randy's Recent Posts
LOL! Our new theme song. Love it!
Thanks for the info! I have heard reports of this issue before. Maybe running Kaivo in Max will help me track it down. So far I have been unable to reproduce.
That it only seems to affect Kaivo is super weird because Aalto and Kaivo share the exact same license code. But this is a consistent pattern now. Some CPU overload + disk access interaction on some systems? That doesn't seem likely... but here we are.
Sorry this issue has existed for a while. The problem is, I just can't reproduce it. Will try in Max/MSP and report back.
Hi Bob,
Welcome aboard! Virta's pitch shifter is in the DELAY module. You'll just be using the pitch aspect of the module and not the delay. The source signal to "undo" the pitch of the audio input will come from the pitch output of the AUDIO module.
Looking at the manual, hopefully you can see how to track the pitch of an input signal, and send it through a patch cord to the audio module. Setting the amount of offset in the input attenuation dial is the only tricky part. You'll want a negative setting that is the inverse of the positive setting that tracks the pitch correctly. This may be easier to hear with an oscillator as the input to the delay than the input signal. For that matter, you could use an oscillator from outside Virta as the input to the AUDIO module, just to start with something very easy to track.
Virta's pitch tracker is designed for use with voice, so hopefully it will work well for you in this application. I think Virta is unique in being able to do something like this without being a much more complex and open-ended tool like Supercollider or Max/MSP.
Thank you. I'll put out another call via the newsletter.
I'm not really getting it still, because Kaivo can only load one sample at once. By "Load" I mean, put the sample in the granulator and start playing it.
There are up to four channels in a sample. I thought you meant to combine channels from multiple samples. But if there are hundreds that doesn't make sense.
When you put a bunch of samples in the Madrona Labs/Kaivo/Samples folder they all show up in the menu. You can add new folders inside there and the folders will become submenus.
Yes, these are just momentary buttons that control the sequencer itself and don't have parameters attached. I'll see about automating them in a future update.
I got your email—for reference I'm copying my reply here:
re: the crash, your 2012 machine should be fine to use with the Soundplane. I would try:
- unplug the Soundplane
- remove your entire ~/Library/Application Support/Madrona Labs directory
- launch the Soundplane app
- plug in the Soundplane to make a brand new calibration
There’s an “Expert” page if you click right in the app to switch pages—on that page there’s a console. It may have some additional info.
ha! thanks for the thought. a drum machine, in the sense of something that was rhythmically-oriented, at least... that i could go for.
Thanks for the feedback!
I may make the beta group bigger before the release—please stay tuned!
This is fixed and I replaced Aalto and Kaivo with version 1.9.4. (Virta has no sequencer)
It does look like seq glide got broken somehow! I'll put out a fix ASAP.
If the graphics issues persist after a restart, please send me all your system info and a video if possible.
If you need the previous installer you can still find it at http://madronalabs.com/media/aalto/Aalto1.9.2.pkg
hmm. beta testers have reported a big improvement. can you please look in the upper right and make sure 1.9.3 really got installed? (no offense meant, but this happens)
and if 1.9.3 is running, please send me more details about your system via email. Thanks for your help.
Hi and welcome.
I haven't seen any spring models in open tools like the STK. One reason might be that it's a lot more art than science at this point. Making spring sounds from a physical model based on the actual geometry and material properties of a metal spring is possible, but requires a lot of computation, too much to do in real time. Very roughly, it's in "devote a whole GPU to it" territory.
Any software spring models running in real time now are black-box models, in the sense that they make a springy sounding signal but are not based on an actual spring's geometry. Rather, a phenomenological approach is taken, where DSP blocks that we can run in real time are combined to produce a system that sounds spring-like. To mimic the way the sound scatters, allpass filters are used. These have the effect of making high frequencies travel faster than low ones (or vice versa) and when lots of them are combined in a feedback loop, the characteristic "dewp" of a spring results. Kind of.
If you look for the sounds people have generated from this kind of model in open research (search "Parametric Spring Reverberation Effect" for one starting point) generally they are not very convincing. Yet some of the spring reverb products, from Universal Audio for example, do sound very good. With this stuff that's more art than science, makers are understandably less motivated to share their work.
To make Kaivo's springs I used a bunch of very short allpass filters in a feedback loop—essentially modifying the string model to make it more like a spring. If you were to take a tunable Karplus-Strong spring, add 20–50 allpass filters in the feedback loop, and tune the parameters for maximum dispersion, you would have a good starting point.
Sorry for the delay—I've been wrestling with issues on the Windows side. Meanwhile you can download the Mac installer at http://madronalabs.com/media/kaivo/Kaivo1.9.3.pkg
I've got an update planned soon. I'll see if I can make this happen.
If you don't remove the instance, just close the window and open it again, it does remember its size, yes? This doesn't change the default size though.
Say you have made two instances of Aalto you are using at different sizes. For me it would be annoying—or at least confusing—for the last size I messed with to automatically become the default.
You're not alone though: have heard from other people who want it to work the same way you do. I plan to add a default size setting somewhere in a future update.
Oh my mistake, ~/Library/Application Support/Madrona Labs/Soundplane. Glad to hear it!
Five years ago, I did a small run of Aalto T-shirts. It was fun making them but with all the printing and shipping and paperwork it took up roughly a couple of weeks of my time so I've never done it again... until now!
The key was finding a US-based fulfillment company called Printful that prints shirts to order. I made a test shirt using their process and I've been wearing it a lot. The charcoal tri-blend fabric is very soft and has a nicely textured look. This detail photo shows it after being machine washed four times, and the colors haven't faded at all. I like that the digital print is not crackly like plastic process shirt inks are and so far, it seems more durable. These are very nice shirts.
Another big benefit of using Printful is that they print to order in Europe! This means that my European customers can actually get a shirt for an affordable price. Wherever you are located, I hope it will be a pleasure to purchase through them because I'm very protective of your experience when you do anything Madrona Labs-related. So please keep me posted.
tl;dr: simply click the following button to...
A form will pop up to enter your size, then a second page lets you select your shipping and payment options. I've set up shipping for North America and Europe. Shipping rates should be as follows: USA: $5 (first shirt) / $1 (each addl.) Canada: $8 / $1. Mexico: $10 / $1. Europe: $9 / $5. If you can't find your country on the form, give me a shout and I'll see if I can add it. Enjoy!
NOTE: The European shipping rates include the VAT of $4 per shirt.
Hi, it works on my Catalina machine. Can you describe what is not working?
As an all-purpose fix I would recommend to remove the ~/Library/Application Support/Soundplane directory and run the app again to redo the setup process.
I'm not sure what you mean "by folder" would do. Load samples from multiple files at once? I could see this being useful.
Almost there...
Thanks for writing. I am pretty certain I have a fix that will help. I'm wrapping up the Windows build now and some other details.
Thanks for your understanding!
aaaaggh, the week is running out and I'm still stuck on a couple of issues I need to fix. I'm sorry to overpromise—please know this is my top priority.
Thanks for the support. Sumu won't come out for Linux initially as I just have to ship it ASAP. But I would love to add Linux support along with Aalto v.2. Possibly Aaltoverb might make a nice first step into Linux even earlier, since it's simpler.
I've fixed this for the next update this week or next.
Sumu is going to be a while still. I'll be releasing an update to the other instruments first to address this and a few other issues.
I might put out another call but I'm focusing on getting something out to test—please stay tuned.
Thanks for the update.