MoForte, Inc. was incorporated in June of 2012. MoForte’s Founders are experts in the domain of audio digital signal processing (DSP) each contributing inventions and knowledge to the field. All three founders were members of Stanford University’s Sondius team that was formed in the early 90s to create intellectual property around audio DSP inventions. MoForte’s founders were also founders of Staccato Systems, a spin-out from Stanford that was successfully sold to Analog Devices in 2001.
Founders
Pat Scandalis, CTO and acting CEO
has worked for a number of Silicon Valley High Tech Companies. He has held lead engineering positions at National Semiconductor, Teradyne, Apple and Sun. He has spent the past 23 years working in Digital Media. He was an Audio DSP researcher at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He co-founded and was the VP of engineering for Staccato Systems, a successful spinout of Stanford/CCRMA that was sold to Analog Devices in 2001. He has held VP positions at TuneTo.com, Jarrah Systems and Liquid Digital Media. He most recently ran Liquid Digital Media, which developed and operated all online digital music e-commerce properties for Walmart. He holds a BSc in Physics from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and is currently a visiting scholar at CCRMA, Stanford University.
Dr. Julius O. Smith III, Founding Consultant
teaches a music signal-processing course sequence and supervises related research at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He is formally a professor of music and (by courtesy) electrical engineering at Stanford University. In 1975, he received his BS/EE degree from Rice University, where he got a solid grounding in the field of digital signal processing and modeling for control. In 1983, he received the PhD/EE degree from Stanford University, specializing in techniques for digital filter design and system identification, with application to violin modeling. His work history includes the Signal Processing Department at Electromagnetic Systems Laboratories, Inc., working on systems for digital communications, the Adaptive Systems Department at Systems Control Technology, Inc., working on research problems in adaptive filtering and spectral estimation, and NeXT Computer, Inc., where he was responsible for sound, music, and signal processing software for the NeXT computer workstation. In addition, he was a founding consultant for Staccato Systems, Inc., and Shazam Entertainment Ltd., where he co-developed the core technology. Prof. Smith is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society and the Acoustical Society of America. He is the author of four online books and numerous research publications in his field.
Nicholas J. Porcaro, Chief Scientist
is a software developer proficient in many languages including Objective-C, C++, PHP, Javascript, Python and Perl. He holds a B.S in electrical engineering from Texas A&M, and was a visiting scholar at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University. He was a founder of Staccato Systems, and worked for several other startup companies in a variety of fields – electronic design automation, geophysics, e-commerce, and digital audio. He has also done independent artistic work using 3D graphics with sound. In late 2011 he released an iPhone app called UndAground – New York, a cultural guide to New York City. He is also a jazz pianist.
Technical Advisory Board
Jordan Rudess, Keyboardist for “Dream Theater”, President of Wizdom Music
Voted “Best Keyboardist of All Time” by MusicRadar, Jordan Rudess has carved an iconic space in rock as an artist, collaborator, technologist and member of the Grammy-nominated prog band Dream Theater. Rudess’s versatility has led to projects with David Bowie, Enrique Iglesias, The Dixie Dregs, and more. Jordan’s work with cutting edge music technology is well known. In addition to being an active consultant and speaker for instrument makers and technology innovators, he is the President of his own company, Wizdom Music.
Joe Britt, CEO/Co-Founder of afero
Joe is an experienced Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded Afero to re-think the way Internet of Things products and solutions are developed: by hiding complexity, Afero lets developers and users focus on their data. Joe also founded Danger Research in 2000 with co-founders Andy Rubin and Matt Hershenson. At Danger, Joe led the design of the hiptop smartphone (sold in the US as the T-Mobile Sidekick). Danger was purchased by Microsoft in 2008 for $500MM.
Before Danger, Joe joined WebTV as its first employee, where he developed the OS used in the WebTV set-top box platform, which was licensed by Sony, Philips, and others. His career began 25 years ago at Apple, and has also included senior engineering roles at 3DO and Catapult Entertainment. Just prior to founding Afero, Joe spent several years at Google working on Android.
Partners
Zivix builds innovative electronic musical instruments. We’ve collaborated with Zivix on supporting the Jamstik in GeoShred and custom software development for the AirJamz.
Roli created the innovative Seaboard line of keyboard products. We’ve collaborated with Roli on supporting the Seaboard in GeoShred.
moForte makes extensive use of Faust (Functional Audio Stream) for rapid development of cross platform DSP algorithms.
The founders of moForte have had a long relationship with Analog Devices. moForte developed key software for the SHARC Audio Module (SAM) platform including an interface for migrating Faust algorithms and full virtual analog synthesizer.
Audio Modeling is the creator of advanced modeling technology for traditional orchestral instruments. moForte has partnered with Audio Modeling to support the SWAM models directly in GeoShred.
moForte has been a member of the MMA since 2013. We were a key contributor to the MIDI/MPE specification, and developed the MPE compliance checklist.