Hey, I'm Andy.
I write code, record sound, and solder things.
Digital Porch is my open lab notebook — a place where works-in-progress sit alongside finished things, and where audio, code, and electronics share the same space.
Day job & side benches
What I do.
Software developer (by trade)
Building software is my day job — I'm a developer at Blue Oak Interactive. I'm comfortable across the stack and I've spent years on backend systems, CLI tools, and the weird little utilities that fill a gap nobody has filled yet. Lately I've been drawn to audio programming: anything that involves making a computer do something unexpectedly musical.
Live audio capture
I record live music performances. I'm not a field-recordist chasing wind in trees — I'm interested in what happens when a room and a band and a few microphones are all in the same place at the same time. Capture the night, edit lightly, move on.
Electronics (novice, happily)
I tinker. I solder. I build audio kits from other people's designs and have started sketching a few custom ones of my own. I'm a novice and I like it that way — it means most of what I do is still surprising to me.
The connections
One signal, many costumes.
What keeps me up at night (in a good way) is that these three things — code, sound, circuits — are all really the same thing wearing different clothes. Signal processing is signal processing whether you're implementing it in firmware or patching it with patch cables.
A sequencer is an algorithm. A reverb is a room, mathematically. The more I work across all three, the more they illuminate each other.
Asheville
Why this place.
I landed in Asheville because it made sense. The mountains don't hurt. But mostly it's the density of people here who are genuinely making things — furniture, ceramics, music, weird electronics, software — and who talk to each other across those disciplines without a lot of friction.
The River Arts District has studios next to breweries next to welding shops. That physical proximity to craft is something I didn't know I needed until I had it.
Inventory
Tools & toys.
A rough list of what I work with, in no particular order.
My day job at Blue Oak Interactive. Full-stack web, with a soft spot for the small CLI tools that make a day go smoother.
DAW for recording & mixing, a live capture rig for music performances, analog tape (yes, actual tape).
A soldering iron, kit builds, and a handful of custom designs in progress. Novice — and proud of it.
An Insta360 for the occasional 360° capture. I don't make much video, but when I do, I want the whole room in it.
The name
Why "Digital Porch."
I started Digital Porch in 2004 when I converted an enclosed porch into a music tracking studio. The porch had outlets, a roof, and just enough room for a mic stand and a chair — that was the whole brief.
I've moved since then, more than once. The porch is long gone. But I kept the digitalporch handle through every move, because the idea outlasted the building: a small, mostly-outside, mostly-functional space where work can be in progress without having to be dressed up.
That's what this site is too. A public-facing part of the studio.
See what's on the workbench.
The current things, the old things, the half-finished things.