randy's Recent Posts
Our third run of Soundplanes is looking good. Here are all 30 enclosures after three coats of oil finish.
There is some particularly nice variety in this batch of cherry.
Cutting the veneer is a fun part of the process, where I get to decide what part of the crazy abstract walnut grain landscape to turn into each playing surface. This is done now, and the sandwich of materials that forms each Soundplane surface is ready to be laser-cut by our friends at Gurian Instruments here in Seattle.
You might wonder why Madrona Labs doesn't have a laser cutter, since they are such fun tools. The kind of laser cutter that can do the needed cuts through the surfaces is a big, expensive, and sometimes tempermental beast. To do that work with precision takes a lot of practice and I'm happy to have it done by experts.
I am definitely lucky to have such craftspeople to work with, so close by. I look forward to more Michael stories when I get the chance—he is a busy guy whose guitars are the stuff of legend. A cool short doc on Michael and the shop: https://vimeo.com/51647584
Soundplane production is in full swing here, and a busy month is planned so we can start shipping in early August. Here's Christopher tapping the walnut eyes into some Soundplanes:
Here are some of the new cherry enclosures with eyes awaiting final sanding and finishing. The wood has milled just great and is very smooth and dimensionally stable. I like the figure in the cherry very much, there are some nice waves and topographies going on and I’m excited to see how they pop when we put the finish on. Part of the charm of cherry is that it takes on a darker patina over time with light exposure and handling.
Thanks to my friends Alex and Erika we are the proud caretakers of a Shopsmith Mark V. I remember these being advertised on late-night TV long ago. Sort of a giant multi-tool with saw, drill press, lathe and boring capabilities. Turns out it's actually a good sturdy tool, much nicer than my loud old contractors' saw. It transforms into various configurations including a lathe, but I will probably leave it set up as a table saw most of the time.
And that's the news from the shop. The next couple of weeks are all about sanding and finishing the enclosures, then we can start in on the surfaces.
Hi Mark,
I'm glad to hear you've been diving deep into Aalto and using the OSC features! Glad that not only Soundplane owners are finding OSC useful. Thanks for the feedback.
I can definitely add some of these features when time permits.
note-per-channel over MIDI is already implemented for the next release.
Yes, outputs from the patcher are summed. Your multiply idea is intriguing because I've been wanting to add multipliers but I like the current complement of modules, especially in Aalto. I'll think over the ramifications.
I'm definitely interested! For me the most exciting feature would be making patches with the iPad, then taking them back to the studio for production.
It's not coming anytime soon though. I have another plugin planned first, and there is only me doing the programming.
Thanks for your continued interest in Soundplane drivers for Windows. No breakthroughs there yet, but after I'm done with this Soundplane run I should have some time to spend on Windows / Linux support.
Delete the plugin files /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Aalto.component and /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Aalto.VST. There are no other files anywhere.
Sorry there is no uninstaller, that would be nice but I haven't had people asking for it.
There are two Library folders on the Mac, one is ~/Library (home directory) and one is /Library (system disk root.) You can put plugins into either one, which is confusing. I put Madrona Labs plugins into /Library.
Sorry, I forgot to include them in the most recent app distribution. Here's a new 1.2 version with the patches back:
The only changes from 1.1.2 should be some minor cleanups. I will send out a new Soundplane app soon with more improvements.
Here's a thread for users to post Soundplane Max examples.
There are also some instructive Max patches in the Soundplane software distribution.
Thanks for the report, I'll check into this.
Hi there,
I wrote up an article about this very thing and it is available here:
http://madronalabs.com/topics/3565-getting-the-most-out-of-kaivo
And as I mention there I do plan to distribute processing to multiple cores in the future, which should help a lot on your setup.
I'll look into adding search to the forums.
Thanks for writing, and let me know if you have any other questions.
This is fixed for the next release. I'm working to finish another couple of fixes and get Aalto 1.6 out ASAP.
OK, I uploaded the current Soundplane app with docs and extras. It's at the same link for the previous 1.1 version: Soundplane 1.1 package
Soundplane application v.1.1 is now available at the usual spot in the hardware forums.
This is an interim release with a few important fixes to issues that cropped up in 1.0. It works with Aalto 1.0 and Kaivo 1.5.
Please note that I moved the zone configuration files to the new location ~/Music/Madrona Labs. You will have to move these files from their existing locations in ~/Library. Why did I do this? With Apple making your Library folders hidden by default, ~/Music is becoming the default location for various software makers to put things like patches and saved presets. Now I don't have to explain to people how to get to their Library folders. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Remember, this is open source software! All the code is viewable at github/madronalabs. I welcome your suggestions and contributions. Thanks to Greg Wuller for the note-off fix.
Changes:
- PLEASE NOTE: moved support files to ~/Music/Madrona Labs.
- fixed a problem where the wrong note value was sent on note-off
- fixed a potential crash sending MIDI if a MIDI device was not set
- made benign errors less alarming
Hi Anatoly,
Thanks for bringing up the memory issue. I had to keep the code simple for 1.0 (just load all files), but I will figure out how to improve RAM use in future versions.
I believe reason the audio is so big in memory is that the files on disk are usually in a packed 16-bit format, while the buffers in memory are 32-bit float per sample.
The code for loading / unloading samples should not be rocket science, but it's the kind of thing I will need to test well with different DAWs so I know it's not causing problems anywhere.
The main reason to use MIDI would be so you can record the note data--as yet, there isn't a DAW that supports recording and editing OSC data.
OSC goes directly to the plugin, bypassing the DAW itself. The right data rate will depend on your system and how loaded down it is with other work. I have good results with 100 or so. Note that the timing of an initial note onset is not affected by the rate dial---notes are always sent ASAP, then pressure and other continuous information is sent at the rate you select.
I guess there will be differences between the results with MIDI and OSC. In the dizi example, which is basically a physical model, things like the timing of the pressure data could for sure affect how the instrument speaks.
Please see my other message about documentation, I'm going to repost the docs for the Soundplane app today and take the opportunity to clean things up a bit.
I was looking for the documentation for you and I realized that I made a mistake with the latest software release. Normally it comes with a lot more support files and documentation! I forgot to include these extra files with the 1.1 update. So anyone who got a Soundplane since the update would understandably be confused.
Sorry for the oversight. I'm going to get those files up later today.
The only danger I can think of is that if there are duplicates, there will be confusion over what presets you have modified. Putting everything in the System Library should be fine.
In the future I'm taking a cue from Ableton and putting all the presets in ~/Music/Madrona Labs where they are easier to access and there should be less confusion.
One trick with OSC is to turn down the continuous data rate. That's just the "rate" knob. Otherwise all the data sent over OSC can flood the system.
The main drawback with MIDI, especially in Live, is that each voice is not independently controllable with pitch bend. Everything gets sent to one channel, essentially. If you are not using smooth pitch changes polyphonically then Live and MIDI may be fine.
I don't know why the presets wouldn't show up with the others. I am actually moving them again soon because of some Apple hassles. But then they will stay in one place after the next Aalto release, so I'm hoping the confusion will end soon.
I don't plan any sales on Kaivo until the Winter holiday season.
OK, thanks for the feedback. As you found out, it quickly gets cluttered, which is always a challenge. But I'll mull these ideas over.
As far as triggers, I think the move is to go to a dedicated trigger input like Kaivo has. Then you can use it form aftertouch or whatever you like. Same with LFO sync.
The reverb tune is kind of a cool idea, I like that it's a one-knob reverb now like the Arp 2600 etc., but there is room for more controls if they are just the right ones. Maybe hidden behind an "Expert" panel for not modulatable stuff, is my current thinking.
Noted. I guess most DAWs provide a way to do this, but I agree it would be helpful in the synth itself.
Hi, and welcome aboard!
The Soundplane should work well with Aalto without any need for OSCulator. You could use that program if you need a more complex OSC setup.
Aalto talks directly to the Soundplane application, and this connection should work in any DAW that can run Aalto, including Live. Pro Tools runs a different plugin format and so Aalto cannot run in Pro Tools.
steps to playing Soundplane + Aalto (or Kaivo):
- install the latest version of Aalto (login, click "My Downloads" for link)
- install the latest version of Soundplane app from here
- create an instance of Aalto in your DAW of choice
- connect your Soundplane and start the Soundplane app
- activate OSC in the Soundplane app
You should see a red "OSC Connected" banner in the KEY section of Aalto.
Here are some Soundplane-specific Aalto patches to get started with: Aalto Soundplane patches
I apologize for the current state of the documentation, which is trying to reflect a moving target. As the Soundplane app settles down I really look forward to putting more documentation out there and generally making things more straightforward. Meanwhile, please feel free to ask as many questions as you like.
A reasonable idea. I think there was some efficiency reason there is no signal input though. I'll revisit it and see if I can add control without taking more CPU.
re: the forums, there are a lot of things I want to do, maybe I can add a tag for feature requests, or put a spreadsheet up in Google docs or something. The dedicated threads get kind of annoying to navigate when they get long with the current design.
This is fixed for 1.6. I had to spend a long time working on Kaivo 1.1 so I realize it has been a while. Aalto 1.6 is my next order of business and won't take nearly as long.
Hi there! For the past three months, I've been working on an update to Kaivo, and it's finally time to roll it out. I've tuned up the audio engine, improved the graphics and spent many hours finding and fixing a whole host of minor UI issues that made people including me go "grrrr" sometimes.
Thanks as always for your support, and all the feedback you have sent my way about the 1.0 version. This 1.1 release is feeling buttery smooth here, and I hope it gives you many happy hours diving into sound.
Changes:
- over 50 new factory patches
- optimized DSP code (10-20% improvement)
- made demo reminder noise much quieter
- added a new audio import dialog
- trimmed and optimized source samples
- fixed a compatibility problem with Soundplane
- improved model sonics in high frequencies
- improved resonator tuning
- increased range of resonator damping parameter
- improved legibility of scope dials
- fixed a problem saving the window location
- fixed glitches in xy scope display
- improved typography
- improved granulator view speed
- fixed incredibly annoying disappearing menu issue
- fixed keyboard stealing issue in 64-bit VST
- added case-insensitive sort for patch menu
- fixed audio issues with body nonlinearity
- and many more minor fixes.
Special thanks for making this release happen go to Don Solaris, who generously contributed some great factory patches. (If you happen to have a Waldorf Blofeld, check out his excellent "Analog Voltage" patches at the Waldorf website.)
The new Import dialog is not reflected in the manual yet. But it should be pretty straightforward. In the future, I want to add some file combining magic here, but for now, it simply lets you pull up a file, listen to it, and it the file is longer than 8 seconds, pick the 8 second clip you want to import into Kaivo. If you have any questions, please stop into the forums and ask.
I love the new version -- I think it sounds better! (how is that possible?)
Thanks! Yeah, I think it's pretty objectively better, partly because I fixed some math that was causing a non-physical oscillation in the resonators which was kind of harsh sometimes. I did other things to sweeten and tune it a bit as well. I want a really solid foundation going forward and I was in a hurry to get there.
It would be helpful in the future if the samples/patches download were included in "My Downloads" page or even in the zip download for the Kaivo instrument. Not a big deal, I'm sure you have more important things to do.
These "user experience" things are very important to me. It's not in with the watermarked zip downloads because watermarking a 100Mb download would be very hard on my (and everyone's) bandwidth. But I should make it easier to find. Thanks for the feedback.
After thinking about it, I have no ideas about this. It would really depend on the host you are running in and how it reports CPU. Let me know and if I have that one on WIndows I will give it a try.
That's an error Logic sends out when it runs out of CPU time. If you are getting it a lot, you can reduce the number of voices in Kaivo, or check out the news post "Getting the most out of Kaivo" for some other ideas.