randy's Recent Posts

Shift-drag! It's in the manual.

When they finally make the program that listens intelligently to all the music ever recorded, and traces the tree of its true lineages, absent the blathering of marketers and promoters, we'll find that a very few sturdy limbs were the source of all vital electronic music since the 1960's. Conrad Schnitzler is one of them.


Con died August 4 2001, aged 74. You may not have heard much about his work except that he was a member of Kluster and Tangerine Dream. Krautrock pioneer and all that. So here's the first thing I want to say: Con was by far the most adventurous, the most provocative, the most musically free member of either of those groups, and left them early on. While those guys were pushing rock's formulas out of the box a little, Con was channeling a powerful amalgam of avant-garde electronics, performance art and free jazz too big for the rock idiom to hold. Con was never in the box to begin with.


In 1998 I visited Con at his house in Dallgow-Döberitz, a town just west of Berlin, to talk to him about doing a project with my small electronic label, Orac Records. I'd been a fan for many years, and was nervous because of that and because, well, what kind of guy would be behind these intense, unconventional and sometimes brutal sounds? He stuck out in the quiet suburban train station: a bearlike yet modest physical presence, in black from head to toe, the famous dome. He drove us to his house and we walked around the yard, where big containers of strawberries were in bloom.


He took me down the stairs on the side of the house into the basement, through a small raised metal door with a "high voltage" sign on it and into the studio, a kind of concrete bunker filled with racks upon racks of synthesizers, bundles of patch cords, a nondescript PC. We talked about which synthesizers were his favorites, a big modular that he wasn't really getting along with, and how his computer made mixing and distribution so much easier. He showed me how he transmitted his music out into the world, grabbing a label image here, a sound file there (hopefully matching), a quick jacket print and burn to CDR. His own blue thumbprint and the date on the inside of the paper sleeves signed the disks. Then out with the next day's mail. Con's releases of his solo electronics projects numbered in the hundreds---he needed an efficient machine for self-distribution, and so he made one, with a DIY approach to technology and an artist's attention to detail.


And here I was, clogging up the machine. For my remix project I wanted to pick some of Con's new work. It seemed to me he was making sounds as vital as ever, and it must be frustrating when people are most interested in reissuing what you did 30 years ago. With an artist as prolific as Con, though, picking out something new takes a lot of listening. And how do you do that when you are in the studio straining the patience of your hero and you have hundreds of CDRs of unheard work to pick from? "I give you a finger, and you want to take the whole hand!" he joked---good naturedly, I think. Anyway I didn't know when I would be able to come back, and so I had to do my listening there and then.


I ended up with four CDRs, and burning them gave us some time to talk. Con had picked out found images to put on the covers of his CDRs, always something to do with the music, sometimes obliquely. One cover of a volume "solohaus" intrigued me a lot, a little sort of power station building in a woodland setting. Con talked about how the solohaus was kind of imaginary refuge for him, a place to get away from all distractions, everything in the world, except his sounds. Funny that he still had to dream about this setup, when it seemed to me he had come so close to it in real life.


Two months passed while I did other work and I lined up remixers for the Orac project. When I got back in touch with Con to do his own remix he said "Uoops it feels like years ago!" A day later he sent me the finished mix. Apparently Con inhabited an accelerated time scale compared to the one I'm on.


The records got done, and I was very happy with them. Con and I kept in touch from time to time and mailed a little music back and forth. Last time I emailed in the Fall, he said he had been working all the time as usual, but it was getting boring staying in the basement so much. He'd been using softsynths more on his PC, up in the piano room, to see the outside while he worked. As it happened I had just finished up the Windows version of Aalto, a softsynth I had written, and I was excited to hear what Con would do with it. On Wednesday morning I sent Con a copy of Aalto to try out.


Seven minutes later, Con wrote back:


Hi Randy,

(:))) Thanks a lot ,I´ll try in the next time.

Best,

Con


He passed away the next evening. Before that I had not heard about his cancer and so I was stunned. I wasn't sure what he meant by "the next time." But I heard from his friend Jin that Con was having his good days, and his bad days, and maybe was waiting for the next time when he felt good enough to do some more work. In any case let it be known that here's a guy who, with little time left in this world and while battling cancer pain, took care to respond promptly to a once-met acquaintance / fan.


Con's sounds rocked my world since I first heard them. His energy inspired me even more. He's one of the most important musicians to me, period, and he had to leave us too soon. I don't have as many memories as I would like, and they are already starting to fade over time, so I'm putting these words out there to stand in for them. RIP in electric gardens eternal.


Randy Jones

9 August 2011

Your computer should be plenty fast.

Really weird about the spike issues, I spent a lot of time getting rid of these for 1.2.6 and seemed to be successful. You are running 1.2.6, yes? I can't say I've tested in Studio One much, but in Live, definitely a whole lot.

If you see this in 1.2.6 then give me specific instructions on how to reproduce. What host and version, how to instantiate Aalto, what to click on in what order to make the problem. If it's intermittent then I understand this will not really be possible, let me know how to cause it eventually.

First let me know how to cause the issues in Rax if you can.

I'll investigate it as well as these other plugin players you mention and see what I can do.

Return in the JUCE framework I am using will generally redo whatever control you actuated last. Unfortunately this is different between different hosts, like a lot of keyboard issues. Sorry for the trouble. Please let me know what version to try to reproduce this on, and I'll make sure it doesn't do that in the future.

No, you are not missing anything, this is one of the main usability issues I need to address for 1.3. Thanks for the feedback.

If you look in the patches you'll find some tricks to get the most out of the single oscillator.

Aalto is inspired by the Buchla Music Easel. If you are familiar with or read up on that you'll get a good idea why I like a small collection of fixed modules.

A modular version sounds like a cool product though... doesn't it?

Yes, I will check out the cases you describe and try to fix any problems.

Aalto should make sound sometimes without notes being played. And I don't want to stop all sound when switching the patch-- there are many possibilities in letting one sound "ring out" as another when the patch changes.

The case you describe with Digitaldu EDT probably shouldn't happen though. I think you described it clearly. I will investigate.

HI,

Thanks for the report. I guess this might happen with some combinations of presets. You can probably play some MIDI notes in the new patch to make the sound stop, once all voices have been used.

-Randy

Hi,

Aalto works in Mainstage last I checked. So it's not that I don't support plugin player apps.

If you give me a more specific report of what goes wrong, and what I can do to reproduce it, I will definitely look into it.

thanks
Randy

No news-- except that I'm going to look into this today. Sorry for the long delay-- I hadn't heard any bug reports from PT people in a while, so was hoping the 1.2.6 update had fixed the issue.

Hi Arnaud,

Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately there is some very low-level USB code needed, which will be difficult to port to Windows. If there is enough interest in Soundplane for Windows, I plan to hire someone to do this part. I really have no idea as to timing -- it will depend a lot on how many people are interested.

Would you also be interested in a Linux port?

-Randy

Way cool!

hi @fernandolins,

I read that you had problems before but it looked like the 1.2.6 update fixed them.

I am working on a 1.3 update and will look at the issues with Lion.

You can help me by sending me a bug report with your current OS, Aalto Version and Logic version, and the steps to take that will cause the problem.

I'm sorry the speed of updates is not always very fast. As a single developer, I do what I can.

Things are good here, thanks. Very peaceful and productive the last couple of days! I've been going for a short walk each day and working on Soundplane software the rest of the time.

Since the Soundplane is a true force sensor, stickers and so forth on the surface don't hurt the response at all. If you wanted a big area you would have to add gaps to keep the surface flexible.

I like this idea and would encourage the discussion very much! Myself, I'm busy trying to finish the remaining details and ship the Soundplane, so I won't be participating too much. But I'll follow along with great interest and chime in sometimes.

-Randy

Sadly there are many differences in how the various hosts handle keyboard keys, making it very difficult for me to engineer a consistent user experience across hosts. Sometimes the host captures a certain key and doesn't pass it to plugins. I think this is what is happening here.

Thanks for the report.

Hi pbr,

In a week or two I plan to show a new movie demonstrating the finished calibration software and hardware, and announce that production is starting. At that point there will still be a window, probably two weeks, for getting an order in at the intro price. There are still some Soundplanes left in our initial run. I certainly don't expect them to run out before the new demo is out, but they might do so during that window.

I still expect production to take 8-10 weeks.

-Randy

Yes, I could reproduce this immediately. Amazing, how could this not have been noticed after all this time? I guess, most people use fast attacks for the most part...

Anyway thank you for the good report, I will fix this.

-Randy

A good idea, I'll think about this one.

A quick update to share some photogenic progress. I got the new milled case from O.B.Williams this morning, and it fits the new aluminum back panel perfectly. In these pictures you can see the new rabbet for the panel, and the very tight tolerances we are holding with the milling.







I can't wait to apply an oil finish, put circuit boards in this beauty and make some sounds. That should happen next week. Until then, happy new year everyone!

Aalto For Soundplane will just be for Soundplane. Some features might make it into the regular version of Aalto. The idea will be to keep them as similar as possible.

You can bypass the filter by setting it to lowpass mode and turning frequency up to 20000 and Q to 0.

The delay is bypassed by using just the "dry" knob -- there is no delay on that signal.

There might be more options for reverb in the future. If you want to add "dirt" a reverb is not the usual way-- I recommend using the "drive" dial on the delay and using that signal if possible.

Aalto could do this?


salisbury steak. [theme] [for garf and bnek] by mad brahmin


I didn't either. If that was too frantic for you, here's some ambient overtones:


AltoLow by Bsteele


Yup, the Aalto group on Soundcloud is still blowing the eff up.

The work to finish up the Soundplane is going well. What you see here is the new flexible antenna undergoing testing. It's a thin layer of copper deposited onto a white PET substrate. One nice thing about this material is that it's created additively, resulting in less waste than the traditional flex circuits we were using. It's also much less expensive.



Our supplier in the UK has shipped out what should be the final version of this part---I expect to get it next week. [...]

Meanwhile I'm also working to put Soundplane on a little bit of a diet.

During the tour I got a couple of comments to the effect that the plywood bottom of the prototype was sort of raw looking. I had some plans to address this, but then I thought of a better one. A thin aluminum plate inset into the bottom of the enclosure is now taking the place of the plywood bottom. So now the Soundplane will be significantly thinner: one inch even instead of 1 1/4". And a little ligher and more durable. Win!




In January I'll make a new demo video showing off these improvements and the new calibration software, and when I put it online I'll offer another short window for people to get in on the introductory deal. After that window, preorders will close and production will begin.


I've sorted out the customs issues and will be extending the introductory deal to people outside North America. So, if you're one of the people in Europe waiting to get one of the first run, you can get your preorder in from now until mid-January or so. Please contact me with any questions.


I've rented a light industrial space in Ballard, where I'll have room for assembling Soundplanes more than one at a time. The place has a really good feel---my neighbors are boatbuilders and other woodworkers. And a karate studio, I think. At least, I hope that's what those noises are. Stay tuned for more updates as Christopher and I build a workbench and a wall.


But first, a few days of rest and reflection! Happy holidays and a very merry Christmas to all.

I'd like to get it out in January sometime, but can't promise.

Hi Colin,

You are correct, there is no mod input for LFO level. In hindsight I see this was a bad design decision on my part. I will fix it in an upcoming release.

Aalto 1.0 was much tougher on the CPU and four voice was the maximum I could get out of my own machine. As I optimize Aalto further it's very likely I will increase this limit sometime in the future.

So, I took the time to install Max 6 today and here's the state of things:

the vst~ object runs VST and AU plugins, so forget what I said about audiounit~.

the Aalto VST does not hear MIDI events in MSP. The AU version does.

Neither AU nor VST seems to hear the MSP clock for host sync.

So, the AU version should work well overall except for host sync. I'll try to work with the Cycling elves to resolve these issues.

I would try the audiounit~ object with the AU version instead-- it seems to be more stable in Max than the vst.

MIDI is certainly possible-- I'd start from the vst~ or audiounit~ help patch and try to change as little as possible.

I'm not sure if host sync is possible. I haven't been able to spend too much time working with Max/MSP, so hopefully someone else can offer advice here.

I'll do something to address this area. I'm not yet sure exactly what.