Meet Matthew: A library technician who enjoys electronics, music, and composting, and who’s known for his amazing puns across the world (at least the Ohmify world). He purchased an Ohmify subscription to himself as a birthday gift, and has been a valuable member ever since!

Where are you from and what do you do?

My name is Matthew and I am from Atlanta, Georgia, and live there, too.

I currently work as a library technician and do lots of other things when I am not helping books circulate through our community. Some activities and interests I enjoy are composing music, walking, body surfing in the ocean, composting food waste, up-cycling, crafting puns, software coding for music applications, and low-voltage electronics.

There’s very few places that exist online like Ohmify where you can learn about electronics at just about every level from beginner to longtime soldering iron wiz and be supported at wherever you are at in your journey.

Matthew S.

What was the main reason you joined Ohmify?

From very early on in my life I’ve been curious about how electronic devices work and often disassembled them to see how they tick. Some devices made it thru my “journey of discovery” and some did not. In the last decade, I started venturing down the rabbit hole of making music with electronic instruments and started purchasing very affordable, previously owned synthesizers that were sold as “for parts / not working” and would try to repair them on my own.

I quickly became dissatisfied with “hunting & pecking” my way across the internet trying to find sub-par advice or information about electronics repair. I often found opaque or conflicting information about basic electronic concepts and my frustrations mounted until I discovered Ohmify. I purchased a yearly membership as a birthday gift to myself and couldn’t have been happier!

I often found opaque or conflicting information about basic electronic concepts and my frustrations mounted until I discovered Ohmify. I purchased a yearly membership as a birthday gift to myself and couldn’t have been happier!

Matthew S

Ohmify was a breath of fresh air that led to many doors opening very quickly for my learning goals and building lots of confidence without any expectation of expertise or judgement. I very much feel a part of the Ohmify community even though I haven’t been a regular visitor and participant as of late. I look forward to continuing to build and grow with my fellow Ohmies!

Are there any projects you’ve completed since joining Ohmify that you couldn’t have completed before?

Yes! All of them!

Seriously though, a lot of my projects went unfinished or were abandoned due to my frustrations or lack of knowledge on how to proceed with what I was trying to achieve. Since joining Ohmify, I have been able to slowly build upon an idea for an electronic music hardware utility and Ohmify has been there every step of the way!

What is the most fun project you’ve ever worked on?

Hmm, let’s see… Each project has its own challenge and appeal. Most recently, however, I built a device called a “soundwich”, which is a passive piezo hardware device that has lots of ummmm, musical applications. It was my first surface mount soldering project and I was so stoked to have completed it successfully. It has immediate returns as it is a very playable and beautifully crafted instrument.

The second is a MIDI thru box thru-hole soldering kit project that I built for a friend. Fun because I made it for a friend, it works a treat, and it looks like an electric blue ice cream sandwich!

What is your favorite thing about being a part of Ohmify?

There’s very few places that exist online like Ohmify where you can learn about electronics at just about every level from beginner to longtime soldering iron wiz and be supported wherever you’re at in your journey. It has been and continues to be a very supportive and FUN online community and self-driven learning platform that really exemplifies its mission to help people learn about electronics and enjoy doing so at any level of commitment.

What are you currently working on?

I continue to work on several years-long projects that I dreamed about before I joined Ohmify. One is a MIDI filter that takes incoming MIDI data and filters/ changes/ modifies and outputs that MIDI data in fun and interesting ways! It is still being developed in a secret underground lab that doubles as an earthworm dance club so stay tuned!