Biography
I was born in early 70's in a small neighborhood called Gedikpasha in Istanbul, Turkey. After finishing high school at Pangalti Mhitaryan, an Armenian Catholic School, came to New Jersey to study. In 1994, I got my BS in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and in 1996 I got a Masters in the same field concentrating on Communications. After working 15 years in the Wireless Industry, building cell phone Networks with Alcatel-Lucent (now owned by NOKIA), I decided to leave the corparate world to purse new interests. One of which is music and drumming. I still play drums and clarinet with the Gypsy FUNK Squad a fusion world music band and organized drum and dance circles called Rhythmic BAKLAVA. Few years ago I got into wood working and just fell in love with it. And when I came accross The DIY Join and was introduced to the CNC Router, I was just amazed. This machine was able to combine two of my interests in to one: Computers and woodworking. Just so you have a reference my first computer was a Commander64 and I used to program with BASIC on that machine in 1985, when there was no internet or google. Most of the people in the word has not even heard the term computer, yet :)
I work on two projects using the CNC router. First one is the custom cutting boards with inlays. This started as a small hoby and then turned into a little business. Something I did not plan for, but something that just grew naturally. I also teach a class on this topics. Starting from actually making the designs using Inkscape to converting the vector graphics into gcode, which is the language that the CNC router understands. And then cutting the board. If interested in taking a class, contact The DIY Join in Hoboken, NJ.
The Second project I am working on is making an Middle Instrument called the Oud. The oud is the the classical string instrument of the Middle East. The early descritions of the oud is available from 10th Century. It is the grandfather of the modern guitar. When the crusaders went to Middle East they brought the oud back to Europe which turned into the Renaissance Lute and then into today's guitar. I have developed some software tools to improve the process called tap-tuning (or voicing). However, I still have a lot to learn and develop in this field to make an oud that sounds decent. I am hoping I will get some good quality uds made by the end of 2020 :) Stay Tuned... If you have an oud that needs a repair I might be able to help out as long is it is not very complicated.
Murat Berin
