About me                    > Summary
Hi! I'm Sam. An aspiring programmer/DSP engineer. I made this website to show some of the projects that I've completed or am currently working on and as a place to document some of my key skills and interests. I hope to expand the website as I gain experience in my field but for now I have put together a selection of some of the work I have created over the past few years whilst at University and working at my placement in Paris. Enjoy!

Highly motivated with a keen interest in furthering knowledge and understanding of programming and DSP techniques.
Proven to be able to adapt to a variety of tasks and situations, and to work in a professional manner to produce high quality results.
Looking for opportunities to build on current experience in programming and DSP related fields and to help develop products and services in these areas.

About me                    > Coding                            > Python
I have around a year's experience working in python and find it's simple syntax perfect for quickly prototyping ideas and is one of my primary means for developing DSP based programs. During my time at the IRCAM research institute I used Python extensively on a number of different tasks to perform audio analysis and synthesis related processes. Though I mainly worked in Python 2 I am also familiar with Python 3. I am also familiar with packages such as Numpy, SciPy and Matplotlib.
Check out some of the projects I have worked on in python here!

About me                    > Coding                            > C++
I have used C++ to create audio effects using the Steinberg VST framework as part of coursework for my degree. I have also experimented with creating simple standalone command line tools. I like the language for it's high performance when compared to python (due to the compiled nature of the language) though I currently tend to work less in this language as I find it less flexible for quickly prototyping my ideas. I plan on improving my skills in this language when I feel that one of my projects has reached a point where it would benefit from being converted to a compiled language.

About me                    > Coding                            > UNIX
Having worked almost exclusively on Mac and Linux for a number of years I am very familiar with the Unix environment. I have recently begun to experiment with creating shell scripts to help automate processes I perform regularly. The best example of my understanding of Unix would be to check out my source repository here. It demonstrates how I have used shell scripts to automate the process of setting up a new machine with the environment as I need it.

About me                    > Coding                            > Vim
My editor of choice is Vim and have been using it for around a year. I feel the main advantage is that it is a widely available editor due to it's age and its exceptional ability to be adaptable to all different languages through customization. This allows me to develop in the same environment with modifications to create an IDE style workspace tailored to each task.If you are interested my Vim configurations can be found here.

About me                    > Coding                            > HTML
I recently became interested in coding a website as a side project to improve my skills in an area that I am much less familiar with. This has resulted in the website you are looking at now! I thought it would be beneficial to teach myself something not totally unrelated to my aspirations but enough to give me a different challenge to apply the new skills I have acquired over the past few years to. As a result I am now familiar with HTML5, CSS and understand the basics of JavaScript (though I feel this would not be difficult to build upon given my experience in Python). 

About me                    > Music                             > Main content
I have always enjoyed writing and playing music. As a child I was taught the Piano and continue to practice as a hobby in my spare time. Through studying Music Technology at university I have had the opportunity to expand on my understanding of Music and how computers and signal processing techniques can be applied creatively to design and manipulate sounds. I also have a good understanding of music recording techniques and industry standards for recording instruments in a music studio environment. Although I hope to progress primarily in a technical industry where logic is key, I feel the slightly less conventional path I have taken to reach my current position will provide me with a different perspective on tasks than that of a standard computer science graduate, for example.

About me                    > Motorbike                         > Main content
In my spare time I also love riding and maintaining  motorbikes. I currently hold a full UK A1 motorbike licence and hope to upgrade this in the next few months.
Needs more...

Professional Experience     > IRCAM                             > Main Content
IRCAM has has been my first experience in a professional working environment. During my time there I gained an understanding of how teams work togeather to produce professional products and participated in the development of such products. My ability to write readable and stable code was important when contributing to projects and my knowlege of Unix, Git, VIM, Python, C++ etc... grew substantially during my time there. I also learnt how to work on a project alongside other member of the team and due to the wide variety of projects that I was tasked with improving, my ability to adapt to tasks where I did not have prior experience improved dramatically. An example of this could be when I was tasked with fixing a reveal.js prsentation. A simple task but in a language (or 3, HTML, CSS and JavaScript) that I had never used before. I think this ability to adapt to a given situation is important in a rapidly changing industry.

Portfolio                   > Summary of portfolio
Portfolio                   > FYP: Audio descriptor framework
Portfolio                   > Python/matlab filter module
Portfolio                   > VSTi Synth
Portfolio                   > VST Delay effect
Portfolio                   > This Website

