This is another in the set of thematic overviews of CNMAT's work that I started with the Machine Learning and AI piece. The theme here is the one I am most often asked to explain to people who visit a research center for the first time and want to know why the place feels less like a laboratory and more like a workshop, a rehearsal hall and a stage all at once. The short answer is that we believed, almost from the first day, that the best research instrument was a working musical instrument.