I suspect everyone wants to be aninventor. To put their name on something other than a gravestone for posterity. But it’s easy to lose sight of goal from the process of creating in favor of routine frustration.
There were a lot of inspiring projects at Maker Faire. More than I’d even be able to break into categories or outline into the specific zones of motivation they stimulate. But as I rode home on the freeway one project stuck in my brain. Beatseqr wasn’t at all the most impressive example of innovation. The 16-step beat sequencer wasn’t even the most impressive music exhibit, but it attacks a very difficult problem with a simple if somewhat limited solution. it is definitely the most intuitive sequencer/controller I’ve ever used. I’m a huge audio nerd who makes music mostly by myself and incorporating sequenced beats on-the-fly can be prohibitively complicated especially since a lot of the time both of my hands are on a guitar leaving me very little time for button pushing. I suspect Beatseqr would solve a lot of the problems music producers like me have by streamlining beat production to it’s most basic functions. I haven’t decided if I’m going to buy one yet, but it definitely rekindled my motivation solve the sequencer problems I’ve encountered in the past.