ForumsSoftware ← Sonics of Aalto/Kaivo

I have been playing around with these synths for at while now,
and despite the diversity and quantities of software synths I am positive that these
machines are the best sounding synths in the soft realm.
There is a certain "edge" or "closeness/crispness" to them that I have not found else where (oversampling set aside)
Am I alone on this oscillating feeling;) or?
Best to Randy for making these codes seem acoustic, realistic and playable -
Ps. anyone selling their Soundplane?
Best
Frederik

I'm with you on that one Frederik. I've used many many softsynths over the years, and Randy's are by far my favourite. So much so they are really my main weapons for synthesis and sound design.

They manage to sound sort of vintage and ancient, but also modern and forward thinking, while sounding nothing like anything else software or hardware. They are actually fun to patch and inspiring to use.

Plus the seemingly limited set of sound sources / modulators mean you're not bogged down by infinite starting points for sound design tasks and synth sounds. Also I think the imposed limitations give the feeling of Aalto/Kaivo actually being instruments, as opposed to computer programs that produce sound.

Randy - on the topic of your softsynths being legitimate instruments, something I've wondered in the past is was the decision to make the maximum length of sample allowed in Kaivo's granulator inspired by the Mellotron? I believe they could only have a maximum tape length of 8 seconds too? :)

Aalto and Kaivo are awesome. I hope to add Virta to that list soon...

Hey thanks for the nice feedback. I'm glad to hear my intentions as far as usability and sound are coming across. What you're describing is the way I think of them too.

I wanted the focus of Kaivo to be making timbres from a sound as more of a palette, not so much playing back samples. And didn't want to add the complexity of a scrolling interface. And also, until version 1.2 all samples were loaded into RAM immediately when the plugin was made. There are all reasons why I made the maximum length short.

Hi Randy,
I understand the reasons that you set the maximum sample length short in Kaivo.
However, isn't possible to increase it just a little more?

I don't see a problem with this. Will add to my Kaivo list.

that's great Randy!

Cool, should be possible to set in preferences. I have lots of RAM...;-)

thank you Randy for supporting our suggestion and upgrading Kaivo max sampling length to 16 secs!!!

Thanks for the suggestion!