geremy's Recent Posts

Hi,

Apple has announced Logic will be available on IOS on May 23:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-brings-final-cut-pro-and-logic-pro-to-ipad/

Will this affect any development priorities for Madrona Labs? I'd absolutely love a portable VIRTA on my ipad (along with all the others). With Logic, simply offering them as AUv3, even on pricing par with the desktop versions, would be phenomenal. I would really like to place VIRTA in a Loopy Pro effect chain!

I'd appreciate your thoughts. Virta is first VST I purchased, and did so right when it became available. I had played around with Aalto and Kaivo but am more of a hardware guy. Virta could be fed by my hardware and could do synth stuff on it's own when needed. I feel much Virta's components (the vosim oscillators, the audio & formants section) are difficult to replicate in hardware. I'm a sucker for strange oscillator waveforms, FM, and formant filtering, so it was a no brainer for me.

I love this software and use it quite a bit. Both standalone when I am traveling and want to zone out, and with my gear to create new sounds effects.

I don't hear it mentioned in the same sense as Aalto & Kaivo. I believe it's probably a combination of it being an effect plug-in in most DAWs, and during the early days it was somewhat tricky to 'trick' the host software into working with Virta easily. Randy has mostly solved that, and it also runs quite a bit more efficiently than it did at first.

What is your opinion? Did you try the demo and didn't gel with it? Are the presets to fantastical? Does the color not inspire like the 'pop' of Aalto's blue and Kaivo's green? Did you think it was more of a one trick pony with the comb filtering?

Give it a chance again! It really is the case of some seemingly simple building blocks that are more than the sum of their parts!

Oh that would be super cool. If you do this please update Virta as well!

I'm in agreement that a well done video would be great! I'm not sure a tutorial is necessary as much as a compelling demo video. Something that shows it as a sound generator and key effect and vocal effect would be best. I think Virta is now easy enough to get going if you are motivated to do so.

As an aside, I have often wondered about running Virta's output (or various stages of the bottom row) back through to the audio input on the top row. This works in Live with send/return tracks and can lead to some interesting things (or uninteresting, depending on your feelings about atonal stuff).

That works. Which was the major issue.

If I open logic
Add software instrument track
Select virta stereo as software instrument

Only the left channel is output

Admittedly this is not a big deal because I don't use it like that very much. Thanks for making mono inputs stereo outputs!

Randy: Just tried in Logix X 10.3.1, still left output only if you add Virta on a standalone software instrument track. I will test with a mono input source.

Does this previous post about the mono->stereo fix the issue with Logic X not outputting stereo? If so, thanks so much!

I can get it to work sometimes but not all the time. It's really a pain when routing and working with mono instruments, and It negates a lot of the panning within Virta too. Also, it's only mono when using it as an instrument (sound source), which is really pretty silly.

Sorry to barge into another thread like this but do you think while you have Logic up on the MBP you can take a look at the Virta issue with left output only? Thanks.

I was hoping for a fix with the new .1 releases, but still left channel only in Logic.

Thanks Randy! Happy holidays!

Hi, I downloaded the new release and I still have this issue. Maybe it is something simple we are doing wrong!?

I will give th vst FX alias a shot. Thanks.

Has anyone tried this with Renoise? I use Logic now but I'm considering using renoise for some select things.

The above is true but to add if using Virta as an audio effect on a mono input, then you get left channel only output. I was successful in adding a stereo spreader effect before Virta on the mono input and then getting stereo out. This solution works fine for me. Thx.

And actually, just opening virta in logic, with no side chained input, audio out is left channel only. Even from a blank project with only 1 track for virta.

Well it turns out that this is not really an option for me, as if I try to make a mono stereo it joins 2 of my input channels on the interface, which is not really what I need at all. Thanks for the suggestion though!

I'll give it a shot and let you know. I'm using a Keith McMillen k-mix for recording input btw.

Hi. No worries I understand your very busy and your efforts are appreciated. I can survive a bit longer with the workaround. It does mean that Virta is difficult to use in a 'live' (track recording) way. I have to complete recording, duplicate the region into a dummy track and then merge them into a stereo track before playing with Virta. Thanks!

So I tried putting a stereo spread utility on the Virta's input channel. That channel is now a stereo channel and plays in stereo but Virta still outputs the Left channel only? I'm confused now.

I think what is happening is that mono inputs are only being routed to the left side only. I have a mono audio track as a side chain input and I only hear Virta producing sound on the left. I tried routing the mono audio track to a stereo bus, and then the stereo bus as the side chain input to Virta, but it still only comes out the left.

If I route a stereo audio track into Virta it works fine, both L and R outputs work, but I'm not sure how to route a mono track input successfully without duplicating the mono track into a stereo track manually.

Any suggestions?

So the 1.02 VST in Bitwig on the MBP early 2015 w/ maxed 16GB or Ram 3.1 GHz i7, latest el capitan and Bitwig 1.39 works phenomally @ 256 samples. I mean rock solid here w/ all 4 voices. Very impressed. Live 9.6.1 fares slightly worse, but still very very usable.

It still seems to perform about the same as 1.0 VST for me. It's livable, especially with 1-2 voices.

I will go back either tonight or tomorrow and try with my interface 88.2Khz, 512 samples again. Thanks for the effort though!

I tried it quickly but it was difficult to get output in live. I was able to compare the 1.0 VST @ 44.1KHz, 256 samples to the 1.0.2 AU and they were similar. This is with all built-in audio though. I will try again tomorrow with my interface and a higher sample rate. Thanks for the effort though!

So after trying several more times, it seems better with 4 voices at 48KHz, 256 samples. When I go to 88.2 KHz it falls apart. I can't seem to get output @ 88.2KHz, 512 samples.

EDIT:
I was able to try today with my interface (k-mix) and everything. 88.2KHz, 256 samples works very similar to the 1.0 vst.

Thanks Randy! I just bought Virta in appreciation of your support.

OS X El Capitan
Version 10.11.4
Macbook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
Processor 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB

With 256 samples, the plug-in window open, and the aforementioned preset, not even 1 voice plays without crackling. Live's DSP meter hovers between 80-100%. Activity monitor reports anywhere between 85-120% CPU. Closing the plug-in window has an immediate positive effect. 1 voice is almost doable. DSP meter drops to 60% and activity monitor %cpu drops to 66-72%. Still lots of crackling though!

For me it is t just Kaivo, but Aalto and Virta as well.

I also tried it @ 256 samples, 48KHz. The crackling got much worse.

So I tried in garageband and it crackles there too.

I downloaded a resolution switcher (RDM) and ran in the un-scaled native resolution (2560x1600). No real change. Still crackling.

To be clear I don't think this issue is Madrona Labs software specific. I can get this to happen with ABL3 and the like as well, so it is definitely an Apple issue.

Echoing this. I registered to post. I have a similar machine...early 2015 rMBP with 3.1 GHz i7, 16GB of ram and a 1TB SSD. Kaivo and Aalto both crackle like mad. This occurs with the built-in audio devices and my new K-Mix interface. At first I thought it was limited to just bitwig but it also happens in live. I have yet to use the AUs in GarageBand but I will try tomorrow.

I think it does have something to do with graphics. The crackling gets bad when the wallpaper changes or new windows are opening, etc.

I have tried an snc and a PRAM reset to no avail.