randy's Recent Posts
Everything is independent for each voice, except the reverb. You can see this by looking at the dial animations. If you see four pointers in the dials at different locations, those are the values of the four voices. There is an illustration in the manual about this.
A few controls have no signal inputs, and thus no way to set a different value for each voice. These have dials that do not show a signal view. The gate decay is one example.
The delay comes before the filter in the waveguide/delay. If you turn the frequency down to 1 sec or something, you can hear this.
The main purpose of the Soundplane CV module is to enable Soundplane -> modular connection without a computer around. So aside from using it to load zone maps I would really resist any feature creep in that direction. For release, anyway.
It's true—each voice has a sequencer that is a completely separate processor from the other voices. Looking at a patch like "techniques / seq multirate" is the best way to see this. Each voice has a different signal created at the KEY module vox output. These signals are sent to the "rate" input of each SEQUENCER. And so each runs at a different rate.
There are lots of little examples in the Aalto techniques folder that may show interesting ways of using control. I wish that each example had a nice verbal description with it, but that's a feature I will have to add later.
The key trig input is the one way of controlling the position of each sequencer precisely. If you turn on key trig in this patch, each sequencer restarts whenever a note is send to that voice. So I believe this is the "syncing them all at will" you want.
There is no precise way to send just one of the sequencers forward one step. However, you can set the rate to the lowest nonzero value, then use an envelope to turn up the rate of just one of the voices for a time when a note is played. (setting the rate to 0 will not allow the modulation through, so a rate of 0.002 is needed currently)
In Kaivo there is a trig input to the sequencer, that increases the flexibility of what can be done.
The changes when you turn the number of voices are not well defined. when a voice is off, its sequencer may be in an undefined state if the number of steps has changed, for example, while it was off. This can definitely be improved.
There are a lot of things I could make controllable (put into the front panel) but haven't. This is to make the design approachable. There is always a tradeoff between flexibility and usability. I try to make the modules work together so that once you know them a little better, interesting and surprising things can be done.
You don't seem arrogant—I am always happy to discuss ideas about what makes a better synthesizer.
Hmm, I think that the patcher is a much more readable UI.
Reaper has (and I think FL has) a mode called "fixed buffer size" for compatibility with certain plugins that are not capable of responding to changing the process buffer size on the fly. This is desirable sometimes when a host wants to run one selected plugin in something close to realtime (for monitoring) but run other ones with a bigger buffer size for efficiency. Or also for realtime automation control, especially when rendering.
Aalto used to have problems with a changing buffer size but this was not by design, it was a bug I fixed for version 1.6 or so. I believe Kaivo has always dealt with it OK.
In general I am not a Reaper expert but it seems to continue to grow in popularity, so I'll take the time to get into further.
Definitely keep trying with the UI off, especially if you are seeing problems when you are running other plugins. Hosts all have to process audio pretty much the same way but they might deal with UI completely differently, so when I hear about problems on one host but not another I tend to think about UI issues.
Very glad to hear!
I haven't heard of any issues yet. My MBP (10, 1) has a USB 3.0 Hi-Speed Bus.
Can you go to About this Mac -> System Report -> Hardware -> USB Device Tree and take a screenshot for me? Sorry, no hosted inline images here — you can email it to me at support or host it somewhere and point to it in Markdown.
I'm assuming you tried a reboot.
Do you have a USB audio interface that's working on the new machine?
10% CPU but glitches? That's really damn mysterious. Never heard about such an issue before.
I'm about to release an update that might possibly improve things. It's got some general stability and speed fixes. If your issue persists after the update, I can install Windows 8 and try to reproduce it.
Can you try the "fixed buffer size" option in Reaper ? Aalto should respond to varying buffer sizes properly, but it's worth a try.
Also please try a Live demo or FL if you can. I test a lot in these hosts on Windows, not so much in Reaper or Tracktion. So if it's not working in Live it's likely to be related to your OS or audio setup more generally.
Sorry you're having trouble, thanks for the detailed info.
Does the glitching happen if you close the Aalto window?
You are right, they are free-running.
I hear you, more tone colors is always a good thing.
Hi Brendan, it's OK, see my email.
While playing simultaneous adjacent keys hasn't been possible on the Soundplane, I find no problem with using a half step in a melody line. So I play scales as on a guitar, or Linnstrument.
If you are playing over MIDI, the half-step transition needs to be done with some care. To retrigger a new note the previous note must be released before the new one is played. Otherwise the old note will be pitch bent to the new. I find practicing to control this difference with intention is key.
Over OSC, the instrument is much more forgiving because there is a continuum of expressive changes between the new note and the last. This applies to any patch that uses pressure to control its envelope. There is no binary distinction between staccato and legato, rather the amount of connection between notes is controlled smoothly and intuitively.
The new tracker coming soon will hopefully remove the simultaneous key limitation.
Virta is a patchable sound-controlled synth. It still has MIDI and OSC input but can also be controlled by your voice or another instrument using its pitch to signal converter. Something like a Korg x911, with a patchable vocoder and some other goodies.
Musically it's got a distinct personality from Aalto or Kaivo. It loves to lead you into the uncanny valley.
Sorry, I was speaking hypothetically about how I would like to add that. Thanks for the reminder. I'm making a lot of changes to the Soundplane software this Spring---when I add this I will document it.
I'm going to migrate my list of Soundplane issues / feature requests to github where it will be more convenient to me and visible to all.
I want to make more t-shirts but so far this takes a back seat to the "real" work. freeware plugins... probably as examples for an open-source project I am working on.
Another interesting feature could be the possibility to directly address several OSC port in parallel directly in the soundplane app.
I'm definitely planning to make this work with zones soon.
Hello, howdy,
I am working to get this feature rolled into a kaivo update soon. Thanks for your patience. Meanwhile you can use Kaivo on 3123 and Aalto on some other channel. I guess you are talking about layering both synths rather than doing a split?
Great, thanks for the feedback. I think Brian and I are converging on an initial design. This won't be out real soon, but we are definitely moving forward.
Hi, unfortunately this "ghost window" appears in ableton live 9.2b5 32bit and vst aalto 1.61 on mac OS X 10.10.3... :(
Can you use the 64-bit version of Live? I would recommend this if possible. Plugin hosting is much cleaner in 64-bit, this bug will be gone, and everything should be around 10% faster.
The issue does not come up for me an Aalto 1.6.1 / Live 9.1.7 / OS 10.10.2. Both AU and VST are working OK. I see there is a Live 9.1.8 version out, so I will try that and hopefully fix it if something broke again.
Can I double check with you that the AU is truly the problem and not the VST? I have had this problem with the VST in the past, but never with the AU.
I don't usually test with beta versions for compatibility because by definition they have their own bugs.
Noted! This idea has been on the back burner but could definitely happen at some point.
With the Soundplane you can slide any touch anywhere. With the Linnstrument I believe you can only slide a note in the x axis. In general I would say that the Soundplane is more like a continuous controller that lets you quantize it to keys, whereas the Linnstrument is more a 2D keyboard that lets you slide the keys after playing. They get to a similar place from different directions.
The biggest differences are with aesthetics and connectivity. Roger puts all the configurability and lots of labels on the instrument, so that no computer is needed to work with a MIDI device. Linnstrument outputs MIDI only. The Soundplane puts out raw pressure data that external devices can convert into MIDI, OSC or into sound directly. This requires a computer, for now. What I like about this approach is that the hardware is minimal and very reconfigurable.
I believe that OSC will continue to grow in popularity. It is capable of higher resolution than MIDI, and it is more suited for open-ended experimentation. On the down side it is not plug-and-play with any synthesizers, except the ones I make.
Two good instruments. Exciting times indeed.
It might be OK to have lights indicating the active zone map, if there were only four possibilities or fewer. Any more and I want to read the name! The current selections of chromatic, rows in fourths, rows in octaves seem to be sufficient for most people's needs, so for the simplest possible release we could just include these three.
The Soundplane is really an instrument first and foremost, one you can play and not look at, in contrast to most other controllers out there. So let's not waste too much time making it a controller when it's probably more elegant for people to just put a box of sliders next to it if they want sliders.
I think it's OK if we require an external device of some kind (tablet, phone, or computer) to switch maps.
So I guess I'm maybe gradually coming around to "no display".
NOTE: this will require Mac OS X version 10.7 or later to run.
Changes since 1.2.4:
- Kyma listener off by default to fix collisions on port 3124. Use 'kyma' toggle on Expert page to turn on.
- fixed automatic connection to selected OSC service on startup.
- restored some values from 1.1.2 to improve touch tracking.
- add automatic saving of window dimensions. This is saved in /Application Support/SoundplaneViewState.txt.
- fixed a problem resolving OSC services
- fixed wrong MIDI note offsets in default Zone setups
For those few of you compiling your own version, note that I've moved to using the C++11 compiler provided by XCode. This will enable me to simplify my work with some modern C++ features, and is the reason for the new OS 10.7 requirement.
I do have some Finnish-Americans in the family and I like a good sauna very much! But mostly I just like the sounds of the words along with their meanings. The next plugin will probably be called "Virta."
Yes, certainly.
Hi Jay, is OSC enabled? are you seeing "receiving t3d" at left? Do the other presets work?
If not, go to the drop-down "gear" menu and turn on OSC. You can also select a port offset—0 should be compatible with previous versions.
I just tried all the versions you are on with the bongo party preset and it works OK here.
You may want to do the "normalize" procedure with the new Soundplane version. I am telling people that for improved finger touch at edges anyway. With juggling balls and a high threshold it probably doesn't matter.
There actually is a video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qckvsc2Gzjo
But it is not super useful any more because I changed the normalization routine to include another step. The ida in the "blue" step is to press with a firm palm just pressing down evenly everywhere. Really it's not too fussy. This is what controls the edge behavior.
Here's a capture of my normal map generated in the "blue" step:
Select view mode "test2" to see this. Note that the view scale is set to 3.0 so you can see better. After you normalize it should look something like this with bigger blobs near the edges over some areas. This compensates for the fact that the surface moves less near the edges where it is clamped.
Good news: I'm currently working on the next rev. of the touch detection and it's going well. It should be much better at close touches and the edge stuff. After this rev. I'm confident the code will settle down and I can take the time to document everything much better. It's hard to document a moving target! thanks for your understanding.
Sorry for the glitch! There's a technical problem with integration between the website and PayPal right now, so I have to see the emails and make licenses myself. I hope to fix this soon.