No, for real. Enjoy. Feel free to post your getting started questions here, or as always email us at support@madronalabs.com. And thanks in advance for your patience while we handle a larger than usual volume of support emails.
I feel like a right plonker, haha. I've realised what my problem was all along with the partials thing - I've been expoerting from Vutu using the wrong export button, and exporting .wavs instead of .utu files. I can't believe I hadn't noticed until just now (by way of a rather poor excuse, I've recently been prescribed reading glasses and I haven't been wearing them while I've been doing this...) ANyway, I now have a custom folder of partials to choose from. Sorry for the dodgy report and good luck with the bug squishing!
Just bought it. Looks and sounds great. However on a couple of occasions I've had a loud percussive spike and then Sumu doesn't make any sound in my DAW. Then when I reload the DAW and try again it seems OK. Patch browser seems to operate a bit weird... I have to Ctrl-click on the currently selected patch name to see any preset menus... is that how it's supposed to be? Microtonal scales are not available/selectable. I'm assuming they will come with the full Version 1? My details: iMac Pro 8-core (Intel), OS 10.5.7 (Catalina), Logic Pro 10.5.1, Apollo Twin X.
I have to Ctrl-click on the currently selected patch name to see any preset menus... is that how it's supposed to be?
I thought so, but I'm hearing a lot of feedback that people aren't loving this, so there may be a change.
Yes, tunings besides 12-equal will come with the 1.0 version, as will a lack of glitches.
Actually I'm not hearing other reports of it freezing (no sound)—maybe this is an Intel thing that not many people are running into because most Intel machines can't handle it yet. Please stay tuned as I work this out, your testing will be really helpful.
Sorry for the dodgy report and good luck with the bug squishing!
No worries, this is also feedback that probably my UI can be improved. Enjoy the sounds...
I didn't think I'd see something greedier than the NI granular VSTs like Straylight, but kudos ;). One voice clocks in at about 21% CPU, one voice sounds . . . like many other VSTs I have, even with the baked-in Ableton engines like Collision, I can reproduce something close to your output. Mind you, it's not as fun to use.
I think once you dive in you'll find sounds you can make with Sumu that would not be accessible with other tools.
And certainly I'm going to optimize CPU a lot.
Thanks for your feedback and support! I don't spend as much time with other VSTs as I should, so I appreciate the perspective.
Sumu was so big i could't find the resizer in the lower right corner. im stoked that has already been addressed. thank you!
now i'm off for some sonic exploration
I have a similar problem the user a few lines up, with a m1 and ableton.
Im on m1pro and ableton live 12, 32 gigs of ram.
My problems so far, although i cant really replicate them yet:
-Sumu seems to randomly melt my cpu, or goes silent and stays silent even when changing presets, but seems like it only does it on certain occations. Like if i skip too many presets too quick, or if i duplicate the track with sumu on it.
Sumu also crashes ableton from time to time, after throtteling the cpu.
Sometimes, when sumu melts the cpu, even after i delete the track the lagginess and artifacts remains in the sound of whats coming out of live, and then crashes live after a bit.
All in all seems to be very badly optimized for this setup :D
Hi
I just bought Sumu, and it seam to be correctly registered, But :
In the manual you say about Global setting page 30:
“Click the ”...” button on the right of the header to access the global settings.“
I can’t see any Global setting menu or button or item or "...” in the header. Why ???I can’t change the Tunning table.
I see only the standart 12-Equal, but grey, and i can’t change it. Why ?I can’t click on the Unison button. It is grey.
About the Input module, in the manual page 33 you say :
“dx and dy: These outputs send continuously variable control signals, set by whatever MIDI CCs (continuous control) you selected in the hidden settings (available by clicking the three dots in the corner of the module).“
Where are these three dots in the Input module please, i can't see them ???it seem that there is a lot of bug in your work, before buy Sumu i thought it was demo restrictions, but it's not.
Allow me to say that I'm a little disappointed.
Today after installing the demo version (1.0.0b13), i’ve re-instaled the version 1.0.0b13 found on your site.
Same.
Can you help please ?
All in all seems to be very badly optimized for this setup :D
Yes, it's very badly optimized, thanks for your patience, this is Early Access software.
A few patches probably blow up because they are trying to run 16 voices. You can turn the number of voices down to 1 on any patch to minimize CPU use then turn it up to however many you can run or want.
it seem that there is a lot of bug in your work, before buy Sumu i thought it was demo restrictions, but it's not.
Allow me to say that I'm a little disappointed.
Sorry to disappoint, we have said this is an Early Access release and some things are not implemented until 1.0.
You are mentioning the following issues:
- global "..." not implemented as in the Draft manual
- tuning table unimplemented
- unison unimplemented
- "..." in input module unimplemented
These are all things planned for 1.0 and not implemented in Early Access.
What I'm learning from your feedback is that we should have had a list of these things, possibly on the Sumu Early Access page. Sorry these things were surprising! We said there were features unimplemented but did not say exactly what.
Ill add that its a funny synth, and im excited for when its more optimized and finished :D
Also a request;
- I guess madrona fans like the way the "knobs" work (filter, pitch, mod, carrier hz etc) Is it possible to have a knob in settings that includes "grab and twist", so that the knobs doesnt skip to where the mouse is? It seems to skip around everytime i try to make adjustments, and i dont think ill get used to it :)
It seems to skip around everytime i try to make adjustments, and i dont think ill get used to it :)
You can click on places outside the "track" area, like directly on the number, this will start dragging at the current location.
Is Sumu feature-complete at this point?
After some experimentation, I feel that it probably needs more than one envelope in practice, though this would need to be tabbed and tabbing may be bad. Also, some more tilt controls, such as for sustain level might be nice for controlling the playheads for the partials etc.
Congratulations on the release. I got it as soon it came out. I have to spend a little time with it to get used to it.
It looks gorgeous by the way, fluent, crispy and alive.
I had a crash in VCV Rack with the host module. I haven't tried again with it, so this doesn't qualify as a proper bug report.
No problems in Bitwig 5 so far.
I hope you publish some videos at some point as a complement to the manual.
Finally, echoing @taakelur's request about the knobs behavior. Yes, you can drag around outside of the track area, you can also use the scroll function of the mouse wheel or trackpad but it's too easy to reach to the knob and try a click and grab, so the jumpy behavior is kind of unwanted.
This goes for the other plugins as well.
Is Sumu feature-complete at this point?
Almost - anything you see grayed out will get completed. I might sneak in something else but not a big change like another envelope.
Note that with the "hi scale" and lo / all / hi outputs on the envelope, you effectivaly get two different envelopes, the same shape but at different time scales, and then the blend of 64 envelopes in between.
I hope you publish some videos at some point as a complement to the manual.
There will be videos!
Thanks for the feedback.
Is the aftertouch on the list of unimplemented features? I have been unable to get the Aftertouch to light up even though I know my controller/host see it.
Congratulations on the release of Sumu!
I have two non-working features. Might be a user error on my side, though:
- There's a settings menu (burger style, three stacked dots or similar) referred somewhere. I didn't find any menu (tried clicking/right-clicking on the Sumu header, the preset name, preset list and license information).
- The tuning and unison settings are unavailable for me. Is that intended?
I'm interested in creating partials profiles and/or sound presets for the release version of Sumu. Whom do I contact in that regard? (never mind, just found Randy's mail address)
Hello! I´m loving Sumu! So inspiring instrument! Finally got to exporting my own sounds from Vutu. I´m on Windows. So I made custom folder in partials folder and exported .utu file there. But I can not find my custom folder in the drop down menu in Sumu. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
I have two non-working features. [...]
All the grayed out controls are not yet implemented.
The info about the settings menu was not correct in the manual, apologies.
Hello! I´m loving Sumu! So inspiring instrument!
Thank you very much!
But I can not find my custom folder in the drop down menu in Sumu. Am I doing something wrong?
Sorry it's not well documented yet. For now, I have this explanation:
When you import a partials folder, it imports the whole directory tree underneath the one you pick, including any folders that contain .utu files.
So if I have on my disk
~/VutuFiles/Strings/cello.utu
~/VutuFiles/Strings/viol.utu
~/VutuFiles/Noises/tinkle.utu
~/VutuFiles/Noises/harsh/blender.utu
and then bring up the import dialog (partials/...) and select the folder ~/VutuFiles to import,
the files
~/Music/Madrona Labs/Sumu/Partials/Strings/cello.sumu
~/Music/Madrona Labs/Sumu/Partials/Strings/cello.sumu
~/Music/Madrona Labs/Sumu/Partials/Noises/tinkle.sumu
~/Music/Madrona Labs/Sumu/Partials/Noises/harsh/blender.sumu
will be created, along with the directories on the way.
Importing again will (for now) overwrite these files.
The intention is to "sync" your entire partials development folder at once.
Thank you Randy!
I totally overlooked import option in partials menu in Sumu :)
Greetings!
Bought the bundle yesterday and have been playing with Sumu since. Was definitely impressed when I first imported a short solo vocal wave file through Vutu. The synthesized result was almost indistinguishable from the original. Not having a clue how to patch Sumu, I loaded one of the preset vocal patches and loaded up my partial. Fortunately I got a patch that played back the vocal partial pretty cleanly, and I was able to play back vocal harmonies, in pitch and in time, directly from the keyboard. There was still a little 'synthesized feel' to it, but considering I hadn't made any adjustments when importing or playing it back, was certainly pleased with the result. If you're actually replicating a complex wave using dozens of tiny little synths, hats off to you.
I'm actually able to run Sumu with 16 voices on Windows with Ableton Live, but as a recently retired software engineer, I built myself a fairly hefty desktop computer. I'm running a i9-13900KS processer on a MSI MEG 790 board with 128 G RAM and a RTX 4090 28G Video Card (although it doesn't appear Sumu uses it). Running Sumu set to 16 voices in Ableton cranks my CPU to about 70%, but it's been completely usable (other than my not knowing how to use it) 
Been running Sumu for most of the day, and no issues or crashes. Hopefully this might indicate that those people using less powerful machines may just be running into resource issues, and once you get the time to optimize, should hopefully clear that up.
This thing is crazy! Now I've started to get the hang of it it can produce some truly unique sounds from unexpected sources - I'm addicted! Any chance of you adding paypal as a payment method? None of the other methods there are familiar to me in Australia other than straight CC...
Any chance of you adding paypal as a payment method?
please write us at support@madronalabs.com and one of us will take care of it.
Bought the bundle yesterday and have been playing with Sumu since.
Thank you for the detailed feedback! I'm very glad you are enjoying it.
Each of Sumu's 64 playback oscillators is a 2-op FM (or AM) pair with noise. A single sine + noise goes (or can go) toward reproducing the sound as analyzed. Then the pair can do a lot more, with the partials file as a jumping off point for new sounds.
Having the same issues as most on a windows system. But I got lucky and tried it with Hermann Seib's VSTHost, and I can play with it! So far it sounds amazing! I can't wait to dive into the manual and really understand what is going on under the hood.
Thank you Randy for the hard work you put into this software!
And also thank you for receiving everyone's feedback so well and professional! I got your email update today and was surprised you have an update coming so soon.
I look forward to everyone's creations and to version 1.0 too!
The update release is coming along well. I can hold off on shipping a thing for years while I design it, but if people have bought it and it's not working for them that's very motivating for me!
[deleted]
Resize on Macbook M2 laptop in Logic isn't working here and it's larger than my screen.
Re Vutu integration:
To keep all the advantages of the separate app, if desirable, the "integration" could even be as loose as:
When the user drop a sample on Sumu, Sumu invoke Vutu with either the file or a temp copy full path and name.
Sumu could also provide Vutu with appropriate parameters for Sumu like exports path, etc.
If Vutu location on the system isn't known, Sumu just ask for it and store it, and/or offer to download Vutu with a link to its appropriate (Mac/Win/...) installer.
I for one would very much appreciate even such a "minimalist" approach.