randy's Recent Posts

OK, will do ASAP. This is a good way for me to spend some time helping customers today or tomorrow, because I'm not allowed to work on the code this week.

(afterthought) Realistically I can only bust out so many good patches myself, but I think a few more in the short term will help. I'll see what I can collect from our beta folks too.

I think the best move after that would be to get patches embedded in forum posts here somehow. Or otherwise shared through your Madrona account. Unfortunately it will take a little time to get with our Web guy and pull this off. But I'm thinking of bumping it up in priority.

It's a big priority, just down from performance improvements and bug fixes. I hope to include it with the next update in 2-4 wks.

Until then, you could use a parameter, like aftertouch, to get sync. Draw a ramp in your host app that takes 1 bar (or 4, or whatever) to go from 0-127, then loop that. By setting the number of steps in the sequencer to 1, and putting the ramp into the offset, you should even be able to host sync the sequencer, triggers and all. I haven't tried this, so if you do please let me know how it goes!

@clarke68 thanks for the comments. I'm glad I did it that way-- I've already heard a nice composition incorporating the demo sound from someone who can't afford the full version right now. :-)

thanks seive!

Now that Aalto is out, I'm making a new forum topic for support issues.


Please use this thread for questions and issues that don't already have their own threads above.

After reading the Reaper manual and looking on their forums I can't figure it out either. Waiting for a response from their forums.

I will get Reaper and test ASAP and see what I can find out.

Problem: Aalto fails to validate and appear in menu when running Logic in 64-bit mode.

Solution: Switch Logic to 32-bit mode, then validate. When switching back to 64-bit mode, Aalto should continue to run fine.

thanks @bobbyrich for the solution. Anyone with additional info, please post here.

I figured out the problem. I switched from Logic 64 bit to 32 bit mode and alto validated.

OK, super. Thanks for the report. I'll make a thread so people can find this answer more easily.

@bobbyrich the validation bug reported before is fixed on both versions now.

Did you put your component in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components? Restart Logic? Sorry I haven't heard of this problem before.

Hi Clarke,

Aalto is currently an Audio Units (AU) plugin for Mac only. So, you will need to find a host that can host AU plugins. These are like VST, but a different incompatible format.

For starters I might recommend Numerology. It has a lenient demo mode that actually allows you to save your work, within limits.

@heath you can do it by patching any signal that is different for each voice to the sequencer rate or offset inputs.

The preset "adorable gleeps" has a clear example of this.

This is a thread for anyone having trouble with parameter automation. i have tested it in Live 8.1.5 and in Logic Pro 8. it works fine on both of these platforms for me. Some of you have reported issues with Logic. Let's collect some info so I can figure out what the problem might be.

If you have have problems, please list:

  • Mac OS version
  • Application version
  • Detailed description of what to do to cause the problem.

@walker: I'm going to start a thread about parameter automation.

@sensi: One day, yes. For now Aalto has a low memory profile so a 64 bit version would not give any improvement.

I'm going to leave the thread up so people can find it if they have the same problem. But I'll go ahead and make a bold note

RESOLVED.

@dsk but of course! There will be a special version for Aalto with x, y and z inputs to the patcher. In fact, I initially designed Aalto to be used with the Soundplane.

@kaput, sorry i missed your post earlier.. . Automation works fine for me in Logic. I made a thread for this issue. Please reply to that thread with a more detailed description of what goes wrong and let's figure it out.

@droolmaster0:
Try patching the pitch or voice or vel outputs to the sequencer rate. You will hear that each voice's sequencer runs at its own rate. in fact there is a SEQ module within each voice, but all of them share the same patch inputs.

The offset input also affects each sequencer independently. You can understand this if you study the factory patch "adorable gleeps."

have fun!

Hi Kosi,

Sorry about the problem. I'm going to try to figure this out soon to get a fix in the next update. I don't have access to an Intel Mac Pro so I might ask to send you some debugging versions to try if you have time.

Hi Gus,

For now, making your watermarked copy is a manual process. I'm doing them within an hour or so this morning. Thanks for your support.

@yasha, thanks for the report. I'll look into what could cause this.

I know it's a big CPU hog and hope to improve it lots over the next month or so.

Logic validation is fixed in the demo version now.

With the update and sequencer host synchronization, will that include DAW >automation of parameters? If so I'm totally sold.

Thanks for the feedback.

Have you tried parameter automation? It should work now. I tested it mostly in Logic. If it's not working for you, what's your host?

failed AU validation:

blast! of course i checked validation but this was the result of a last-minute bug fix that made another bug.

the problem is with parameter settings and should be totally benign. Will make a new version soon, probably tomorrow.

thanks for your support.

@davedove, later this fall is my plan.

Our first product, Aalto, will be released this coming Monday the 13th of September. Exciting news! But I know Aalto's introduction has left a few people wondering what happened to the innovative hardware we announced. Let me explain.


I started Madrona Labs to make the Soundplane, developed as part of my Masters work in Computer Music at the University of Victoria, into a reliable, portable instrument. The prototype required a bulky and expensive external audio interface, and had low resolution. But it felt great to play and generated enough excitement that I took a leap of faith and started working on it full time. I luckily found a great hardware engineer who wanted to help me make a self-contained version, and borrowed money to fund six months of development.


Six months later we had a great case and mechanical design and a mostly working main board built around a fast DSP from Texas Instruments. But it was clear we wouldn't have a working prototype for at least a few more months.


I had already started working on Aalto, which I had planned to release along with the Soundplane in order for folks who aren't Max/MSP wizards to have something fun to play out of the box. So I decided to release Aalto as a standalone product in order to get some income. Supporting it very well, as I intend to do, will necessarily slow down Soundplane development, but you gotta do what you gotta do! It has been a long road, but we get ever closer to working Soundplanes. Soundplane is still the center of our business model and a driving passion of mine. I badly want to play one. Expect more news soon.

@ignatius: partly CPU efficiency, partly a few tenacious bugs. There was a stuck note happening every once in a blue moon. Hard to fix if you can only reproduce every 15 minutes! I think it's gone now.

@asquare: it's a great idea to share patches here somehow! I will look into how we can embed files here... after Monday.

Eventually, I think it would be great to share/browse patches on a server from inside the plugin.

Yes, Monday the 13th. I really should update the front page.

The work I'm finishing up, mainly optimization, took longer than I'd hoped. I have now set the 13th as the definite release date. Sorry to make you wait another week.

I do plan to do Mac VST quite soon. The decision to do AU only at first came about because of patch management. Hosts like Live, for example, have very usable management for AU patches. But once I started putting the VST version together I realized that I needed to do my own patch mgmt. to make it something I would want to use. And this is a project that could take a little while. So, AU version now, AU/VST update with integrated patch management in ... well, a month would be my guess.

And I'll add your vote to the list of people who want RTAS. I will do this eventually if enough customers want it.