuous manual labor is a great way to entertain your guests – I highly recommend it.
What’s your favorite non-work activity of late?
My last move was to a very walkable part of LA – sadly, a bit of an anomaly – so I’ve been trying to do the 10k steps a day thing. It’s been a big positive in my overall wellbeing, and I see a lot more of the city and community than I did previously.
I also started resistance training about a year ago, which was an entirely new type of activity for me. Most of my previous hobbies have been more brain focused, so learning where my limbs are in space has been a new and enjoyable challenge. Moving heavy things is fun!
What’s something cool you’ve done recently?
Last month, we attended a screening of a montage of Georges Méliès films accompanied by a live score by Jean-François Alcoléa. It was the first time I’d been to a non-electronic performance in a long while and it was a lot of fun. The trio that played was an incredible group of multi-instrumentalists. Highlights included hubcap percussion and tupperware lids as projectile-based instruments.
Show and tell: what’s something neat in your house?
Did you know that LEGO makes sets for adults? And that they will deliver them to your house if you give them your credit card information? 36 hours and a lot of piece hunting later I now have a movie-accurate replica of the Millennium Falcon. Definitely one of my more practical purchases of late.
What are you hoping to work on in the future?
We have a lot of things planned for the future that I can’t talk about yet, but are really exciting in concept. This last year, I had a lot of fun working on Confundo Funkidos which is the successor to one of my all-time favs. I’ve specialized almost entirely on Eurorack for the past decade or so, but as we’ve developed pedal and plugin devices, I’ve realized there’s even more to sound that I can play with. We’ve still got plenty of Eurorack in the works, and I think that will always be my favorite type of product to work on, but I’m excited to learn about other parts of the synth world, too.
