randy's Recent Posts

Yes, the channel is active and I plan to drop the final beta this week.
Here's a new link that will work for seven more days:
https://discord.gg/UhsxEaM6

I’ve made a beta of Aaltoverb 2.0 available on the site here as both Mac and Windows installers. Links are below.

I’m excited about this release because it’s the first rollout of a whole new framework I’ve written as the technical foundation for my plugins going forward. This will enable fast animations so I can make the fun and informational UIs I’ve had in my sketchbook for a while but was not able to put into products.

When the pandemic first hit I was playing video games regularly for the first time in years. In console games like Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild I saw a lot of cool interface concepts that were fun to look at and also very usable. “Why can’t we have these nice things in plugins?”, I asked… kicking off at least a year of work.

Feel free to grab the software and try it out. And if you have time to contribute by writing quality bug reports, or sending your thoughtful feedback on the new features, please sign up to the Discord to do that.

In addition to the new graphics layer, Aaltoverb 2.0 provides Apple Silicon compatibility, MIDI learn, an LFO per control, a patch browser and a small collection of example patches.

The 2.0.0 beta release seems solid but as with any beta software, use it at your own risk and not in crucial projects! If you’re more tending towards caution right now, the release version should be out soon.

Since the manual will take some time, I made a quickstart video on the new features. You can see that here: Aaltoverb 2.0 Quickstart

Aaltoverb beta links:
Mac: http://madronalabs.com/media/aaltoverb/Aaltoverb2.0.0b2.pkg
Windows: http://madronalabs.com/media/aaltoverb/AaltoverbInstaller2.0.0b2.exe

Discord invite link:
https://discord.gg/a86NhCws

NOTE: I've had some trouble using the invite link in Safari. If you run into this, just use another browser to accept the invite.

Yes, I'll be adding Apple Silicon native versions ASAP. Aaltoverb is native now.

@mensch.mueller got it! thank you. I'll make a note to fix our forum software here when we can.

Thanks for your contributions @nichttuntun, of course I'm not offended.

People have a lot of different ways of approaching the products and things they want from them. I can't please everyone. So I try to take in all the information about what people want as just that: information. It will probably only affect the design if I hear the same thing from at least a few people. One person can always point out something I overlooked though.

In this case I've heard from more than a few people that a way of getting the submenus up without any delay is needed.

The meters do not show a lot of information—my intent is not to overwhelm. They should be accurate though. The red light should go on at 0dB. I just looked at the code to remind myself: they are RMS levels with a 1ms integration time. As I write this I'm actually changing that, because a much longer time on the order of 125ms is more typical for an RMS meter. I think this is an improvement.

I also looked at the levels in the code and it seems each light was a 5dB step. Weird, and just an error on my part. I'm changing this so that they will be 6dB in the next version.

You did? Wow! Congrats! I'm around if you have questions.

A place for Kaivo patches! Just select copy to clipboard from the patch menu, and paste here to share.

I would try restarting. Sometimes the AU needs a restart to get properly registered.

I'll fix the installer to install v.2 over v.1 and then maybe you can try it again. Removing the VST3 itself should be a complete uninstall. The license and patches may also be present but these can't confuse a plugin into not opening.

If you can scan the plugins in Cubase, maybe it will give you some more information?

thanks.

@nichttuntun please give me more information about what happens on these hosts that prevents it from being inserted. You see the plugin in a menu and try to insert it—what happens instead?

also, I'm afraid I don't have either one of these VST hosts—which is not your fault—but is there a chance you have one I do have, so we can test the same thing and see if it is specific to those DAWs? I test in Ableton Live, Bitwig, Reaper, and FL Studio on Windows.

Hi @avantronica,

As you found, rebooting is sometimes needed to get new AUs to install properly. Nobody I know has a good solution.

The demo noise didn't seem too loud to me—that wasn't my intention. I can make it softer.

As noted above I plan to add a popup patch browser. Not sure about version 2.0.0, but this will definitely be needed for Sumu, and I'll add it to Aaltoverb as well.

I'm waiting for a 2022 Mini also, I hope they will show it next week!

With the few presets available with Aaltoverb the scrolling through presets isn't too problematic, though I can imagine if a preset list grows considerably (like my Kaivo and Aalto preset list), scrolling through presets as per this Aaltoverb beta method will take a while. Maybe the click and hold paradigm could be extended here so when you click and hold on the preset list a preset menu pops up ?

I'll be adding this at some point. For Aaltoverb I reasoned that people aren't likely to have too many presets around.

Thanks for the other info, these are things I will fix.

Overall I am very appreciative of everyone's interest. In the post above I broke with what I usually do and gave a big preview. I got some good feedback from it that is helping my morale! I also knew it might make people impatient, if I couldn't release soon.

The Aaltoverb release was a big update because it means now all the common UI things are done. I still have the Sumu-specific UI elements to finish and if anything is looking exciting I might show previews of these before they are in beta. Same with good-sounding audio clips when I get them.

Right now I'm taking a few days off coding. If I type too much for too many days in a row my wrist tendons just kind of lock up and don't let me type any more. And yes, I've tried braces and ergo keyboards. What helps is not typing for too many hours/days in a row. And, oddly enough, running seems to help. I have a harder time making myself get out there for a run in the winter, though.

Thanks for the thoughts @enkerli. I'm working to make one set of behaviors that will work on tablets as well as laptops going forward. This may help explain some of the decisions like click-and-hold. I hadn't considered a two-fingered tap. I'll give it a try.

@andreya.ek.frisk thank you!

@angy @klangfuchs the GUI requires Metal and this will work on some but not all 10.13 machines. ANy machine running 10.14 or higher is guaranteed to have Metal. I plan to work on an OpenGL version for Mac.

@maserna I'm going to fix the Windows installer to overwrite pervious verisons. Meanwhile you can remove the VST3 file from C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and run the v1 installer (from the product page) to get v1 back.

thanks @atelierminceur.

I should probably just never say dates—since there's only one of me, illness burnout or family emergencies can completely throw off my estimates. But on the other hand I do want to communicate what my plans are.

I'm still shooting for this spring on a Sumu beta.

I can say with a confidence that the Aaltoverb beta will be out later today.

That link came up "topic not found." Anyway I've heard of the CLAP initiative and I'll be happy to support it.

Yes, this is why I'm migrating all the plugins from VST2 to VST3.

Here's a new tutorial on how to get your Windows VST plugins like Aalto running on Arch Manjaro Linux: https://madskjeldgaard.dk/posts/vst-manager/

Thanks to Carl Testa for sharing this!

No news on a native port for now. I'd love to work on it but I have other things to finish first!

That's correct, I have not released native arm versions of these plugins yet. I can get to this work after Sumu ships or is at least in beta.

thanks!

I don't even have a target date right now but I will be working on it after Sumu.

Thanks for writing. More than a few people have asked me over the years. My understanding is still that the overlap of Pro Tools people with "boutique soft synth" people is not very big.

cool!

I'm shooting for a beta in January.

thank you! I"m getting there.

I was working hard to get it out last week but got sick and now it's Christmas eve all of a sudden. More soon, then, after a little break. Happy Holidays.