Meet the Team - Takumi Ogata
Danny Turner · 4/15/26
Conceived to make DIY audio creation accessible, fun and inspiring, Daisy’s online community features a YouTube channel with tutorials, demos, and guidance on building and programming custom electronic instruments. It also includes a web forum and Discord channel where users can share projects, troubleshoot, and exchange ideas.
As the community resource lead, Takumi Ogata serves as a friendly, accessible and educational voice, offering insightful forum posts and technical support for both beginners and seasoned developers alike, ensuring that Daisy fosters a collaborative, welcoming ecosystem around its open-source audio platform.
A recognizable figure in the DIY audio world, Takumi previously built a dedicated following through his own channel, Sound Simulator, where he helped demystify electronic music technology, DIY synths, and controller building for creators of all levels.
Today, he continues to inspire and support Daisy’s growing global community.
Interview
Danny Turner: Takumi, thanks so much for agreeing to talk to us about your role as community resource lead for Daisy. Tell us about your background. For example, were you a fan of electronic music growing up?
Takumi Ogata: Music became my main interest when I picked up the electric guitar around the age of 14. Growing up, I was more of a metalhead and wasn’t really exposed to electronic music until my freshman year at college. That’s when I started getting more obsessed with electronic music, my main gateway being Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. As a teenager, I didn’t really have any synths - I primarily started making music using guitar and bass on Pro Tools.
DT: What program did you study at Georgia Tech?
TO: Towards the end of my undergrad course, I started getting into making music with motors and solenoids. Then I found out about new research on musical robotics at Georgia Tech, so I applied to study there and ended up building a mechatronic guitar. Each string was struck by a mechanized hammer and I could either pre-program a rhythmic pattern or randomize it. The fret was accessible, so I had control over the melody and chords.
DT: Were you doing any other experiments with DIY audio electronics during this period?
TO: During my first semester of undergrad at the University of Michigan, I learned that you could control a Max/MSP patch with your smartphone. I used the phone’s accelerometer to control a filter’s cutoff frequency parameter. It felt magical and expressive! Around this time, I also discovered the artist Author & Punisher. It was super inspiring to see him build his own electronic instruments for performing live and making music.
Author & Punisher
From there, I learned about Arduino (open source electronics platform) and started building my own electronic musical instruments and controllers because I wanted to explore a more physical way of performing and making electronic music. Instruments like that didn’t really exist, so I went DIY.
Takumi performing his first built instrument called the Sound Tunnel in 2015
DT: Tell us about your previous YouTube channel, Sound Simulator, and why you decided to make online tutorials?
TO: I started Sound Simulator to teach people how to build electronic musical instruments and controllers. The channel covers topics such as synthesis basics, Pure Data, and electronics. The first main goal for the viewers is to use a sensor, like a potentiometer knob, to control a synth they programmed in Pure Data or MaxMSP. For example, twist a knob to change the pitch of a sine tone! Learning how to build electronic musical instruments was, and still is, a magical experience, and I just wanted other people to have that experience too.
DT: So how did your role as an online content creator lead you to working with Daisy?
TO: After a year of uploading videos as Sound Simulator, I got an email from Electrosmith about making a video that featured Daisy. I was super excited since I already had a Daisy Seed and was a big fan! I was planning on featuring it on the channel regardless. After making some Daisy-featured videos, I crossed my fingers and asked if I could make videos about Daisy as part of their team and, gratefully, they said yes!
The main goal is to simply show how fun it is to build DIY synth projects and demonstrate that it’s not as convoluted as it seems. I’ve also been meaning to bridge the YouTube channel and Daisy’s online community by making videos that feature projects that members have built, with developer interviews and topics that the community wants to learn about.
I enjoy making videos for people who have little, if any, background in DIY synths so they can get inspired and start making their own electronic instruments.
From the Ribbon Synth Tutorial Video
DT: What attracted you to the Daisy Seed in the first place?
TO: I first got interested in the Daisy Seed because I saw that it was programmable with Max/MSP. This was exciting for me as I’d already had experience with that language. Knowing that getting started with the Daisy Seed would be a smooth process is really what drew me in.
DT: What types of projects do you think benefit the most from Daisy’s architecture?
TO: I’ve seen projects ranging from an Abacus-inspired instrument (Abacusynth) to a synth product with a more conventional form factor, so I’d say that pretty much any project that requires digital audio can benefit from Daisy.
DT: Why would you encourage amateur musicians to build their own audio devices rather than use pre-existing hardware?
TO: If musicians have an idea for an audio device that does a certain thing or creates a certain sound but the hardware doesn’t exist, then I think it’s awesome that they can be given the knowledge to make an idea come to life. And it can be programming-focused too. For example, if you have a device in the studio that’s Daisy-powered, you can program a custom firmware and flash it.
Dubby is a device that encourages users to modify existing firmware
I think it’s helpful for people who are starting out to know that there are libraries and examples out there that can help them get going. For example, there are example codes and a DSP library for the Daisy. For Max/MSP and Pure Data, there is a help patch for each object. I started out my DIY synth journey with Max and these help patches were super-helpful when I was learning.
DT: What’s been the most satisfying part of running the channel and building the Daisy community?
TO: Seeing folks share their experience having fun with the Daisy is always wonderful. It’s also really exciting to see projects that include components that are covered in the YouTube channel. I like to imagine that our videos inspired them and there are so many awesome projects out there.
DT: What community projects have particularly surprised you?
TO: I’m interested in building instruments with unconventional interfaces, so the first project that comes to mind is the Abacusynth that I mentioned earlier. One helpful way to come up with an instrument idea is to think “what if blank is an instrument?” In this case, the abacus was the inspiration. I recommend watching a video of it in action, but you basically slide bead pieces to change the volume of a synth tone and then spin them for modulation.
Abacusynth by Elias Jarzombek
There are four rows, so you can get a nice texture going and it’s really cool that the Daisy was used to make this idea come to life. But there are so many amazing projects out there that I’d be excited to talk about. I recommend checking out the forum and the share-your-project channel on the Daisy Discord server, and we frequently share projects and work-in-progress updates on Instagram stories too.
DT: Which project on the channel are you personally most proud of?
TO: At the moment, we’re focused on showcasing how a certain sensor, like an accelerometer, can be used with the Daisy Seed. The projects are super simple, but in the near future we hope to start creating more “complete” projects for the channel, so I’ll probably be able to answer this question much better when that gets going.
DT: Where do you see DIY audio hardware heading in the next few years and what vision do you have for the YouTube channel moving forward?
TO: I would love to see DIY synths becoming even more accessible and think this can be achieved within a supportive community that ensures the tools are approachable and easy to learn. I’m hoping that the YouTube channel can get new folks interested in building synths and excited about helping them to learn how.
DT: Do you have a favorite synth toy - either built yourself or made using the Daisy platform?
TO: Around 10 years ago, I built a musical controller called Sound Globe. You change the pitch using a ribbon sensor and spin a sphere interface to change the volume – the faster you spin, the louder the synth, and vice versa. It’s a lot of fun to play with and I have fond memories of playing it live with a friend.
I’m also currently building a new instrument that will be Daisy-powered, and it’ll probably be my favorite if I can manage to put together what I’m imagining!
Conclusion
Thanks for reading. We invite you to check out the Daisy YouTube channel and become part of our community via the Electrosmith website.