About Me

Hi, I’m Matt!

I work full-time as a Software Development Engineer, and the flexibility of my role allows me to travel the country in a motorhome with my family. This unique lifestyle presents some interesting technical hurdles, particularly since my home office setup needs to be highly portable and robust.

A significant challenge of remote work on the road is managing unpredictable noise—especially with a lively child nearby during daily meetings. Fortunately, I’m a bit of an audio enthusiast, and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time finding and optimizing solutions. I’m confident in my ability to consistently sound clear and professional, regardless of the background noise. This expertise in portable and quiet tech is what I enjoy sharing most.

One day during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, I remembered that we had a decent condenser microphone (AKG P420) and an audio interface (Scarlett 2i2) sitting in the closet. I was spending a lot of time in remote meetings, so why not try sounding good? I hooked it all up, and it worked well, but I wasn’t prepared for just how sensitive one of those mics is! I was genuinely worried that people in meetings might hear someone walking their dog outside if they sneezed! Welcome to the rabbit hole…

I’m no expert in audio engineering, but I absolutely enjoy it as a hobby. I sometimes create music for fun, which influences my WFH setup to a large degree, but the vast majority of my use of these tools is to sound better in meetings. I’ve had a few people ask for more information and opinions through that lens, so here we are.

I plan to review all the audio hardware and software I use, with a focus on identifying what works well and what doesn’t for remote work. As a result, I expect most of my reviews to be pretty positive, because I only use it if I like it, resulting in a substantial selection bias.