randy's Recent Posts
Hi, I had the chance to talk with Brian and Ezra quite a bit about hooking a Soundplane up to Aleph. We think it will be possible, and I'm excited to do it when I can get my hands on an Aleph, but we don't have an immediate timetable. And we definitely don't know those other details yet, though we can think of some things that would be fun.
Hi, I have no plans to update Aalto Solo anytime soon.
Hi James,
Aalto does not need to connect to the internet for verification or anything. I would just double-check that you are installing to the same VSTPlugins folder Ableton is using.
I want to hear the result too!
Just to add... Aalto has an OSC input format, used with the Soundplane. This is detailed in the topic "STICKY: T3d format description". it allows each note to have a different pitch bend. So if you made OSC data from your controller somehow, you could try this.
Note that the t3d format is subject to change and I will be tweaking it soon to work better with TouchOSC and the like.
Hi,
The modulation should work in real time. When it gets to Aalto, the recorded data looks exactly like the real-time data. So Aalto is really not capable of doing anything different with one versus the other. This isn't worded perfectly but I hope it makes sense.
So, I would look to some workaround with FL.
If you are on Windows there are two DLLs, Aalto.dll (32 bit) and Aalto_x64.dll. Most hosts can use the 32 bit version.
I'm glad you found the presets. Yes, you can store them anywhere though I recommend you use the standard location since that is where Aalto will look for them.
People showing stuff last year at Decibel. Photographer unknown.
This year at Decibel Festival I'll be teaming up with my friend James Patrick of Dubspot and Ableton to talk a little about modular synthesis software, and give a sneak preview of Kaivo, my new physical modeling synthesizer. I’ve been working on Kaivo for almost two years now. Kaivo brings Aalto’s ease of patching to a new set of modules based around physical modeling. I'm excited to show off its interface and a few of the new sonic possibilities it offers.
I’m also very excited to be part of a panel with other instrument makers from Monome and Livid Instruments. The panel is called "New Media Hardware Platforms and Communities." We’ll discuss what the current landscape of hardware from independent makers looks like, what it’s like to be one of these independent makers, and what unique possibilities this activity of locally sourced, community-focused hardware design offers culturally and musically. And what lies ahead? Please come share your thoughts.
Brian and Kelli of Monome will also be on hand to reveal Aleph, the new music hardware that they have made in collaboration with Ezra Buchla. I know a lot of people are anticipating this one!
My session with James Patrick will be Friday at noon at Broadway Performance Hall. The Monome presentation and new hardware panel will be Thursday afternoon. Times of some of the conference programs are still shifting, so please check the Decibel Conference Program for more info and breaking news.
I have definitely listened to the demos of those instruments closely, but I'm not really headed the same way---you won’t hear an attempt to make a sax sound in Kaivo, for example. A bigger influence has been the academic work of Julius Smith, Perry Cook, Stefan Bilbao and others.
I spent most of the day yesterday wrestling with my screen capture program on my new Mac. I think I'm good to go now so I should have something up today or tomorrow.
Kaivo preview! Not Aalto 2.
HI Meng Qi,
First, I will give some really general advice: to approach the build incrementally and experiment. The material choices are many, and lots of things you have access to may work. But the geometry (thicknesses) might be changed from what is in the paper. I would build a 1x1 system first, which is a z-only controller. You can do this in Max by sending and receiving a single sine wave. Any frequency from around 5 kHz-50kHz should be OK.
Then with only 2x2 strips you can make a small xyz controller. The math to get the x and y positions is given in the paper, or you can probably figure it out with a little algebra. Again this will not require any custom max objects because it is just 2 frequencies, 2 outputs and 2 inputs. Use either FFT or bandpass filters to compare the signal strengths at each frequency.
Some of the layers in the paper are shielding for the case. Sorry if this is not well explained. The layers in the sensor itself with no case would be:
playing surface (polyethylene for example)
carrier antennas (foil)
elastic (many kinds of rubber will work, but try open-cell foam)
pickups (foil, or you can make a circuit board)
Over a large area, it is hard to make all the layers lie flat mechanically and return to the proper positions. This is why the "bump" was there , to make tension holding things in place. The Soundplane uses a different technique.
Today I would not use GND strips in between the signal strips. A small gap of >2mm is all that is necessary to prevent most interference between strips.
Please try a 1x1 or 2x2 setup to get some feel for your materials. On one of these setups you can also experiment easily with different foams and spacings.
I have not tried the Max objects for years so I apologize if they are out of date. If so, please let me know and I will try to fix them.
I hope to see details of your project!
later this week!
I think they do not. It would not be very hard to add. The main hurdle is getting the controller working. If you get to that point, feel free to ask here for tips on adding MIDI!
I'll put together a preview for the Intertubes early next week. This weekend there are a ton of friends in town for Decibel, and I need a couple of days off! Thanks for your patience :-)
Had a fun time showing the new baby off in the green room at Decibel. I will make a screencast video preview very soon!
I'm going to try something a little different this Summer and put Aalto on sale for two weeks. From now until July 30, 2013, everyone’s favorite patchable, semi-modular software synthesizer is 50% off.
Whether you have the demo, the Aalto CM version, or no Aalto in your life at all, this sale is a chance to get the polyphony, full email support and future updates that come with a full license, all for half off. Visit http://www.madronalabs.com/products/aalto for happy clicking and saving.
In other news, Summer’s in full swing and I hope you’re having a great one. I'm spending most of my time working on the next big thing from the Labs, a new software instrument. Most details will be under wraps for a little while longer yet, but I’m aiming for a release sometime this summer, so you curious synthesists will not have long to wait. What I am saying is, it’s a new take on physical modeling with an Aalto-like user interface. It will be the first product to a certain kind of physical modeling, so far as I am aware. Green is its color. More details to follow.
Frankly, at this point Aalto’s reputation is a lot to live up to! I'm working hard to make a second software instrument that will play off Aalto’s strengths, provide a whole new world of sounds, and keep the quality bar very high. I can’t wait to get this out there and hear what you think.
I don’t think there will be stream You could check out the Decibel Festival site for video after the fact. In any case, I will post more info about Kaivo soon.
The Finnish for 'well' is what I was going for, as in a deep well of sounds. When you hear it, I hope you’ll agree!
I hope there will be video too. In any case, there will be lots more info from the monome crew as well as me.
Work is going well. Looks like I'll have something to demo at Decibel.
I don’t want to give anything away. I’ll just say it can't hurt to wait a week.
i'd be very happy to use a text editor. thank you. do i need to email you offline, or will you make that public as well?
I'll send it out to all the Soundplane owners as an option ASAP, and possibly put it on the website if it's looking good enough.
I'll have some news on this very soon after the new plugin comes out. You will like the news!
Thanks for all the info. This will help me track down what's going on in the Windows build.
You can click on "My Account" to make sure you are signed up to receive the newsletter. I do skip a month sometimes if I'm, say, cranking hard on a new plugin that's coming soon...
I'm Madronalabs on Twitter, in case you want to read some of my more random updates and DSP nerd in-jokes. :-)
I would like to add an email notify feature to the forums when there is time.
Hi folks, you are exactly right, the combination of working on the new plugin along with supporting Soundplane and Aalto customers completely blew my schedule for the mapping stuff out of the water. I apologize for the delay.
I realized a way I can speed things up. I will make a version where you can edit the mapping descriptions with a text editor. This will let me get the features into your hands ASAP, and add the fit and finish later. Thanks for your understanding and support!
The new synth is coming along well and has definitely been designed with the Soundplane in mind.
Hi sunsyn,
Thanks for letting me know. There's nothing I did on purpose that would increase CPU use in 1.4. I will check and see if, as they say, mistakes were made.
One thing to check is turn off the dials updating with 'anim'-depending on how you are metering CPU the animations can make it appear as though the plugin is taking a lot more DSP.
Aalto is not the biggest CPU hog on the market... not anymore at least! The first version was pretty bad. But since Aalto 1.2 or so I would call it reasonable, and now many other good sounding plugins are out there that can gobble more CPU.
Four voices of Aalto take around 20% of one core on my (still new and excitingly fast) 4-Core i7. on my previous laptop, a 2.4GHz core i5 from 3 years ago, it was about 35% of one core. 3rd generation Core processors were a huge step up from the Core 2 Duo, and could be a pretty cheap upgrade for you at this point.
There are still some things I can do yet to reduce CPU use in Aalto. I will definitely work some of these optimizations in, in the future. but in general people seem to think it's acceptable now, so I have been focusing on other fixes and, of course, the new plugin.
If you already have an account you don't need your email to log in to the Madrona site. Just log in with your username / password, and then you can change your email in the "My Account" settings.
If that doesn't work, email me at support@madronalabs.com and I will help you sort it out.
Thanks for asking, but I have to say this is not likely. There is only one of me, so I need to focus on the AU and VST versions.
Thanks for reminding me, and I'm sorry I haven't had time to look into it more.
Mack Fisher, who pops up on these forums sometimes, is looking into Max usability issues with me in a sort of intern capacity. I will see if he can look into this sooner than I would get to it. If an issue comes up and can be well-defined, I can probably be quick to turn around a fix to Aalto.
Thanks to all... I really appreciate the feedback and ideas.
Note that if you want to set a dial by click-and-drag, without it jumping, you can also do this by clicking on the number area.
I am trying to imagine the patch bay without multiple connections potentially overlapping but I can’t think how this is possible.
The fruit is ripening on the tree. It looks delicious now, but is not quite ready to eat.