Blog

Simple tools (or: it's hard to find wheels)

March 31, 2026

There are so many things to do and so many tools to keep track of what needs to be done. When I'm working with developers, kanban boards, markdown files or issues in a git repo can already do the heavy lifting. It's good to have one central place you can look at and immediately see: Here's what still needs some work.

Other teams might not write code, understand how markdown works or want to set up some complicated tool …

Go for a walk

March 11, 2026

It happens pretty often that I'm in a space where it's hard to get out of. There is work to be done but I just feel drained and foggy. This especially happens when there's a lot of stuff to do but there are no deadlines I can really adhere to. It's hard to get back on track in situations like these sometimes.

One thing I frequently forget but almost always helps: Go for a walk. A short walk sometimes …

Roland K-25m USB MIDI via Raspberry Pi Pico

March 7, 2026

It's true that I'm drowning in unfinished projects but this one was a fun afternoon project. Sometimes I need a small project in between just to get some fresh air and I was missing a good small keyboard for playing small synths anyway. So I ordered a Roland K-25m. It's meant to be used with the Roland boutique series and connects via a 16 pin IDC connector (the same that Eurorack also uses). I found some documentation about it here

Taking apart the MFB Nanozwerg

March 2, 2026

The MFB Nanozwerg is a small Synthesizer from Berlin. Nobody talks about it and it's often overlooked but you can get a really wide range of sounds out of it. I've been using it for acid lines and even thicker sounds thanks to its pulse width modulation. Its MIDI implementation is flawed but it also accepts control voltage.

MFB Nanozwerg Jam

My oldest file

February 10, 2026

I got my first cassette recorder when I was 3 or 4 years old. It was small enough to be carried around so I naturally recorded everything around me. Two of those recordings survived and I still have them here, waiting to be listened to one day.

Cassettes taught me that information can be stored on media that you can't see with your naked eye. When I got my first computer at 5 years old, the concept of files …

Image of the mouse drawn in MS Paint.

I love emails and an update of the 800DV synth reconstruction

February 3, 2026

I’ve been working on this project for a year and finally have a platform to host a website for it:

https://800dv.paperboat.website/

Follow via RSS or paperboat for all my 800DV posts.


Synths were much simpler in the 70s. No chips, only simple resistors, capacitors and transistors. To the point where it’s actually possible to draw and print the circuit boards, populate them with components and hopefully have a working synthesizer.

That’s what I’m doing right …

How I cut down on smartphone screentime

February 1, 2026

Sometimes life can be a lot and I often feel how important it is to have a way to escape. I'm about to finish my degree in Digital Humanities, have job, some other side gigs and a kid and a partner. More often than not things stack up and it can take weeks before I get to work on my projects, make music or build something.

It's hard to really dive into something if there's not much time. As …

Interesting Find: Architectural Model

January 31, 2026

When I was in Rome for vacation, I found this interesting model in a thrift store.

It doesn’t seem to be particularly well made. The trees are made of moss and it’s coming apart in a few places.

Still, someone had an idea or an assignment for school. It’s a handmade object with its own history which I’ll never find out. I couldn’t take it with me but I’m glad i could take a look at it and …

Snow Teleports

January 9, 2026

It snowed a fair bit this night. Isn't it crazy how snow transforms the places you know and go to every day? It feels like I've been teleported to somewhere else entirely.

Homepage 21.12.2006

January 3, 2026

(public draft)

Ever since 2006, creating websites has been a part of my life. My first website dates back to 2006. At elementary school, we had a really cool computer club where we learned HTML, Logo, image manipulation with GIMP and so much more. I still have some files from back then. Sadly, the data on the diskette containing the website is long gone. The website was about dogs and it even contained a quiz that even checked your …

The label on the diskette reads Homepage Marvin Thiel 21.12.2006