bennjordan

A number changed.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit to fantasizing about this number over the years, and I don't think a single dedicated YouTube creator hasn't at some point. Yet, here I am, watching the numbers turn over. I feel...incredibly agnostic.

What is perhaps more interesting is how this number or metric changed meaning so many times. 6 years ago, when sitting at a table with Loopop and Andrew Huang (two incredibly inspiring music creators who had far larger platforms than mine at the time), I c...

Opt-Out Attack

I wanted to make a longer video about this, but my attorneys don't think releasing a big video that is in a gray area with the FAA is a good idea. 🫠
So bookmark that, but in the meantime, here's a quick and very limited rundown.

You did this.

Senator Wyden and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi have formally requested that the FTC open an investigation into Flock Safety for unnecessarily exposing billions of instances of civilian's vehicle location data to hackers and foreign adversaires.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26212269-wyden-flock-ftc-letter/

I'm proud our research is a part of this, and I can't thi...

Where your money has been going...

Over the past 2 months and onward, a lot of the funds from this Patreon are going towards finding and testing security vulnerabilities on publicly-placed AI cameras. This has been extremely challenging, as these companies operate in a way where they only "lend" equipment as part of an IP agreement.

Fortunately due to the absolute mess at the import docks with US tariffs, it's possible to find the rare unopened/unactivated unit auctioned off by customs and finding their way to liquida...

[possible] Hurricane Imelda

I can't decide. Help.

Doing a video on infrasound and finishing up the scripting and data processing after a long month. But now a new challenger appears. Do I...

Forums, finally!

Howdy.
Back from a long geological field recording trip, and if you hadn't heard via Discord, while I was off the grid I was beta-testing a select 100 member robust community forum to accompany the Discord server to see if it would be a dumpster fire of errors upon my return.

There were and are some bugs, and it's still a starting point, but I believe it's ready to be open to the entire community now. Naturally one of the bugs isn't the forum, but Patreon's awful API callback sys...

12 Infrasonic Hours in 3 Minutes!

At face value this probably sounds like a hard drive skipping, but what you're hearing is actually quite the mystery. Let me explain:

We've all heard me go on and on about the hidden world of ultrasonic sounds, but INFRAsonic sounds, AKA the sounds and vibrations below the human hearing range, are equally as interesting, but many times more difficult to capture.

If you recall from The Hum video, I used a metal box with long tubes that spread out over a 20x20ft area to create a ...

Sample Pack of Ultrasonic Birds, Insects, and of course...The Mouth

A zip with 16 recordings labeled in file name.
The "real time" recordings will be 32-bit/192KHz and can be manipulated in (free) Audacity software or any modern wave editor.

You'll notice some recordings (like the starling/The Mouth files) are extremely low volume at points. Due to the bitrate, the parts you wish to hear can be normalized without any noticeable loss in quality. It's just that The Mouth alternated between barely inaudible sounds and loud screeches, so a long file w...

Ultrasonic Beach Crickets and Frogs

Didn't get a chance to talk about these recordings in the video, but these are some incredible soundscapes I got overnight on an island last month. What you're hearing is a field of insects and frogs with high pitched and ultrasonic noises slowed down significantly. Listen with headphones! 🤯

There are 3 total recordings like this + plus some ultrasonic (ocean) waves in the zip file with the ultrasonic birds in the next paid tier post.

Coming soon! Birdsongs and the starling that stores dozens of high quality samples.

What a long and crazy month it's been going down the ornithology hole!
Including but not limited to:

- Setting up AI audio analyzers on Raspberry Pi devices to record bird sounds remotely and build an enormous database. (trying to sort out a build under $100 so you can do this too!)

- Building a 384kHz remote microphone/recorder that records for weeks at a time tethered to a tree

- Off-roading for days to try and find some unusual mockingbirds

- Putting togeth...

The Flashbulb - Papillon (2025)

New album drops in an hour on Bandcamp, and in 2 weeks on Spotify/Apple/etc.

It drops here now!

Bandcamp link: https://theflashbulb.bandcamp.com/album/papillon
(you can find a heavy discount code for my Bandcamp in posts below)

May 6th Modular Stems

I wasn't happy with the recording I made in the stream, so I just did a 7 minute 24-bit one that starts with no effects, and slowly descends into deep reverb bliss. Here's a zip with 6 stems, which are 3 stereo tracks (L and R).

Use however or wherever you want. Enjoy!

Minecraft Server!

Wanna punch trees with fellow members of this community?

SimSelections custom Minecraft server is live. Here's the details:

Goto "Multiplayer" then "Direct" and paste: 148.113.210.246:25574

Minecraft (Java Edition, 1.21.4) is required. You can install this from the launcher.

The server is running Purpur for optimization, but otherwise should be operating as Vanilla for now with creeper griefing and PVP disabled.

There's not a whitelist yet, nor is the server pu...

The most challenging video yet.

The next video is about <gulp> why I think capitalism has died, and it's packed full of 40 minutes of receipts ranging from philosophical definitions, historical timelines, animated explainers of economic principles, and an (at times) deep analysis of what happened between 2008-2025. If I've done my job right, it'll help nearly all of my viewers make more practical sense of what is happening now.

Behind the scenes, this was initially going to be a book I wanted to write during t...

Requested: Polybrute 12 / Piano Performance Audio

Here's the audio-only render from this video in MP3 and 24-bit FLAC.

i WILL have good streaming content! 💪🏻😠

As you may or may not know; my live streams on the streaming channel are pretty much a Patreon perk. I usually don't particularly like doing it when I'm doing it, but I'm usually happy I did it when it's done.

You also may have noticed that it's been a technical disaster for a whopping 200 episodes now. 😂 But it's not for lack of effort!

What I really want to do is, at least twice a month, have streams that could be edited into the format of my older Benn And Gear...

Discord Invite link:

As you may know, the Discord invite system has been messed up for quite some time in relation to our server/Patreon. This link should be an unlimited invite link, however you may find that it will expire randomly.

I've contacted support and all that an exhausting amount of times and wish I could get that time back. 😂 

Anyhow, here's the link.
If it stops working, just leave a comment saying "cooked" or "nope" or something, and I'll put a date next to a new link.
...

PFM Train Dream

Just an extended version of my demo for the PFM model train synths/units (video should drop tomorrow).
Also includes a Polyend Synth, Meris MercuryX, and Polybrute 12.

Train Synths!

There's so much of this. WAY too much for YouTube. So perhaps I'll just release a mix of it here?
Here's one of the jams I did last week. There will, of course, be more context when my next video comes out. :)

The Bot Video (files below)

I hate Patreon. My inbox brings me to a 2FA loop, I don't have the option of rejecting iOS transactions (that will siphon up 1/3rd of your pledge), and I just wrote about 4 paragraphs that inexplicably didn't post anywhere.

Don't get me started on Discord. I've lost quite a lot of Patrons that just can't get into the server due to Patreon integration breaking and non-expiring invites expiring after a few minutes. Of course support for either of these platforms is as useful as you...