randy's Recent Posts
The work to finish up the Soundplane is going well. What you see here is the new flexible antenna undergoing testing. It's a thin layer of copper deposited onto a white PET substrate. One nice thing about this material is that it's created additively, resulting in less waste than the traditional flex circuits we were using. It's also much less expensive.
Our supplier in the UK has shipped out what should be the final version of this part---I expect to get it next week. [...]
Meanwhile I'm also working to put Soundplane on a little bit of a diet.
During the tour I got a couple of comments to the effect that the plywood bottom of the prototype was sort of raw looking. I had some plans to address this, but then I thought of a better one. A thin aluminum plate inset into the bottom of the enclosure is now taking the place of the plywood bottom. So now the Soundplane will be significantly thinner: one inch even instead of 1 1/4". And a little ligher and more durable. Win!
In January I'll make a new demo video showing off these improvements and the new calibration software, and when I put it online I'll offer another short window for people to get in on the introductory deal. After that window, preorders will close and production will begin.
I've sorted out the customs issues and will be extending the introductory deal to people outside North America. So, if you're one of the people in Europe waiting to get one of the first run, you can get your preorder in from now until mid-January or so. Please contact me with any questions.
I've rented a light industrial space in Ballard, where I'll have room for assembling Soundplanes more than one at a time. The place has a really good feel---my neighbors are boatbuilders and other woodworkers. And a karate studio, I think. At least, I hope that's what those noises are. Stay tuned for more updates as Christopher and I build a workbench and a wall.
But first, a few days of rest and reflection! Happy holidays and a very merry Christmas to all.
I'd like to get it out in January sometime, but can't promise.
Hi Colin,
You are correct, there is no mod input for LFO level. In hindsight I see this was a bad design decision on my part. I will fix it in an upcoming release.
Aalto 1.0 was much tougher on the CPU and four voice was the maximum I could get out of my own machine. As I optimize Aalto further it's very likely I will increase this limit sometime in the future.
So, I took the time to install Max 6 today and here's the state of things:
the vst~ object runs VST and AU plugins, so forget what I said about audiounit~.
the Aalto VST does not hear MIDI events in MSP. The AU version does.
Neither AU nor VST seems to hear the MSP clock for host sync.
So, the AU version should work well overall except for host sync. I'll try to work with the Cycling elves to resolve these issues.
I would try the audiounit~ object with the AU version instead-- it seems to be more stable in Max than the vst.
MIDI is certainly possible-- I'd start from the vst~ or audiounit~ help patch and try to change as little as possible.
I'm not sure if host sync is possible. I haven't been able to spend too much time working with Max/MSP, so hopefully someone else can offer advice here.
I'll do something to address this area. I'm not yet sure exactly what.
OK, thanks for the example. I agree that's not a desirable sound.
Thanks for your follow up post! I had forgotten that myself and was going to have to look at this otherwise...
Thanks broman.
The sequencer is not supposed to restart when a patch loads. It's more fun for performance this way! Imagine switching between multiple patches while a sequence runs. The sequence can be the same in all the patches. Or not.
Using 'key trig' you can restart the sequencer whenever you like.
Good catch on the pitch input. I'll fix.
Not sure about the clicks, I'll listen.
I hear you. The hard part is the UI. Can you point me to some other synths that do this?
Some good ideas for fine tuning here -- thanks Valery.
Not a bad idea-- I do love a Theremin.
The dial between FILTER and OUTPUT is the only way signal gets to the output. So it acts basically like a volume control. The only difference is that any reverb will continue to ring out.
I know what you mean about the filter cutoff-- will work on this issue. If you notice, all the controls move in the smallest visible increment when you move the mouse slowly. In the case of the cutoff that's 1 Hz, a very small portion of the knob. With increased mouse speed I move the knob faster, but it's a hard balancing act to get this just right for all the controls.
Have fun.
I added another link.
Randy if you're reading this - what would it take to be able to embed the little >soundcloud players on the patch page here? Would it be worth the trouble.
Good call, this one has been on my to-do list for a while. I hope to add this soon along with a few other improvements to the forums.
That would be fun!
I hear you, but I don't have any other good options if you are in the UK. You could send me an international wire transfer, but would then have to pay the fees, which are exorbitant.
I looked into setting up credit card processing directly but I'm not yet a big enough business to do this in a cost-effective way.
My personal take is that PayPal is OK. Unlike the other online payment systems, I am actually able to talk to a human representative there in case something goes wrong. They do need to transmit your information to and from banks in order to do the transactions. So to me this agreement doesn't look bad. But I do wish I could give you more options.
Yes, good idea.
The name length limit is due to a problem with Audio Units. AU plugins don't let the entire name get longer than 32 characters. Since i wanted a cross-platform format, I had to add the same restriction for the .mlpreset files.
It might be possible to add a "long name" field to the patches, and create a shorter AU preset name automatically-- but This might cause other problems. I'll have to look into it.
I can probably fix the dot thing. It's bad practice to put dots in a filename on Mac or Windows. But I could translate them into something else.
The problem with both of these fixes is that the file name no longer matches the patch name, making the files potentially harder for to you find in the long run.
The real fix is that operating systems should lose the concept of "file", but I can't do much about that right now.
I woke up this morning to a dead website. The culprit turned out to be a simple lack of disk space. We are back online, fired up and ready to go again -- sorry for any inconvenience.
I mean, I have to implement the feature. I'll do this some time, maybe for 1.3.
"ridiculous small"? it's all relative. My biggest monitor is 1680x1050. So, I like small plugins.
I'm working on the resizing feature though.
Hi Lee,
It was my pleasure. Thanks for the note and keep in touch!
Yup, I can do that.
So... yup! You can use the expo input to get expo FM. The next question is, what can you use for the modulation signal? There's the LFO, and also ENV2 in repeat mode. Each only has frequencies up to 220 Hz or so. That's by design, so that the potential for aliasing is limited.
Linear FM is what the OSC does internally. with linear FM the pitch of the modulated wave stays constant. You can also add linear FM using the linear pitch input to the OSC.
You can add exponential FM using the expo. pitch input, the "1.0 per octave" input.
"Is the pitch patched to the index to be mixed?" I don't understand the question.
I think Aalto's layout is pretty clear as far as what signals are controlling what. For applications and patch ideas, you can check the manual, or indeed, other modular synth manuals.
I did the thesis project that eventually became the Soundplane while at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. So, even though all this travel is making me a bit crazy, I'm happy to be heading to BC this week to catch up with some friends and give two more demos. Please excuse the late notice, as here are the dates and locations:
Victoria, Tue Nov 15
UVic School of Music, MacLaurin building [Rm. B016] 4:30-5:30pm
Vancouver, Thur Nov 17
SFU / Woodwards complex, 149 West Hastings St., room 3420, 4:00-5:00pm
The Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) is an organization supporting electronic music in Canada, celebrating its 25th anniversary with a nationwide tour this Fall. I'm grateful to be included in the programs for both the Victoria and Vancouver events! Both days will include other demos, talks, and lots of great music. Find out more about the CEC Anniversary Tour here: [cec.sonus.ca].
Two great stops wrapped up the tour this week, first at USCB and then at CalArts. Many thanks to hosts Drs. Matt Wright at MAT UCSB and Ajay Kapur at Calarts. My brain and vocal cords got a bit of a workout answering all the great questions from people at each event -- the level of interest and knowledge that students brought in was really high.
Taking questions helps me out a lot by letting me get a handle on things I need to explain better. The Soundplane's discrete keys over a more continuous surface is one example. People naturally wonder to what extent the keys make the surface non-continuous or influence the playing style. I'm writing down some notes about this and what else to put in the "most excellent hi-res demo video" I'll be working on soon.
Some other highlights of the trip: getting to see the UCSB Middle Eastern Ensemble perform Egyptian and Iraqi music, amazing tacos at Señor FIsh in Eagle Rock, and more sun in two days than I'll get all the rest of the winter back in Seattle. I'll be zipping back to OAK up the I-5 tomorrow, then flying home, and after a day of rest I look forward to sending another update from the lab.
aww, thanks!
No, there wasn't any introduction price for Mac users.