What’s happening

July 5, and it finally feels like it's summer here in Seattle for more than one day in a row. Though after a vacation getaway last week, I'm inside most of the time, back to work here on hardware and software for electronic music. Still, working is nicer when I can walk to the cafe under sunny skies, or pop into the backyard for a strawberry. Mmm strawberries.

I'm devoting half of my time now to finishing the Soundplane project. It's exciting to finally be working again on our centerpiece, the heart of what we're doing.

Meanwhile, Aalto is working great for some users but not so great for a few, so improvements are ongoing. Let me run down the main issues I have been working on:

• Fixed a problem with the GUI freezing in Live 7.
• Optimized multislider to speed up patch changes.
• Added parameter update message on loading a preset.
• Issues with audio dropouts and CPU spikes when switching patches in Logic 9 remain. These seem to be worst on multi-core machines. I'm working on a fix.
• There are problems for some people getting Aalto to work with Native Instruments Maschine. While I work these out, try the forums if you're having trouble, where some people have found ways to get it working.
• Aalto seems to crash Sonar 8.5 on Windows XP. I hope to work on this for the next update.
• FInishing up the manual.

The next update will be a 1.2.x, meaning it's just a bugfix update with no additional features. So those of you waiting on host sync etc. will have to be a little patient while I work on the foundations. I'll roll it out next week at the latest so people using Live 7 can get back in the saddle.

We got another very nice mention in Create Digital Music today, thanks to the work of Sam Greene. Sam was really taken with the weird sounds coming out of Aalto, so he dusted off his site patchdump.com and made it into a really great way to share Aalto patches. Thanks Sam, for this great gathering spot for Aaltophiles! Part of me wants to write a post on why this kind of community contribution is so vital to small companies like ours, and how I hope to encourage it, but for now I'm going to let that impulse slip away and get back to work on making the hardware and software.

Happy patching,
Randy

Just discovered Patchdump.com. So great!

Love this synth.

Never know what I'm doing exactly, but I seem to land in good places.

Thanks for your work.

• c