Up Against Reality

We’re pulling this banger from the archives. Aerospace engineer turned finance guy turned DSP legend, Serkan Gür built A1 Evo, made digital signal processing must-watch YouTube, and was vibe coding before it had a name. Plus this week’s AI news up top.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Serkan Gür/OCA Audiophile
OCA Audiophile | YouTube

Audio Science Review Forum

A1 Evo Support | Facebook Group

Obsessive Compulsive Audiophile | GitHub

Larry’s Atmos 5.2.4 system

DSP and audio software

Room EQ Wizard (REW)

Audyssey room correction technology

Roon music management software

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/07/28/episode-rewind-serkan-gur/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

German transcript of the original episode:
https://upagainstreality.com/2025/06/30/serkan-gur-german-transcript/

OpenAI just dropped three new models at once — but is GPT-5.6 actually smarter than Claude, or just cheaper and louder about it? Plus: Apple lawyers up against OpenAI, ChatGPT quietly buries one of its own, and your AI coding assistant falls for the oldest trick in the book.

We're rewinding to Episode 118 with Salesforce exec Vivek Mahapatra — a guy who's outlasted every enterprise tech hype cycle you can name — talking agentic design and scaling AI like a grown-up. But first, we're diving into this week's AI news, and it's a wild one.

Juilliard-trained composer, prog rock frontman, and 30-year piano teacher Mark Asch joins Up Against Reality to ask the question musicians are quietly panicking about: can AI make real art, or just really good karaoke? From scoring Fortune 500 brands to fronting X.Atlas, Mark brings real musicianship to the debate over what happens when machines start humming along.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Larry’s “Glass Animal” SUNO album

Steven Wilson: Home Invasion In Concert At The Royal Albert Hall

SUNO | AI Music

For inquiries relating to music composition, instruction, performance, production, or technology, Mark can be reached at info@markasch.com

AI-read Herculaneum scroll / PHerc. 1667

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/07/07/mark-asch/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Think you have a few decades before the machines take over? Think again. It’s a chaotic race to commercialize physical AI and NVIDIA is frantically coding an OS to keep your new robotic peers from flattening you.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Boston Dynamics Atlas Robot

Inside NVIDIA Halos for Robotics

Figure AI

Unitree Robotics

Agility Robotics

Google DeepMind and A24 AI filmmaking partnership

A24 Films

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/06/30/a-robot-in-every-home/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality