(This already went out via the mailing list. I'm posting here for people who are just joining us.)
Sumu update.
Hi folks, thanks all of you who have purchased the Early Access release of Sumu or the Studio Bundle! Though I’m still deep in Sumu work, I’m also looking ahead to the updates of the other instruments, and to future projects I want to get started on. I couldn’t even imagine doing some of these future projects without full time to devote to Madrona Labs work. Based on the success of the Sumu launch so far, it looks like I’ll be able to have that time. This is huge for me.
So, the release got out, but not without hiccups. There are a few bugs that I created in my last week of work and as such, evaded beta testing:
- crashes on load on Windows, in DAWs including FL Studio and Cubase
- window too big on launch, preventing easy resize
- distorted sound coming from oscillators mod osc output
I am going to get a release out ASAP to address these—but also take the time to beta test everything properly. I have already fixed two out of three of these issues here, so I think June 3 is a realistic date for the next update. Other fixes will be in it also.
Sumu FAQ.
The scales menu is grayed out. Is it unimplemented?
Yes, everything grayed out is that way on purpose because it is not implemented yet.
I'm not finding the popup menus for patches and partials.
These need a right-click (Windows) or ctrl+click or two-finger click (Mac). This is confusing a lot of folks so I'm going to change it in a future release.
When will the 1.0 release come out?
Given a reasonable pace of three or four betas, I’m shooting for 8–10 weeks from now.
I’m trying to import my own partials but it’s not working.
The documentation is not complete but please look at this topic on our forums: https://madronalabs.com/topics/9253-sumo-preset-and-partials-maps-menu-selection
See also this Vutu quickstart, which is a little behind the current Vutu but a good intro:
https://youtu.be/crvpsnbLtt0
I can’t find the global settings […] menu described in the manual.
The manual has it wrong—I removed that one after telling George it would be there, because it wasn’t done yet. Please look forward to more menus in the future.
Is the Vutu / Sumu partials format proprietary?
No. Vutu exports partials as editable JSON text files with a .vutu extension. When Sumu imports the .vutu files it does two things: compresses them and moves them into the Sumu/Partials directory where they are saved as .utu.
Feature X is not working, is this a demo restriction?
The only demo restrictions are as follows:
- saving patches is not allowed
- a soft “demo wave” sound plays every two minutes Anything else that seems wrong is either a bug, or a weird synthesizer working properly.
The window size is too big, how can I change it?
To change the window size, you need to drag the triangle in the lower right corner. But this is impossible if it's offscreen! You can work around this in the meantime by setting your display resolution high enough to see the resizer in the lower right, resizing Sumu to a reasonable size, and saving that state in your DAW. On opening the saved patch Sumu should start with the saved size.