This experience allowed me to blend my love of electronic music with embedded system design. I may not be an electronic music artist, but I can help design better brushes for those who are.
I worked as a contract embedded systems engineer for Grayscale, a company focused on improving the usability, ergonomics, and aesthetics of Eurorack modular synthesizers. My role involved end-to-end product ownership, covering both electrical design and firmware development for a DSP-based clock module.
The module was designed to generate timed waveforms, enabling complex evolving patterns, poly-rhythms, and dynamic sequencing—giving musicians greater control over rhythmic structures. Working with Wes, Grayscale’s founder, was an honor. His company was born from the artist’s struggle—the gap between creative vision and technical limitations. When the modules he needed didn’t exist, he built them. Grayscale exists to empower artists, and I’m proud to have contributed to that mission.
I was responsible for processor selection, circuit design, and firmware architecture, ensuring seamless hardware-software integration. Using object-oriented design principles, I mapped embedded features onto ARM hardware blocks, optimizing real-time signal processing performance for the synthesizer module.
This project pushed me to balance performance, power efficiency, and size constraints, requiring custom circuit design, signal integrity analysis, and firmware optimization. My work directly contributed to enhancing the modular synthesizer experience, helping musicians explore new creative possibilities through better tools.
Owned the complete product development cycle, from specification mapping to electrical design and firmware implementation.
• Designed embedded DSP-based circuits, selecting every component, including microcontroller (ARM Cortex-M4), ADC/DAC interfaces, and power management.
• Developed firmware architecture using object-oriented design principles, defining APIs, control structures, and hardware abstraction layers.
• Mapped software features onto ARM peripherals, configuring interrupts, timers, PWM modules, ADC/DAC interfaces, and real-time processing tasks.
• Designed and simulated anti-aliasing filters to improve signal integrity in ADC/DAC conversion.
• Set up a cross-compiler toolchain for ARM Cortex-M4 development, ensuring a streamlined embedded development workflow.
• Prototyped LED driver circuits, verifying brightness and modulation for red/green LEDs in response to control waveforms.
• Developed a C-model prototype and simulation environment, helping the client understand aliasing effects in real-time signal processing.
• Entered and reviewed the entire circuit design in schematic capture tools (DipTrace), PCB layout and prototype manufacturing was handled by another modular synthezier company, WMDevices.
• Programming & Embedded Development: C, ARM Cortex-M4 toolchain
• Hardware Design & Simulation: DipTrace, SPICE simulation
• Digital Signal Processing: Anti-aliasing filter design, real-time clock-waveform processing
• Embedded System Architecture: Interrupts, timers, PWM, ADC/DAC integration
• Prototyping & Debugging: LED driver circuits, firmware testing frameworks
My contributions to Grayscale helped bring a new embedded DSP-based module from concept to prototype.
Key Outcomes & Impact
• Developed a fully integrated embedded DSP system, handling both firmware and hardware design.
• Optimized ARM Cortex-M4 hardware utilization, balancing processing efficiency, hardware peripherals and real-time processing requirements.
• Created a simulation environment, allowing the client to visualize aliasing effects before final hardware production.
This contract work allowed me to apply my expertise in embedded DSP, circuit design, and firmware architecture while supporting a company focused on user experience innovation in modular synthesis.
This experience allowed me to blend my love of electronic music with embedded system design. I may not be an electronic music artist, but I can help design better brushes for those who are.
I worked as a contract embedded systems engineer for Grayscale, a company focused on improving the usability, ergonomics, and aesthetics of Eurorack modular synthesizers. My role involved end-to-end product ownership, covering both electrical design and firmware development for a DSP-based clock module.
The module was designed to generate timed waveforms, enabling complex evolving patterns, poly-rhythms, and dynamic sequencing—giving musicians greater control over rhythmic structures. Working with Wes, Grayscale’s founder, was an honor. His company was born from the artist’s struggle—the gap between creative vision and technical limitations. When the modules he needed didn’t exist, he built them. Grayscale exists to empower artists, and I’m proud to have contributed to that mission.
I was responsible for processor selection, circuit design, and firmware architecture, ensuring seamless hardware-software integration. Using object-oriented design principles, I mapped embedded features onto ARM hardware blocks, optimizing real-time signal processing performance for the synthesizer module.
This project pushed me to balance performance, power efficiency, and size constraints, requiring custom circuit design, signal integrity analysis, and firmware optimization. My work directly contributed to enhancing the modular synthesizer experience, helping musicians explore new creative possibilities through better tools.
Owned the complete product development cycle, from specification mapping to electrical design and firmware implementation.
• Designed embedded DSP-based circuits, selecting every component, including microcontroller (ARM Cortex-M4), ADC/DAC interfaces, and power management.
• Developed firmware architecture using object-oriented design principles, defining APIs, control structures, and hardware abstraction layers.
• Mapped software features onto ARM peripherals, configuring interrupts, timers, PWM modules, ADC/DAC interfaces, and real-time processing tasks.
• Designed and simulated anti-aliasing filters to improve signal integrity in ADC/DAC conversion.
• Set up a cross-compiler toolchain for ARM Cortex-M4 development, ensuring a streamlined embedded development workflow.
• Prototyped LED driver circuits, verifying brightness and modulation for red/green LEDs in response to control waveforms.
• Developed a C-model prototype and simulation environment, helping the client understand aliasing effects in real-time signal processing.
• Entered and reviewed the entire circuit design in schematic capture tools (DipTrace), PCB layout and prototype manufacturing was handled by another modular synthezier company, WMDevices.
My contributions to Grayscale helped bring a new embedded DSP-based module from concept to prototype.
Key Outcomes & Impact
• Developed a fully integrated embedded DSP system, handling both firmware and hardware design.
• Optimized ARM Cortex-M4 hardware utilization, balancing processing efficiency, hardware peripherals and real-time processing requirements.
• Created a simulation environment, allowing the client to visualize aliasing effects before final hardware production.
This contract work allowed me to apply my expertise in embedded DSP, circuit design, and firmware architecture while supporting a company focused on user experience innovation in modular synthesis.
• Programming & Embedded Development: C, ARM Cortex-M4 toolchain
• Hardware Design & Simulation: DipTrace, SPICE simulation
• Digital Signal Processing: Anti-aliasing filter design, real-time clock-waveform processing
• Embedded System Architecture: Interrupts, timers, PWM, ADC/DAC integration
• Prototyping & Debugging: LED driver circuits, firmware testing frameworks
This experience allowed me to blend my love of electronic music with embedded system design. I may not be an electronic music artist, but I can help design better brushes for those who are.
I worked as a contract embedded systems engineer for Grayscale, a company focused on improving the usability, ergonomics, and aesthetics of Eurorack modular synthesizers. My role involved end-to-end product ownership, covering both electrical design and firmware development for a DSP-based clock module.
The module was designed to generate timed waveforms, enabling complex evolving patterns, poly-rhythms, and dynamic sequencing—giving musicians greater control over rhythmic structures. Working with Wes, Grayscale’s founder, was an honor. His company was born from the artist’s struggle—the gap between creative vision and technical limitations. When the modules he needed didn’t exist, he built them. Grayscale exists to empower artists, and I’m proud to have contributed to that mission.
I was responsible for processor selection, circuit design, and firmware architecture, ensuring seamless hardware-software integration. Using object-oriented design principles, I mapped embedded features onto ARM hardware blocks, optimizing real-time signal processing performance for the synthesizer module.
This project pushed me to balance performance, power efficiency, and size constraints, requiring custom circuit design, signal integrity analysis, and firmware optimization. My work directly contributed to enhancing the modular synthesizer experience, helping musicians explore new creative possibilities through better tools.
Owned the complete product development cycle, from specification mapping to electrical design and firmware implementation.
• Designed embedded DSP-based circuits, selecting every component, including microcontroller (ARM Cortex-M4), ADC/DAC interfaces, and power management.
• Developed firmware architecture using object-oriented design principles, defining APIs, control structures, and hardware abstraction layers.
• Mapped software features onto ARM peripherals, configuring interrupts, timers, PWM modules, ADC/DAC interfaces, and real-time processing tasks.
• Designed and simulated anti-aliasing filters to improve signal integrity in ADC/DAC conversion.
• Set up a cross-compiler toolchain for ARM Cortex-M4 development, ensuring a streamlined embedded development workflow.
• Prototyped LED driver circuits, verifying brightness and modulation for red/green LEDs in response to control waveforms.
• Developed a C-model prototype and simulation environment, helping the client understand aliasing effects in real-time signal processing.
• Entered and reviewed the entire circuit design in schematic capture tools (DipTrace), PCB layout and prototype manufacturing was handled by another modular synthezier company, WMDevices.
My contributions to Grayscale helped bring a new embedded DSP-based module from concept to prototype.
Key Outcomes & Impact
• Developed a fully integrated embedded DSP system, handling both firmware and hardware design.
• Optimized ARM Cortex-M4 hardware utilization, balancing processing efficiency, hardware peripherals and real-time processing requirements.
• Created a simulation environment, allowing the client to visualize aliasing effects before final hardware production.
This contract work allowed me to apply my expertise in embedded DSP, circuit design, and firmware architecture while supporting a company focused on user experience innovation in modular synthesis.
• Programming & Embedded Development: C, ARM Cortex-M4 toolchain
• Hardware Design & Simulation: DipTrace, SPICE simulation
• Digital Signal Processing: Anti-aliasing filter design, real-time clock-waveform processing
• Embedded System Architecture: Interrupts, timers, PWM, ADC/DAC integration
• Prototyping & Debugging: LED driver circuits, firmware testing frameworks
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