randy's Recent Posts
Thanks. I've logged this as an issue and will investigate after the next release.
Sorry I didn't acknowledge your bug reports! I do value them. I'm frustrated that I haven't had time to investigate these issues. I have had a show-stopper preventing release of the update still, and I have been trying to focus on that. I should have replied to you with a simple acknowledgement though.
I've logged your report in my GitHub issues and will get to it ASAP.
Sorry you had problems with the site. Please stay tuned for winter sale news shortly.
I just set up the patch you mention and played with modulating the ratio. I see what you mean - it makes sense that the range would be bigger.
Tip: you can use the "vox" output as a reference because it always outputs the signal values (0, 1, 2, 3) for Aalto's four voices. So doing this I see that the range 0-3 with ratio attenuverter set to max makes ratios of (0, 4, 8, 12). Mod outputs translate MIDI [0-127] into signals [0-1] so that gives you your 0-4 you were seeing.
When I decided on the amount of scaling possible for each patcher destination, I was usually making some "musical" decisions. An envelope sent to the ratio made a pretty extreme change in the ratio in any musical context, and I was optimizing for a nice range there.
Probably the mod cc outputs should be able to have their outputs increased. This could be buried in a KEY module settings page.
Sorry I missed this post for a bit!
I didn't give any thought to making the ratio snap to whole numbers. So it's not easy to do. I'm not sure what you expected to happen differently in the example you give, but it seems like normal behavior to me.
In the future, dials will be getting some kind of contextual menus, probably. So that would be a place you could choose to quantize the value.
There is a patch called "harmonic wind" in the textures folder. It shows another way you could try it using the sequencer to set up some quantized values. You could then patch the mod output to the sequencer step offset.
I wouldn't expect Aalto or Kaivo CPU to drop, but any intermittent pauses/crackling should hopefully be gone.
The fact that you're using a powerful machine and seeing these troubles is a hint to me that the crackles should be fixed by the next update. I've put a Virta beta out and it's available here on the "Virta beta" thread. If Virta works well for you I think that Kaivo will too, after the update.
The need to move the Labs impeded progress over the last two months but I'm working full time to get these updates out now. Thanks for your patience.
A reasonable question, given that a few weeks turned into a few months. I guess you heard I had to move the Labs, somewhat unexpectedly. I'm just now getting settled into the new space and back to working full time. A few issues remain on the Windows side of things but hopefully I'll be done very soon.
If changing the preset fixes it, this is likely a different problem. It could be that the default patch makes no sound in the DAW setup you are using?
Model B is what I am calling the next version of the Soundplane.
Hi Giorgio,
What comes off the DIY controller is a few steps away from being MIDI. You need some kind of computer reading the pressure matrix to recognize the touches and then transmit MIDI data.
I would start by making a 1x1 controller. in other words, a single point pressure sensor. When you do this you will get a good feel for the materials and all the steps involved.
Yes, I think I know what this is. There was a bug that only affected certain machines, more often the more powerful ones, unfortunately. I believe I have fixed this for the next update.
I had to move the Labs across town, so it's taken a while to get this update out, but I'm pretty much back to going full time on it until it's done now. Thanks for your patience.
Yes, we're at https://www.facebook.com/madronalabs/
I don't check it very often though. If you have support questions, you will get a faster response here on the forums or from emailing support @ madronalabs com.
MPE uses the Channel Pressure for each channel and not Poly Pressure.
Yes, velocity should be the same, whether regular or MPE.
Aalto (and other ML stuff) doesn't respond to release velocity.
Hi Greg,
If you are seeing x and y then you are in MPE mode. those two outputs change according to the "protocol" setting in the settings menu, where protocol can be either MIDI, MIDI MPE, or OSC. The manual usually refers to MIDI mode things though out of habit. I'll try to correct this.
In MPE I am always using 1 for the "main channel" and 2 and up for the others.
I'm feeling the same. Expect more serious effort on Linux and Windows support as we work on Soundplane B.
I always planned to have Windows support "soon" but it turned out to be much harder than expected. A nice contractor did a Linux driver for me and we intended he would go on to Windows work, but he ran into problems. Maybe in Windows 10 this is easier. If not, we'll just do whatever we have to including possibly contracting the work to someone who has low-level driver experience on Windows.
I still have my sights on making a well-designed "music appliance." I'm always looking at ARM vs. Atom vs. DSP and so on. I think enough power for lots of audio processing, just about anything I'd want to do on stage, can go in quite a small box now.
Nice and prickly, thanks for sharing.
Hmm. Google search brings up mostly whole threads for me.
No problem, I wish searching the site were more obviously possible.
MIDI itself should be fine—it's all about when the messages are actually getting sent in Max. I tend to use a lot of signal-based control flow in Max. When signals break, at least you know they are breaking, but messages can kind of start degrading in performance and drive you crazy trying to figure it out.
I would use the setting "Scheduler in audio interrupt" in Max, along with a small vector size of 64 or 128, maybe. This should give the most repeatable performance with messages. Unless something in Max has changed since I used this stuff...
My usual goal is to make things sound the same at different sampling rates. Doing this perfectly would take a lot of CPU in some cases, though. So there are optimizations that you might be able to hear sometimes, like calculating certain signals only once per signal vector instead of every sample. (Usually these should be only every N samples regardless of signal vector, but maybe sometimes it's the latter.)
I'll take a listen...
This is fixed for the release. I'm afraid packing / moving is slowing everything down significantly. Will release ASAP when landed, probably next week.
Sounds like possibly the bug that I introduced with Virta 1.0.2. Please try the beta version available here:
http://madronalabs.com/media/virta/Virta1.2b5.pkg
And let me know if things get better.
I can make this happen! It occurs the first time a parameter is changed after the host sequencer is stopped and restarted. Happens in both Live and Logic.
Weird this didn't get noticed before! I'll see what I can do.
Hi Dan, thanks for the feedback. This bug should be fixed in the next version coming soon.
Can you try the beta and let me know if it's better?
http://madronalabs.com/media/aalto/Aalto1.8.0b1.pkg
If not, please send me your test case as a patch and I'll try to fix it. thanks for the report.
OK, I just uploaded a beta to
http://madronalabs.com/media/aalto/Aalto1.8.0b1.pkg
Please give it a try and if works for you, you can email me for a license text. The website will provide these after I switch everything over to the new license system.
Any progress on just Aalto in max in general, or something in particular? I have done a bunch of fixes to keep up with Max since 2013.
Sequencer stepping by messages is not something I have ever thought of doing. Would you turn the clock rate to 0 and then use seq_step messages to change the location?
Huh. this seems like a big problem that I would know about but it's not familiar. I wonder if possibly Live is sending some automation or a program change to Aalto, that is resetting it? the "open the window" issue kind of makes this unlikely though.
I have completely new host sync code in the next version that is coming out ASAP. It's been a bit long in coming because I'm packing the house up for a move. I can commit to sending out a beta this week so you can try the new version. If it works for you I can make a license code for you to unlock it.
Are you possibly changing the offset parameter or steps parameter of the sequencer? They are designed to do this.
If not, please email me or post below a patch that reproduces the issue, I'll take a look.