randy's Recent Posts
Sure, Kaivo can make very nice wavetable sounds. If you look at the oscillator samples called "sine to square" or "sine to saw" you will see an example. There are only 4 "waves" in these, which is the maximum number of different waves you can have vertically.
You can also add another axis for a vector synthesis type of oscillator. Kaivo's grains will snap to the nearest appropriate zero crossing if "sync" is on. So if you put a large number of slightly different waves going left to right, this is like a long transwave. You could just record a filter sweep or something to try it out. Probably you want all granulator settings turned on: follow, sync, and wrap.
I love this project. I hope I get to try it one of these days.
Thanks for sharing your experience with AU versus VST support in Max. I think the plugin hosting was dramatically changed for Max 7, so there may still be some issues to work out.
In general, Aalto signals from the patcher simply run at audio rate and are not smoothed. A few of them are smoothed after they come out of the patcher in order to avoid aliasing. There are different amounts of smoothing going on in different places and a lot of it was simply tuned by ear, so unfortunately I don't have a good list for you. This could be something to document better.
A quick search of the code turns up the few parameters that have a vactrol response:
- oscillator fm index
- oscillator timbre
- gate level
Bravo! I love these quite different pieces—I would say of both of them that they use their time in a way that is well-considered. You are also using the expressive capabilities of the Soundplane very fully, with a kind of gestural language that is very suited to the instrument. I look forward to more!
Really nice Mark! Such a great variety in articulation demonstrated here, you are really making the melody sing.
I hesitate to even mention a date because I'm in research mode now, working on some changes. But I would like to get started on a new run soon, later this summer I hope.
There isn't an easy one. I should really add this as a KEY module option.
If you just want to tune to one specific thing and leave it there, you could make a Scala scale with a kbm mapping. Say you want to tune everything two cents sharp and you are working in the 12-equal scale. Then save this to a text file my12-equal.scl:
! my12-equal.scl
!
12
!
100.
200.
300.
400.
500.
600.
700.
800.
900.
1000.
1100.
2/1
then save this to another file my12-equal.kbm:
! keyboard mapping my12-equal.kbm:
!
! Size of map (greater than or equal to the number of notes in the scale
! to be mapped). The pattern repeats every so many keys:
12
! First MIDI note number to retune:
0
! Last MIDI note number to retune:
127
! Middle note where scale degree 0 is mapped to:
60
! Reference note for which frequency is given:
69
! Frequency to tune the above note to (floating point e.g. 440.0):
440.0
! Scale degree to consider as formal octave (determines difference in pitch
! between adjacent mapping patterns):
12
! Mapping.
! The numbers represent scale degrees mapped to keys. The first degree is for
! the given middle note, the next for subsequent higher keys.
! For an unmapped key, put in an "x". At the end, unmapped keys may be left out.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Put these in a folder in the Scales directory ~/Music/Madrona Labs/Scales. Select them in the key scale menu.
THEN, by changing the 440.0 in the kbm file to some other value and reloading you can get exactly the frequency you want. You may have to close the Aalto winow and open it again to see the new scl / kbm files.
A dial would be easier, I know.
[EDIT]
I'm not sure what I was thinking about above. Getting the oscillator in tune is very easy to do with the main OSC pitch control. Since the oscillator is FM-based, both the modulator and carrier change by the same amount when you shift the tuning. Holding down the shift key enables fine tuning on any dial, including the oscillator pitch. This makes it easy to dial in pitch in 0.1 Hz increments.
I recognize the need to switch between presets while tuning to some other instrument, which currently will reset the oscillator pitch. So I'll still get to adding a master tune when I can.
Could I basically turn the Y quantizing off by setting each cell in a column to be the same note? Then it would effectively function the same as the Continuum fingerboard.
yes, there's a default setting that does exactly this. If you set every row to send the same notes, there is one whole axis devoted to controlling timbre. If each row sends different notes, you can trade this timbre control for more notes, while still using y within each key to control timbre.
I should add for context that when the Soundplane talks to a computer, it just sends the raw pressure data. So everything we are talking about can be changed easily in software and if there's a useful option that doesn't exist for some reason I will add it.
The Soundplane is a lot like the Continuum. The underlying sensor is very much a continuous device capable of smooth changes. The grid of keys on top of it is applied after the initial data is gathered.
so like the continuum, Y is never quantised.
I would say it's always quantized. Which is to say, it always sends the nearest grid value and does not vary continuously. You are either in one row of keys, or another, not between.
It's probably clearer to talk about what data generated from the Y measurements are quantized, because this is what is really going on. Pitch data generated from Y is always quantized to the note grid. Timbre control data generated from y is continuous within the row of keys, or zone.
Thanks for that detailed response @thetechnobear, it's really special to hear from someone who has had a chance to compare the two instruments.
I would say it's more a question of feel than sound. These instruments can both play many different synthesizers, and a Continuum and Soundplane playing a given synth sound will sound the same, but they will feel different, have different limitations, and that will probably cause the playing to be different too.
It will be a little while before the next batch of Soundplanes is available. I'll make sure to get some more Soundplane-specific patches and videos out into the world by then.
Hi Björn,
Thanks for the feedback. I know, as a designer it really bothers me. Unfortunately the problem is mixed up in the web / PayPal system, so it's not too easy to fix. I'm rolling out a whole new licensing system soon, and it will handle your name properly.
Very interesting. I always play mine flat.
Sorry to hear it. Aalto CM has not had an update for a long time. I will give it one after my next plugin is done.
So, I guess you are OK but not ideal now. Sorry it's not great for you. It's hard to diagnose what might be going on on Windows machines where there are so many different kinds of audio cards and drivers.
You can't really trust what different programs say about CPU load relative to one another. They measure different things. Look in the Performance tab in the Task Manager if you want to compare different programs in a fair way.
Everything is independent for each voice, except the reverb. You can see this by looking at the dial animations. If you see four pointers in the dials at different locations, those are the values of the four voices. There is an illustration in the manual about this.
A few controls have no signal inputs, and thus no way to set a different value for each voice. These have dials that do not show a signal view. The gate decay is one example.
The delay comes before the filter in the waveguide/delay. If you turn the frequency down to 1 sec or something, you can hear this.
The main purpose of the Soundplane CV module is to enable Soundplane -> modular connection without a computer around. So aside from using it to load zone maps I would really resist any feature creep in that direction. For release, anyway.
It's true—each voice has a sequencer that is a completely separate processor from the other voices. Looking at a patch like "techniques / seq multirate" is the best way to see this. Each voice has a different signal created at the KEY module vox output. These signals are sent to the "rate" input of each SEQUENCER. And so each runs at a different rate.
There are lots of little examples in the Aalto techniques folder that may show interesting ways of using control. I wish that each example had a nice verbal description with it, but that's a feature I will have to add later.
The key trig input is the one way of controlling the position of each sequencer precisely. If you turn on key trig in this patch, each sequencer restarts whenever a note is send to that voice. So I believe this is the "syncing them all at will" you want.
There is no precise way to send just one of the sequencers forward one step. However, you can set the rate to the lowest nonzero value, then use an envelope to turn up the rate of just one of the voices for a time when a note is played. (setting the rate to 0 will not allow the modulation through, so a rate of 0.002 is needed currently)
In Kaivo there is a trig input to the sequencer, that increases the flexibility of what can be done.
The changes when you turn the number of voices are not well defined. when a voice is off, its sequencer may be in an undefined state if the number of steps has changed, for example, while it was off. This can definitely be improved.
There are a lot of things I could make controllable (put into the front panel) but haven't. This is to make the design approachable. There is always a tradeoff between flexibility and usability. I try to make the modules work together so that once you know them a little better, interesting and surprising things can be done.
You don't seem arrogant—I am always happy to discuss ideas about what makes a better synthesizer.
Hmm, I think that the patcher is a much more readable UI.
Reaper has (and I think FL has) a mode called "fixed buffer size" for compatibility with certain plugins that are not capable of responding to changing the process buffer size on the fly. This is desirable sometimes when a host wants to run one selected plugin in something close to realtime (for monitoring) but run other ones with a bigger buffer size for efficiency. Or also for realtime automation control, especially when rendering.
Aalto used to have problems with a changing buffer size but this was not by design, it was a bug I fixed for version 1.6 or so. I believe Kaivo has always dealt with it OK.
In general I am not a Reaper expert but it seems to continue to grow in popularity, so I'll take the time to get into further.
Definitely keep trying with the UI off, especially if you are seeing problems when you are running other plugins. Hosts all have to process audio pretty much the same way but they might deal with UI completely differently, so when I hear about problems on one host but not another I tend to think about UI issues.
Very glad to hear!
I haven't heard of any issues yet. My MBP (10, 1) has a USB 3.0 Hi-Speed Bus.
Can you go to About this Mac -> System Report -> Hardware -> USB Device Tree and take a screenshot for me? Sorry, no hosted inline images here — you can email it to me at support or host it somewhere and point to it in Markdown.
I'm assuming you tried a reboot.
Do you have a USB audio interface that's working on the new machine?
10% CPU but glitches? That's really damn mysterious. Never heard about such an issue before.
I'm about to release an update that might possibly improve things. It's got some general stability and speed fixes. If your issue persists after the update, I can install Windows 8 and try to reproduce it.
Can you try the "fixed buffer size" option in Reaper ? Aalto should respond to varying buffer sizes properly, but it's worth a try.
Also please try a Live demo or FL if you can. I test a lot in these hosts on Windows, not so much in Reaper or Tracktion. So if it's not working in Live it's likely to be related to your OS or audio setup more generally.
Sorry you're having trouble, thanks for the detailed info.
Does the glitching happen if you close the Aalto window?
You are right, they are free-running.
I hear you, more tone colors is always a good thing.
Hi Brendan, it's OK, see my email.
While playing simultaneous adjacent keys hasn't been possible on the Soundplane, I find no problem with using a half step in a melody line. So I play scales as on a guitar, or Linnstrument.
If you are playing over MIDI, the half-step transition needs to be done with some care. To retrigger a new note the previous note must be released before the new one is played. Otherwise the old note will be pitch bent to the new. I find practicing to control this difference with intention is key.
Over OSC, the instrument is much more forgiving because there is a continuum of expressive changes between the new note and the last. This applies to any patch that uses pressure to control its envelope. There is no binary distinction between staccato and legato, rather the amount of connection between notes is controlled smoothly and intuitively.
The new tracker coming soon will hopefully remove the simultaneous key limitation.
Virta is a patchable sound-controlled synth. It still has MIDI and OSC input but can also be controlled by your voice or another instrument using its pitch to signal converter. Something like a Korg x911, with a patchable vocoder and some other goodies.
Musically it's got a distinct personality from Aalto or Kaivo. It loves to lead you into the uncanny valley.
Sorry, I was speaking hypothetically about how I would like to add that. Thanks for the reminder. I'm making a lot of changes to the Soundplane software this Spring---when I add this I will document it.
I'm going to migrate my list of Soundplane issues / feature requests to github where it will be more convenient to me and visible to all.