randy's Recent Posts

I think what the original poster is referring to may just be the oscillator drift. I can investigate more after this release.

Hi Brendan,

Sorry, I don't do license transfers. I have a very unobtrusive demo version, and I advise people to try before they buy. Please see the License Terms section on the Aalto page for all the details.

[EDIT March 2017] NOTE: This conversation is from 2013! Currently license transfers are allowed for a small service fee. Please contact me for details.

-Randy

I'll send out a new Windows beta soon. Please stay tuned and give it a try.

Thanks a lot! There is so much stuff rewritten for this update, we're bound to run into a few things. Will investigate.

OK, thanks for the report. Checking audio input incl. meter response would be part of my normal testing checklist. However, it's possible for things to break in ways that manifest only randomly. I'll check this for the impending release.

A setup with a single instance in a minimal DAW seems like a good solution for you. DAWs do not take too much CPU, generally. They add complexity but you can set this up once and forget about it.

Reaper is a good option and inexpensive.

A newcomer on the scene is called Gig Performer. They are trying to support just the use you envision. I have no experience with it myself yet.

To get a multitimbral use I would make two instances of Kaivo on different tracks and use each on a different MIDI channel.

Your kind words are appreciated here! Stay tuned for an update very soon.

Other people have asked for the ability to store Kaivo samples on a different disk. I'll be adding that feature when I can.

I do use Seib's VSTHost sometimes on Windows. For really quick launching I use the "Plugin Host" that comes with JUCE. You have to compile it yourself though.

Welcome aboard and thanks for the good words.

The "mod cc#" dial controls the number of the cc message that comes out of the "mod", "+1", and "+2" outputs. So if you set the dial to "14", the three outputs send the values of CC messages 14, 15, and 16. This is in the manual on p.32–33. The explanation could probably be better.

The pitchbend control is added to pitch before coming out the pitch output of the KEY module. As you note, it can't be assigned to anything else. I have never seen a synth that's able to to that, so I never really thought of it! MIDI kind of sets us up for this because pitch bend is not a CC#, it's a separate kind of message.

I think Kaivo should let you import samples in demo mode. The readme file that comes with the installer has a quick rundown of how to make your own multichannel files if you want to do that. Otherwise you can just use the "import" feature in the granulator. If you are just adding your own files by hand, you have to move them into the Madrona Labs directory. There is a maximum length of 8 seconds for the sample files so if you just moved them in yourself, it may be choking on that.

Grain length is totally independent from sample files and is set up in the granulator engine by the "pitch" and "rate" and "overlap" dials.

I don't know what you mean by "can I use all samples."

Out of the two synthesizers I recommend getting started with Aalto, it's the main one a lot of people reach for every day, and you don' t need external samples to make great sounds. Kaivo is more specialized.

Great news! This kernel bug was preventing isoch USB, is that right?

I'm excited to see your setup in action when you have time to document it. I would also like to put together a guide to making the raspberry Pi solution work and get it up on the web site.

This also fires me up to complete v.2 of the touch detector.

Are you using the Linux Soundplane driver that Per Eckerdal came up with? That was created "on the way" to getting a Windows driver working, but we never got all the way there. If you need any kind of assistance or encouragement with the Windows work, let me know!

MEC seems like really interesting work and I can't wait to check it out.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I'm getting back to the Soundplane software now.

The first thing I'll be working on is the new touch detector. Hopefully this will improve CPU usage a lot, as well as the edge effects you are noticing.

A lot of these other things were on my list too, and now they all are.

I would like to improve Kyma support, but it's a bit slow for me to get feedback. Maybe I could get a loaner machine from Symbolic? I'll ask them after I can get some of these more major things under way.

Thanks for the update. I'll try the most recent Reaper.

The fixed size refers to the block size used when processing audio. you should be able to set this to a fixed value in Reaper's audio device preferences. I just checked it out and I don't see the "fixed" language, so sorry for the confusion. That is from FL Studio, I had it mixed up. In Reaper it looks like you want to click "request buffer size" and enter a value like 256 or 512.

The next Soundplanes will be Model Bs. There hasn't been much movement on it because I've been so focused on software here. Well, I do have the table saw set up. :-) I'll be excited to show pics of prototypes, etc when I can!

Working on it here. There's no one big thing to fix, so I'm fixing 100 little things. I'll post a new beta soon.

Thanks for the additional info. These hints may help me find a fix. The different methods may send events at different times—one is sample-accurate, for example.

I would like to add this feature. It's on the list.

No way to import / combine multiple files at once. This would be cool, but would take me a while to accomplish. At the end of the readme : http://madronalabs.com/media/kaivo/_read_me_first.txt
there's a short guide on putting together multi-channel files with Audacity, which is what I used to make them.

Thanks much for the info! I hope this helps you out, Wells.

Hi Wells, I've never had the chance to try Push so I'm guessing a bit here.

At one point I moved the location for presets from ~/Library/Plug-Ins/Audio/Presets/Aalto to ~/Music/Madrona Labs/Aalto. It's possible Push / Live are looking for presets in this old location. You could try moving some there to check.

You could also try the VST instead of the AU.

Do you know if Live is trying to load presets in .aupreset format? That's a custom AU thing I moved away from.

I'd like to make it work with Push, it's a cool piece of hardware, so I will look into this.

Thanks. Please let me know if you can find any more information, such as one patch that this always seems to happen with.

I would not call this a crash, but rather an audio freeze. Not that it's not bad! I think this is likely the same issue as posted here under "Kaivo stops making sound suddenly." I'm working hard to track it down. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the info, I'll see if I can find a difference between patches here in Reaper. It was working for me in Reaper for the last release so I'll be sure to update Reaper and see if that changes anything.

It is possible that you had the "fixed size buffers" setting on previously but the Reaper update changed that?

It's frustrating tracking these things down and at a certain point you can find things that look like patterns where there aren't any. It's possible that a bug only causes a symptom more or less randomly, so the difference in patches or the number of voices could be just the result of randomness (leftover stuff in memory, actually), and different next time.

I think I know what you are talking about with these issues. I do have plans to do a pass on the sequencer and its UI for consistency / precision.

First I have to fix other problems that are affecting more people more dramatically, which you can read about on the forums here. So if you don't see a fix in the very next update don't lose heart, I'll get to the sequencer as soon as I can.

This update fixes a problem with audio input for all DAWs on Windows. It is available in the "My Downloads" area if you have a license, and the demo has also been updated. The Mac OS version is unchanged from 1.0.0.

OK, I'm having another look at this. It's one of only three issues I'm working on for the next release, so hopefully it won't be long.

The Soundplane software will get another release ASAP. First I have an issue with Kyma support to take care of. This should be quick. Then I can work on the touch detector again. The new detector should be significantly less heavy in CPU than the old one. Efficiency was not a big concern at all for the initial Soundplane release, so i'm confident I can do better.

I have to get a bugfix release of the instruments out first. At that point I'll be back to the Soundplane full time.

Sorry to hear that. I'm looking to the future here and will release a new free option before long.

Thanks for the additional info. I can't duplicate this here, yet.

What patch are you using? Can you tell me a factory patch that will cause the problem there?

Also, if you are really on Virta 1.3.1b1, please use the 1.3.1 release version instead.

This is something I can contemplate now that I don't have the watermarking...

Good to hear! In a way it's a missed opportunity when a problem just mysteriously gets better though. Enjoy and if you have problems again, please get in touch.

sorry for the delay, I missed this one. Yes, it's easy to patch velocity or aftertouch or anything to volume control using the GATE module.