randy's Recent Posts
If you look in the patches you'll find some tricks to get the most out of the single oscillator.
Aalto is inspired by the Buchla Music Easel. If you are familiar with or read up on that you'll get a good idea why I like a small collection of fixed modules.
A modular version sounds like a cool product though... doesn't it?
Yes, I will check out the cases you describe and try to fix any problems.
Aalto should make sound sometimes without notes being played. And I don't want to stop all sound when switching the patch-- there are many possibilities in letting one sound "ring out" as another when the patch changes.
The case you describe with Digitaldu EDT probably shouldn't happen though. I think you described it clearly. I will investigate.
HI,
Thanks for the report. I guess this might happen with some combinations of presets. You can probably play some MIDI notes in the new patch to make the sound stop, once all voices have been used.
-Randy
Hi,
Aalto works in Mainstage last I checked. So it's not that I don't support plugin player apps.
If you give me a more specific report of what goes wrong, and what I can do to reproduce it, I will definitely look into it.
thanks
Randy
No news-- except that I'm going to look into this today. Sorry for the long delay-- I hadn't heard any bug reports from PT people in a while, so was hoping the 1.2.6 update had fixed the issue.
Hi Arnaud,
Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately there is some very low-level USB code needed, which will be difficult to port to Windows. If there is enough interest in Soundplane for Windows, I plan to hire someone to do this part. I really have no idea as to timing -- it will depend a lot on how many people are interested.
Would you also be interested in a Linux port?
-Randy
Way cool!
hi @fernandolins,
I read that you had problems before but it looked like the 1.2.6 update fixed them.
I am working on a 1.3 update and will look at the issues with Lion.
You can help me by sending me a bug report with your current OS, Aalto Version and Logic version, and the steps to take that will cause the problem.
I'm sorry the speed of updates is not always very fast. As a single developer, I do what I can.
Things are good here, thanks. Very peaceful and productive the last couple of days! I've been going for a short walk each day and working on Soundplane software the rest of the time.
Since the Soundplane is a true force sensor, stickers and so forth on the surface don't hurt the response at all. If you wanted a big area you would have to add gaps to keep the surface flexible.
I like this idea and would encourage the discussion very much! Myself, I'm busy trying to finish the remaining details and ship the Soundplane, so I won't be participating too much. But I'll follow along with great interest and chime in sometimes.
-Randy
Sadly there are many differences in how the various hosts handle keyboard keys, making it very difficult for me to engineer a consistent user experience across hosts. Sometimes the host captures a certain key and doesn't pass it to plugins. I think this is what is happening here.
Thanks for the report.
Hi pbr,
In a week or two I plan to show a new movie demonstrating the finished calibration software and hardware, and announce that production is starting. At that point there will still be a window, probably two weeks, for getting an order in at the intro price. There are still some Soundplanes left in our initial run. I certainly don't expect them to run out before the new demo is out, but they might do so during that window.
I still expect production to take 8-10 weeks.
-Randy
Yes, I could reproduce this immediately. Amazing, how could this not have been noticed after all this time? I guess, most people use fast attacks for the most part...
Anyway thank you for the good report, I will fix this.
-Randy
A good idea, I'll think about this one.
A quick update to share some photogenic progress. I got the new milled case from O.B.Williams this morning, and it fits the new aluminum back panel perfectly. In these pictures you can see the new rabbet for the panel, and the very tight tolerances we are holding with the milling.
I can't wait to apply an oil finish, put circuit boards in this beauty and make some sounds. That should happen next week. Until then, happy new year everyone!
Aalto For Soundplane will just be for Soundplane. Some features might make it into the regular version of Aalto. The idea will be to keep them as similar as possible.
You can bypass the filter by setting it to lowpass mode and turning frequency up to 20000 and Q to 0.
The delay is bypassed by using just the "dry" knob -- there is no delay on that signal.
There might be more options for reverb in the future. If you want to add "dirt" a reverb is not the usual way-- I recommend using the "drive" dial on the delay and using that signal if possible.
Aalto could do this?
salisbury steak. [theme] [for garf and bnek] by mad brahmin
I didn't either. If that was too frantic for you, here's some ambient overtones:
Yup, the Aalto group on Soundcloud is still blowing the eff up.
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.