randy's Recent Posts

I know just what you mean but I am sure Aalto has never done this. Possibly Cubase did it somewhere.

If you can find a preset file hat seems to be causing the trouble, please email it to me— I would of course like to guard against such problems. Sorry for the trouble.

In my opinion you can safely get rid of your old presets in the Library folders. Maybe try the converted versions first to make sure they are working well for you. But it sounds like all is well now.

I am pretty sure that I never added such a feature! It could be a feature of your DAW. It's certainly not a bad idea though.

Hi Bendik,

Thanks for your purchase. the license did not get made automatically because the email you used for the PayPal purchase was different than your madronalabs.com account email. I fixed this by adding the license, and now you should see the download links if you click "my downloads."

If you have any more questions, please contact me by email at support at madronalabs dot com for the quickest service.

@swey, are you on 1.6.1? If so, I'm taking a wild guess that you have some preset file that is corrupted. You could try converting just one directory of presets and see what happens. If you can find a particular file or kind of file that seems to be causing the problem, please mail one to me at support.

And, as always, what host / OS versions are you using?

Not fixed. Please use "fixed buffer size" in FL studio as a workaround for now.




Version 1.6 of Aalto is now available for Mac and Windows. This version contains many improvements for efficiency and host compatibility.


New in Aalto version 1.6:

  • both AU and VST versions now use .mlpreset files in new JSON format
  • added preset converter to convert all old presets to new format
  • presets directory moved to ~/Music/Madrona Labs
  • improved speed of preset loading
  • fixed a problem with keyboard stealing in 64-bit VST
  • now saving window size state properly in compatible DAWs
  • fixed an issue with the oscillator and extreme pitch modulation
  • added OSC enable / disable and port offset (Mac OS)
  • sequencer now quantizes to currently selected musical scale.
  • fix parameter loading when no DSP is active in application (for Max/MSP and Vienna Instruments)
  • fixed problem with sequencer retrig
  • fixed defaults for envelope trigger and x vel
  • added defaults to make MIDI patches more compatible with Soundplane / t3d
  • added clearer display of multiple channels in scope dials
  • fixed a bug affecting MIDI timing
  • added multi-channel MIDI receive for voice-per-channel operation with Soundplane / t3d
  • fixed an issue affecting Save as... on some systems
  • improved graphics performance
  • fixed a problem that prevented MIDI program changes on some systems
  • fixed bug when no MIDI Programs folder was present
  • Scala keyboard mapping files (.kbm) now loaded if present in scales directory with same name as
  • scale
  • improved UI response for dials with only a few values
  • on Save as... outside normal patch directory, warn then allow anyway.
  • fix an issue loading patches if the home directory was renamed (Mac OS)
  • fixed a bug where a program change could cause t3d to stop receiving
  • added environment menu that contains editor and OSC settings
  • added "reset editor size" option in settings

The Aalto 1.6 update is free for existing Aalto customers. A demo version is also available free of charge. The demo plays a gentle reminder sound every so often, does not allow saving and is not time-limited.

This Bluetooth idea is good. It would certainly be cheaper than an OLED display! The disadvantage would be that you need an iPad or something for calibration though, and then I would have to write that app... still intriguing though.

There were some automation problems on various hosts due to a bug in 1.6. Thanks for the reports, these are fixed for the next update.

Hi Josef, I added a license for the 1.5 download to your account. Sorry for the trouble.

Thanks for the example, i'll investigate when I'm back to work on Kaivo.

Just want to say thanks a lot for sharing—this thread should be fine!

Yes, good point about getting other tunings in there. If the module continues the Aalto / Kaivo way of doing things, then there will be a separate selector for tuning tables. We'll see if this is feasible or if it should get hacked into the zone map somehow.

There is a bug in the 1.6.0 VST that made a bunch of default presets in ~/Music/Madrona Labs. You can either go back to 1.5, or you can delete the ~/Music/Madrona Labs presets and use the 1.6.0 AU version to convert the presets again. Your old presets are still installed and unchanged.

Sorry for the hassle, working on 1.6.1 here.

I send out a newsletter every month or two. The last one was on Feb 13 called ' Aalto 1.6: free update now available'. You could check your spam folder, or try this link to make sure you are subscribed: http://eepurl.com/hsZjQ

It would not be too hard to put some oscillator code in the module and have a mode where it would output oscillators instead of pitch CVs. That might make people want tons of configuration options that wouldn't have come up, otherwise. But it seems too useful to pass up if the CPU in the module has the power.

@saemola, so, the opposite of this then? I don't know, I think it's pretty tight.

No news. Working on it, of course!

This is good info because it seems to mean the absent plugin problem can be fixed by restarting, resetting Audio Units cache, or similar.

Stuck window problem is fixed. I'm trying to complete some other fixes right now.

Hopefully I'm very close to a fix here. Meanwhile please email me at support if you need a 1.5.0 installer.

Our current idea is that you can edit zone maps on a computer, then download them to the module. On the module you can just select them. Cable-wise, I think Brian had something clever with a USB A->A cable in mind. I could be wrong.

Or could there be a Soundplane firmware update that allows zone maps to be stored on the Soundplane itself?

This is kind of a genius idea, but the Soundplane doesn't have any NVRAM.

I'm not super into the MIDI interface only idea because the really special things about a Soundplane + CV system would be lack of gear-bloat and a really fast, high-resolution connection between gesture and voltage. There could be a MIDI out though—if not in the initial module, then in a future tabletop device.

The great Expert Sleepers jacks were created by Os himself. I think we have to pat him on the back and leave those to him!

Hmm, can't reproduce. What Live version? If less than 9.1.7, can you try 9.1.7?

Hey @avantronica, tI think I understand the use of these ideas but I have to limit complexity somewhere in the plugin, otherwise I might as well just write a DAW. :-)

I know you use max but are running into some of the plugin problems in Max 7. Have you looked at Numerology? It's a mature DAW made by an awesome, independent coder, with a more sequencer-like set of features.

I plan to do a major redesign this year.

@mfrasconi, or anyone with the AU not loading, can you please open a Terminal and type:

auval -v aumu Aalt MLbs

And let me know what you see there. Maybe email the result to support @ madronalabs so that it doesn't clutter up the thread.

This will perform validation on the AU and report any errors. Thanks for your help.

@pete66, when you log in to the site here you should see a 'My Downloads' link, click that and you should see the link to the Aalto 1.6 installer.

I am keeping my replies about Aalto 1.6 bugs in the software forum.

I recognize that MIDI learn is a thing a few people really really want, but it's not a trivial feature to add. I would like to add it. Meanwhile you have the workaround of using one of the many hosts with good MIDI learn capabilities.

@evildragon thanks for the comments about the patch menu—I like your default idea and I should do that. On the sorting, I am mixing files and folders alphabetically the way the OS does it, and I think this is what makes the most sense.

That's what Apple says we should do. But practically, they made a customer support nightmare by saying files should be saved somewhere, and then hiding that directory from the user. I don't think this was a good decision and I'm trying to do the best thing for users. I'm following the lead of some other companies (like Ableton) and putting everything possible in ~/Music where users can actually see their own files.

I can verify this problem on my old 10.6.8 machine now. I will fix it ASAP.

Meanwhile, your old presets are where you left them. You can go back to Aalto 1.5 to use them.

I added a license for the Aalto 1.5 download to your account in case you did not save your installer.

Glad it's working for you.

I will add search here soon. meanwhile you can go to google and type for example "site:madronalabs.com tuning tables"