Hi Randy,
To my delight I found the oct/nov edition of Germany's Syntmag with a complete special about you and your products. It was great to get all these extra insights into your approach and thinking. I devoured every word of it.
I love the Sumu concept. Any idea if you could add an analyses function to re-synthesize audio samples? I assume that will be a rather difficult thing to implement but it would be another killer feature.
I also love the idea of sooner or later putting all your VST's into a sort of The Grid environment. Combining the Sumu with the Kaivo would lead to something even closer to my ultimate dream-instrument then Kaivo already is; namely a flexible re-synthesis engine with modeling features. Call it a Kaivo plus.
Just for fun: here are some suggestions for Finish names for such a platform:
"Sekoitus" = a (fluid) mixture. I am not sure though if you'd like the, probably latin induced, "koitus" bit. Only food for dirty thinkers of course but still.... :-)
What about Suspensio then? It means "fluid suspension" and even suggests a connection with the English word "suspense"! Almost to good to be true?
Then there is the finish word for "vortex", being "kierre". Very nice but it would probably leave some doubts about the correct pronunciation.
Then there is "valuma-alue" which stand for the catchment area of a river or stream.
"Valume" also seems to stand for value as single word which associates itself easily with amplitude / volume, another nice one.
Individually "Alue" stands for "surface area" but is thus less clearly connected to the existing theme.
Then there is "joen suisto" for "river delta".
Individually "joen" also seems to stand for "river". I however also found "joki" as a translation but maybe that is to close to Jogy Bear. :-)
"Suisto" also seems to be associated with delta as a single word.
I obviously chose these words because they imply an even broader connection to water / streams / fluids.
I hope you don't mind these suggestions though. I just could not resist trying to play the same association game. Do however check all translations out more thoroughly if you like any of them. We all know how bad translator programs can be. :-)
Have a nice weekend.
Marc Brassé
I'd love to read this article. I've never heard of this magazine. The idea of putting Madrona's synths in a modular environment sounds intriguing.
And Randy made the cover!
https://www.synmag.de/1251/synmag-88-das-synthesizer-magazin-polyend-tracker-madrona-labs-special-noise-engineering-module-und-mehr/
Thanks for the thoughts! So non-German readers aren't left behind I'll be posting more Sumu info very soon.
I'll be releasing a free program alongside Sumu, which does the analysis of audio recordings and turns them into the bandwidth-enhanced partials format.
I'd be very curious to read about the Grid environment too, even if, as it sounds to me at least, that won't be happening for a while.
I'm glad you are interested! I don't have much I can say about it yet.
OK Randy,
I'll read the article again to see if you already touched on those terms in there but I suppose you mean that this analyses format from the extra software can then be used to set up the 64 partial operators. 64 partials and all of them individual FM- operators plus a noise component (assuming I am getting all this right so far) should be more then enough for decent resynthesis.
Seems you've spilled the beans a bit early about Sumu and stuff in that article but it sounds very exciting. We'll be patient through.
It's a pity you can't publish those artciles here. Copyrights, eh? Did they at least dend you a hardware copy of the magazine? It aal looks excellent!
Marc
Hi Alan,
To repeat the bit Randy said about it (as far as I understand it): He'd like to produce a sort of Bitwig The Grid-like environment in which all his instruments (or even individual modules thereof?) can be patched. He was however very clear about this only being a long term vision.
Now imagine that: A Madrona Labs supermodular! Let's keep our fingers crossed! :-)
Thanks for the info Brassee. I hope that this happens sooner or later. All of Randy's synths are so unique. Putting them in a Grid like environment could be amazing. Creative people always have ideas. They don't always happen. I hope that this one does.
I'm looking forward to the resynthesis in Sumu. I love tweaking sounds. As I said in the past, I'm not particularly a fan of FM, but I trust that Randy will have an interesting take on it.
there is indeed a lot, a lot of info about Sumu in its current state...
i must read the article again, not because my german is so bad, a lot of info...
strangely it reminds, but there are a lot of differences, me on a project that i am beta tester and sometimes more.. for.. also 64 partials, but workflow.is quite different, but it has PM per partial, you can connect aything to it... and other cv destinations...
but still the madrons approach adds, well special shiny possibilities.
and indeed 64 partials are enough, and PM or is it real FM? adds to the character and the bandwidth of a additive/spectral synth, a lot i may add, the other goodies i have to hear what the give to the 64 partials....
Yes I don't have the rights to reproduce the Synmag article. I don't really feel a need to anyway, because most of my customers can't read it. I'll write more info here in English soon—but mostly I'm working on finishing the synthesizer!
Danke schön Randy.