Our Software

I paid SoundCloud for 10 years.
They never fixed it.

So I built the thing myself. That's Aliada — the tool I needed at The Den and never had.

It started at NAMM. 1985. I was 18.

I was already building MIDI software as a teenager when I walked into my first NAMM show. And there, without a crowd around him, was Bob Moog — the man who invented the synthesizer. The same instrument behind the Minneapolis Sound, behind Keith Emerson, behind basically everything that shaped modern music.

Nobody was talking to him. The world had moved on. I hadn't — because I understood what he'd built. I walked up and introduced myself.

That was the beginning of a life spent at the intersection of music and technology. It never really stopped.

Babul with Bob Moog at NAMM, circa 1985 — With Bob Moog at NAMM, ~1985. I was 18. Nobody else was talking to him.

This world has been my world for 40 years.

Not a casual interest. A life. The music, the gear, the people who made it all matter.

Babul with Geddy Lee at Book People Austin — Geddy Lee's book signing at Book People, Austin. I was so into reading the signed copy I didn't notice him watching. Still not sure what he was thinking.

Babul with Dr. Brian May — Dr. Brian May. Yes, he has a PhD in astrophysics. Yes, he also built one of the greatest guitar tones in rock history. Some people contain multitudes.

Then came Peace Frog's Den.

For over a decade, The Den was where the music lived. Real artists, real sessions, real sound. A community of musicians who trusted me with their work — the songs they'd been writing for years, the things they weren't ready to share with the world.

It was the honor of my life. I mean that.

But there was always this one problem we never fully solved: getting the music to the people who mattered most. The mom who wanted to hear the new track before it dropped. The grandma who had no idea what SoundCloud was but absolutely wanted to press play. The mentor who needed to hear the rough cut without it accidentally ending up somewhere public.

Every workaround we tried was awkward. Every platform required an account, or didn't work on a phone, or lost quality, or just felt wrong for unreleased music.

10 years. SoundCloud never fixed it.

I paid SoundCloud for over a decade. I kept waiting for the feature that would make sharing music with non-musicians actually work — just a link, no account, just play. It never came. Not in a meaningful way.

In 2023, I stopped waiting.

This is Aliada.

Aliada means ally in Spanish. An ally for the musician when the rest of the room thinks it's a waste of time. An ally for the grandma trying to hear the music before it drops. An ally for the unreleased track that isn't ready for the world yet.

It's the tool I built for The Den that I wish I'd had from day one. Share a link. They click it. It plays. No account. No friction. No accidental leaks.

In December 2025 The Den wound down from full sessions — turns out running a studio is a lot easier when your kids haven't moved away yet. The personal mixing continues. The need never went anywhere. Neither did I.