Looking back on 10 years of Noise Engineering: a few memories from us

Last month, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Noise Engineering. Last week, we took a look at how the company started, and some key moments in Noise Engineering history. Today, we look back on some of our favorite moments from over the years. 

Kris

In 2013ish, Stephen came to me and said, “Can I take some money out of our savings account? I’ll get it back!” And so the Ataraxic Translatron got built.

Some of you probably know that Stephen and I both had completely different careers before Noise Eng. While I was traipsing around swamps, Stephen was making modules as a hobby. But by 2015/2016, I was an academic who was totally disillusioned with academia. I spent a few months pondering what I wanted to do. I had a job offer that Stephen was convinced I’d take; he was packing his bags to move to the East Coast! But I looked around and realized that despite training for this career for so many years, it wasn’t what I wanted anymore.

I don’t think we have said this much publicly, but noting my frustration with the jobs I was applying for, Stephen one day presented me with an official offer letter to become a full-time employee of Noise Engineering. Friends, I may have shed a tear.

We did a lot of spreadsheeting before we made a move, but then things happened fast. We put an offer in on a house. The day we closed, Stephen quit his job. I finished my semester teaching. We hired Morley to paint a mural on one of our walls that reads “It’s not giving up if you discover you’ve been chasing the wrong destiny.” And just like that, we were in it.

The first year was hard. We had to learn to work together, I had to learn to do…basically everything in this new role. Stephen had to learn to let me do things since it had been entirely his for so long. Stephen’s patience as we went through a lot of these changes is nothing short of miraculous. 

Working alongside Stephen has been one of the most rewarding and fun things I have done in my life. It’s not without strife on occasion, but I get to work with my best friend every single day. Plus I get to hang out with my dogs.

In 2018, we were faced with a shipment of a load of prototypes we had ordered and no good path forward to testing them. We really didn’t have a great map of where we were headed, and we’d been relying on the kindness of friends to test, but we needed more. Around this time, there was this person named Markus who we saw at, like, every. single. event. I said to Stephen, maybe that Markus person would be interested in testing? I got in touch and it wasn’t long until we realized that Markus was exactly the person we needed and we’d be fools to let them go.

Markus was our first employee and for a long time came to our house three days a week to work (and worked from home the rest of the time). We were all new to this and figuring it out, and Markus liked that structure. It was only a little while later when our second employee came along and we realized that it was kind of a weird situation to be hanging out in our living room working (and shouting when our geriatric dog George looked like he might even be glancing at the door to go out so someone could get there in time. Usually).

Cocktail hour at the Noise Engineering office. 

I like to think we’ve gotten better at things over time, but life seems to enjoy throwing things at us when we say things like that, so at the very least, I’ll say we have all learned a ton. I have surprised myself with what I can accomplish when it needs to happen. Stephen’s ability to pick up new things in programming astounds me. Markus and Patrick’s willingness and ability to take on whatever we throw at them inspires me. We would not be where we are without them and everyone else who has passed through NE over the past few years.

We have had the privilege of working with so many incredible people. We have been able to give workshops and demos and perform. We have met about a million people and just about everyone who stopped to chat has been lovely. We have gotten so many emails with great suggestions and ideas, emails of support when things were so weird here during the past few years, and so many emails just saying hello. I consider myself lucky to call so many of you friends. I am a die-hard introvert, but I tell ya, I love this community.

Stephen has a list of explicit thank yous, so I won’t duplicate it here, but if you have bought our products, come to our booth at an event, come to an event, or just told your friends you thought we were cool, we thank you. Because of you, I get to spend my days making our quirky modules, working on [REDACTED], and working with some of the coolest folks out there. 

And even better, I get so much amazing music sent to me. I love to hear what people do with our products; people creating, people expressing…it’s one of the most rewarding parts of what we do, to make tools that enable people to make the sounds they want to make. I am so excited for the next 10 years (and beyond!).

Stephen

10 years: 80 eurorack modules, 12 Reason Extensions, 11 plugins, four 5U modules, hundreds of prototypes, so much software, and so many ideas that didn’t make it off paper. It is safe to say neither Kris nor I had a clue what we were getting into. So many people apart from us are a part of this journey.

Product ideas are stored in the Top Secret High Security Index Card Box. 

Many people in LA were supporters of NE early on and gave me good advice, confidence I wasn't stupid, an introduction to someone, or sometimes just their time. Both Shawns, Rodent, Cyrus, Baseck, Bana, cEvin, Matt, Anthony, Cato, and everyone who talked modules at any of the many modular shows and demos that were going on in LA a decade ago. I don't have room to list everyone. It was a wonderful time for me.

Remembering the early days it feels wild that we really got anywhere. We had so many supporters that helped show off and sometimes test our weird modules. Richard Devine, DJ Surgeon, Surachai, and Aaron Funk, to name a few standouts. I would have never imagined one of my hand-soldered prototypes being used in an opening act for Lady Gaga. 

As I now have an appreciation of the difficulty of running a boutique music instrument store, I have no idea why any store ordered a product from a brand they had never heard of based on a short description of what it did. Analog Haven, Control, SchneidersLaden, Perfect Circuit, Wurly's, Modular Square, and Escape from Noise, to name a few. Some of the stores that were early customers are no longer around. You were and continue to be how we remain in business.

Something that is unique to the modular space is the community and diversity of makers/builders/brands/companies. From the largest to the smallest, everyone I have interacted with in this space has been supportive, interesting, and inspiring. So many people in this community were part of where we are today. Bill, Alex, Tyler, Josh, Scott, Oliver, Stacy, Snazzy, Skyler, and Colin are some of the names at the top of the list. I never imagined I would meet so many people that enjoy talking about the application of Linear Feedback Shift Registers in music.

In this group is also our current manufacturing partner. Andrew, Shensley, Laura, and family, every day you turn our products into reality and ship them around the world. I look forward to the continuing rollercoaster of product development and manufacturing with you. 

A handful of people decided to take a chance and work for us. Markus, Ankoor, Norm, Patrick, Shanda, Elana, Adam, Brandon, Hans, Shawn. I'm floored that anyone would decide to risk their livelihood on our crazy ideas. We learn and improve through mistakes and struggle. These are the people that bore us through the mistakes, struggles, and the occasional 4-hour design meeting of the last decade. 

And the most important category... Our customers. One of the great joys of what we do is talking to our customers. From the most famous (not name dropping, sorry) to the curious artist that comes up at a show and asks "what is this?", thank you for listening to us, buying our products, and, most importantly, making music. And occasionally getting us free tickets to your shows.

What underlies so much of this decade to me is the Eurorack community. Particularly with our forays into other musical instrument markets the Eurorack community stands out as being supportive, engaged, appreciative, and just awesomely nerdy. 

What about the next 10 years? I'm certain it will be bigger... At least physically. I'm confident it will be better... Every product we make is the best we have ever made. We are continually learning and improving everything we do. There will be more colors. And more kinds of gear (more about this very soon). And of course... more modules.

P.S. Some people just don’t fit into any category. Jeff, Ricky, Rhys, Brice, Stuffy, Tim, Jonathan, Starthief. Thank you for being major supporters of our brand.

Markus

Markus takes a quick break at NAMM. 

My introduction to Noise Engineering came from the Loquelic Iteritas demo by Perfect Circuit. That two-minute video had me hooked, and Loquelic Iteritas was one of the first few modules I put in my (then quite small) system. Kris and Stephen kindly invited me by the NE HQ for a demo a few months after that, and I was thrilled to get my first introduction to the rest of the product line. A couple of months later I was wearing my trusty NE logo t-shirt to an LA Modular on the Spot event and another attendee asked me if I worked for Noise Engineering, to which I replied, “No, I wish!” 

Apparently a synthesizer deity was listening because I joined the team a few months later in September of 2018, nearly six years ago at this point (where did the time go?). My job has continuously evolved over the years, so I’ve never gotten bored (a rarity for my gen Z brain) and always have new challenges and projects to explore. 

Before I joined the company, I mentioned to Stephen at an event that I’d love to see what he and Kris did with the concept of a reverb. A few years later I got to help with the development of Desmodus Versio, creating a really cool full-circle moment for me. 

That time we did a Reddit AMA.

I have a somewhat unusual set of knowledge and skills (why yes I do know the power consumption of that obscure module off the top of my head) and Noise Engineering has always felt like a place where I can contribute with everything I’ve got. I’ve learned a lot here, from how to use a multimeter to a variety of techniques for cooking potatoes and I consider myself quite fortunate to call NE my home. 

Patrick

The modular magic began on a cool June evening in 2015 at (the) Handbag Factory. Thanks to Cyrus’s introduction, I met Rodent and was eager to hear his performance. This was my first time seeing someone perform with a modular synth live. Among the crowd was Stephen, which was the first time I met him. As Rodent conducted his patch full of timbres and textures, I couldn’t help but glance at Stephen a couple of times as he listened to someone performing with the products he makes. And I wondered what kind of pressure Rodent must have felt, with the creators of these instruments right there in the same room.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and there I was, making my modular synth debut at Analogue Haven thanks to Skyler. That performance sparked a journey that would shape my career.

Over the next couple of years, I got to know Stephen and Kris better through various synth shop hangouts. Our chats were always enjoyable, but it was at NAMM 2016 when Stephen gave me a whirlwind 10-minute demo of his latest prototypes. Sensing he could use some help, I asked if I could demo his products in the future, and for the next few NAMMs, I was in the booth with Noise Engineering’s latest and greatest gear. This led to an exciting new chapter: creating demo videos. My first was for Clep Diaz in 2018. 

Other memorable moments with the company include the demo I did while pairing with a potent bacon whiskey in hand, or throwing in the “Smash that Bell” phrase during the Debel Iteritas Alia demo, and mispronunciation of Basimilus Iteritas Alia at the Lincoln Memorial.

In September 2021, my passion for modular synthesis became my full-time career. Representing the company at conventions, performing live with our gear, and diving into many aspects of the music business with marketing, design, and testing has been exciting and rewarding.

Since that first modular synth demo, I have produced 53 more, and I’m thrilled to be part of this team that helps bring people’s musical ideas and aspirations to life.