> I have no doubt that academics have a ton of expertise, but their output in paper form is basically unusable, I'm not sure it achieves any purpose besides res

> I have no doubt that academics have a ton of expertise, but their output in paper form is basically unusable, I'm not sure it achieves any purpose besides resume padding. If you think the entire field of academia doesn't achieve any purpose, you may want to reconsider your position. Most likely, almost everything that you do today on a computer was an academic paper. Yes, it was without code and data. Yet, it was not unusable and achieved more than enough purpose. The average comment on HN on academia comes from a mindset where everyone wants a product. The purpose of a paper is NOT to release a software or a product. But, to test an idea under some assumptions. That's what all research does at its core - formulate a hypothesis, design an experiment to test the hypothesis and report the results and implications. Are all research papers perfect"? No. Are all of them usable? No. Your use case - sound synthesis for a specific instrument - may not be a scientific challenge. It is however an engineering challenge and hence, you found a better answer amongst hobbyists and tinkerers. Now, try looking for the a vaccine for Covid - and guess where you'd find that answer? In decades of research on mRNA with repeated failures, papers that couldn't be replicated, unavailability of "code" and samples with verbal descriptions skipping crucial details.