Kurt James Werner, PhD, is a senior research scientist at Soundtoys and one of my favorite researchers in audio DSP (virtual analog modeling in particular).

While you may not have read his papers, it’s very likely that you used one of the plugins he worked on:

• Neoverb
• Vinyl
• RX
• Guitar Rig (Hammond vibrato/chorus)
• Ozone
• Neutron
• Trash

If you start peeking into the research of modeling analog audio effects in plugins, you stumble across his name right away.

I consider him not only brilliant, but also insanely productive. Definitely a role model for me!

In the research world, he’s mostly known for his work on Wave Digital Filters (WDFs). It’s a technique for creating a mathematical model of an analog circuit that once done is easy to implement (provided you use a WDF library).

WDFs are great for modeling analog audio effects to put them inside plugins.

But as a true researcher, Kurt is involved many other audio subfields that we discuss in the podcast!

Did I mention that he’s a graduate from Stanford’s CCRMA?

In this episode, you’ll learn about Kurt’s transition from academia to industry, his work on products at iZotope, Native Instruments, and Soundtoys, and the realities of being a research scientist in an audio plugin company.

You’ll also learn all about WDFs, which is a powerful tool to master.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one 😉

Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏

Episode Contents

From this episode, you will learn:

1. How Kurt’s early musical and DIY electronics experiments led him toward audio DSP
2. How was it like to study at CCRMA under Julius Smith, Jonathan Abel, and Ge Wang
3. A clear, high-level explanation of Wave Digital Filters, their origins, and why they matter in virtual analog modeling
4. Insights from his work at iZotope
5. His current work at Soundtoys
6. Creative music practices like circuit bending and 1-bit music
7. Whether you need a PhD to work at an audio plugin company
8. How audio research translates into plugins

TIMESTAMPS

00:00:00 Podcast Intro

00:00:37 Introducing Kurt Werner

00:04:11 Kurt's Intro and Background

00:07:20 Studying Engineering & Music at UIUC

00:10:06 PhD Studies at CCRMA (Stanford)

00:13:57 Structure of the PhD Program

00:18:23 Sponsor: JUCE

00:20:09 PhD Thesis: Wave Digital Filters

00:21:26 The Culture at CCRMA

00:31:44 Postdoc at SARC (Queen's University Belfast)

00:35:59 How Teaching Influences Research

00:44:19 Transition to Industry: iZotope

00:49:54 The Research Team at iZotope

00:52:54 Work on Neoverb, Vinyl, and Trash

00:58:43 Publishing Reserach Papers

01:01:35 Moving to Soundtoys

01:05:12 Role and Soundtoys

01:09:17 Soundtoys SuperPlate

01:11:04 What are Wave Digital Filters (WDFs)?

01:19:28 WDFs Before Kurt's Research

01:20:54 Handling Complex Topologies

01:26:56 Can Circuit Modeling be Automated?

01:33:37 Importance of "Warming Up" the Simulation

01:35:16 Strengths of Wave Digital Filters

01:41:52 Best & Worst Circuits for WDF Modeling

01:44:47 How to Approach Modeling a New Circuit

01:46:47 Modeling the Motown EQ (Altec 9062A)

01:52:28 Circuit Bending & Hardware Hacking

01:56:58 1-Bit Music & Velvet Noise

02:05:35 Deep Learning in Virtual Analog

02:07:29 Do You Need a PhD for Audio Research?

02:10:46 PhD for Software Engineering Roles?

02:12:12 How to Learn Virtual Analog Modeling

02:16:04 Productivity & Writing Research Papers

02:20:04 Tools & Tech Stack

02:21:29 Listening to Music While Working

02:23:16 Outro