About Me
I am a living, breathing human being and not an AI, a former scientist and academic now having fun with creative projects and beginning a new business venture after taking early retirement in 2024.
You can find me @tomhartley.me.uk on Blue Sky
You can find my old wordpress site and a few of my old blogposts at thermaltoy.wordpress.com. This includes pdfs of most of my scientific publications. You can also see my Google Scholar profile.
Business
I recently started a new venture, Hartley DSP, which will develop audio plugins (programs that can be used by musicians and producers to add effects to their performances and recordings). Hartley DSP focuses on effects that help establish a human connection even when (as is often the case nowadays) performances are recorded one at a time on a computer ("in the box") so that performers may not be in the same room at the same time. Our first product "THeVerb" overcomes this by allowing producers to place each sound at a different location within a realistic space.
The parent company Hartley Works Ltd also provides audio production services including mixing and mastering (see Music), and other creative projects linked to my skills, interests and expertise. Contact me via the website if you would like to discuss a project.
Music
My main interest is recording music. My most recent project is producing and mixing The Pennydrops single "Nightblindness":
I also write, play and record my own music (see my SoundCloud). Here's the most recent track recorded as part of the C2 project with my brother Olly and our friend Jim (who cowrote this one with me):
For all my efforts at songwriting and performing, the most popular track (rightly) is a mashup I made of The Who v MC Young called Know Baba O'Riley:
Writing
One of my current projects (currently on hiatus) is a new blog, I'm Looking Through You", which reviews the Beatles' songs, one each day. It began as a thread on Blue Sky. Under the pretext of ranking the songs, it uses them to try to understand the Beatles' creativity and what it might mean for the rest of us. So far I have written articles covering around 125 of the 213 songs the Beatles recorded.
Art
I make digital paintings. Here is an example:
You can see a few more on the Art page.