radiokoala's Recent Posts

radiokoala

Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 01:39

Exciting news! Will there be an online stream of your presentation maybe?

radiokoala

Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 07:18

One of my best patches to date..

Playing Ping Pong During Large-Scale Buffalo Migration

radiokoala

Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 11:23

radiokoala

Wed, Nov 02, 2011, 05:40

Here's how I see it, Randy.

It would be cool to assign a specific PC# for a given patch. If there is not enough space in the interface for another rotary, you could at least implement a new XML parameter to Aalto (i.e., <Aalto pluginVersion="65829" presetName="whatever" programChange="16" - well, you get an idea). Also, I would make patches change in cycle if their programChange #'s are the same - thus stability of a plug-in won't be affected by overlapping values.

As for next / previous patch, it would be cool if these also had been automatable (I never thought about it, but yea!), however there is no need to make them receive PC messages, CC# would be fine.

And behind Program Change, there is another thing except I am yearning to see in Aalto, and it is a possibility of automating the patcher. I.e., this can be realized via adding more binary parameters (0/1) which could be automated from a DAW. (vel_to_cutoff, voice_to_pitch, env2_to_timbre - this sorta thing... that's about 324 parameters in total: 12x27 sources x destinations).

And, if you remember, recently I wrote to you about OSC (Open Sound Control), which does almost the same thing - if you're aiming to add this feature in the future, perhaps MIDI in the patcher is needless. However it seems convenient too as drawing/undrawing patches toggling pads on a MIDI controller sounds like a pretty good option!

Now I'm starthing to think that I perhaps am reaching for impossible with such requests, but they're caused by my heavy use of Aalto in the live context. So, thanks in advance for taking any of my considerations into account ;]

radiokoala

Mon, Dec 24, 2012, 02:52

Hey, happy holidays Randy!.. Don't forget to spin some Yazoo :))

radiokoala

Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 02:44

maybe you could use the magazine to line the bottom of a parrot's cage

:D good one!

radiokoala

Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 02:19

"seq_wave parameter probably should not show up in automation. It's just for the three buttons in the sequencer that set a preset "wave" seqeuence. Since the sliders themselves are automated, this doesn't need to be automated at all and should go away."

(from my correspondence with Randy)

seq_local switches whether sequencer corresponds to its own rate or to BPM of a DAW. There is a switch in the UI so I guess you should notice when it is changed.

radiokoala

Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 01:30

I knew nothing about that Usine software, but now I can't thank you enough for pointing me at it - just amazing. (And impressive sounds in your vid as well!)

BTW what Usine are you using? Is it possible to do this sort of things in Stage?..

radiokoala

Fri, Nov 11, 2011, 00:12

From all the software I own, Aalto ($99) and Ableton Live Intro ($49 paid) have the best price to value ratio... Just my five cents.

radiokoala

Tue, Nov 08, 2011, 23:32

"the closest single module i can think of off the top of my head to envelope 2 is the envelator. setting the envelator to cycle and playing with the delay can get some pretty similar behavior.

you can also do the same thing and more in a less direct way with the maths." (c) reignbear @ muffwiggler. http://emeri.ca/9ae

radiokoala

Thu, Nov 03, 2011, 02:19

OK, Randy, as you want to keep them, ideas, coming, here's another one.

I'd like to see "Auto Save" function in Aalto. With Program Change it would be killer, and here is why: in Ableton Live a value of Program Change can be entered for an individual clip, and thus, if many patches were saved using Auto Save, with their PC#'s they can be triggered with dummy clips, which is just great for live performance. For example, while I was working on a patch, it was automatically saved several times. In the beginning it was just rhythm (1), and then I added modulations to create a bassline (2), and then I turned it all into a complete FM-chaos (3). So I trigger pads 1 to 3 during the performance to make it anything but monotonous, and in between steps 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 I can concentrate on another tracks, or play parts, or well, simply put, do almost anything.

Now my explanation why Auto Save is neccessary. The thing is, without it I pretty much never have steps 1 & 2. Starting to work on something simple, I almost always turn the basic rhythm or FX into 3 "a complete FM-chaos," and then I'm like, "Damn!.."

Thus, with Auto Save it would be possible to work on a patch without thinking about saving its intermediary versions, as these will always be available. First I was thinking about it saving patches every n minutes, however it is not rational, and a better solution would be to save them after certain number of actions, be they changing of a knob value, or patching, or what else can be done in Aalto. (BTW, something that can be really important here is an option in the UI configuration of how many actions should be taken in order to save another patch. I think it would be great if in this aspect Aalto adapted to the needs of user, because rough 10 or 20 may be too frequent (or otherwise, not frequent enough) for some of them.)

And the last idea is the switch in the UI, which changes whether Program Change applies to pre-selected patches OR versions of a given patch. Say, you use the first option to change patches every not so often (like, 10 minutes or so - only when you, like, do a shift to completely another composition during the set) and the second for doing tweaks over the period of certain composition playing.

By the way, it might seem like all I want to do during the live set is only change patches and nothing else, but no, the thing is, I'm always doing something while performing (playing keyboards, changing FX etc.), and features suggested above would have made switching between various tracks less painful and more smooth in the future performances - all of this doesn't force upon a certain approach to playing live, it is fine to improvise in another instance of Aalto, for example. The thing is, with these features implemented, I would know that a backing track is under my control and would be able to quickly switch it without bothering the audience while I am going deep into the menu to search for a desired preset :]

Upd: Instead of making the switch to change between versions of a patch and these, well, slot configurations (mentioned above in Casey's post), you could make it either work within a custom slot configuration or a selected folder (switching patches in a folder in cycle). If you had made Auto Save to create a separate folder for versions of the patch, we would have a possibility of switching between versions with program change messages after selecting this very folder.

Also, I'd make Auto Save save patches as following: "01 patch", "02 patch" etc., so that filename would already contain information about a PC# of a patch. And if patches don't have these values in the filename (i.e., "I am a patch" instead of "01 I am a patch"), program change messages switch them from A to Z, in ascending order.

Upd 2: Understanding that you want to keep Aalto's UI as simple as possible, you may only add the PC functional as described in "Upd" + a small auto-save button on the top. Here's how it works: if pressed, it registers all your actions (and creates patches, accordingly) in a separate folder. By default it is turned off in all patches, but is active in default patch so that not to create lots of junk on HDD. Every time you reinitialize default patch, auto save starts recording in a separate folder (i.e., "Auto-save 11-3-11 13.42"). If you want to save your patch, you press "Save preset as...," and Aalto renames this folder. Then you have a new folder and can browse all versions of the preset (as would you browse presets in a general folder, such as "Devine mechanics" etc.) For versions of a patch I suggest filenames as follows: "version 1 (13.42)", "version 2 (13.54)" etc. I think it would be nice to have a timestamp in addition to a version number because if there is a defined number of actions to save the next version of patch it would always be interesting to see that in one patch it took you 10 minutes to go from v1 to v2, and in another it took say, an hour ;]

And, of course, if you don't want your actions to be traced, you can turn off auto-save after loading initial preset (then an "Auto Save" folder won't be created) or create another template patch with it turned off by default. Also, if you turn it off after working on a preset for a while, it will stop registering your actions but, of course, won't delete already saved presets. In that sense it is similar to "OVR" in Ableton Live. And if you press it after loading certain patch ("I am a patch"), there would be created a separate folder - "I am a patch (modified)" with versions of the patch. The last aspect, if you will load a patch which was auto saved from the beginning, auto save will add patches to its folder rather than create new confusing folders. Given that you have the opportunity to open not the last version but any else version of the patch, if you loaded say, version 5 and there are 10 in total, the next preset saved won't have a filename of 6 or 11 - instead of that it will save to the same folder BUT with filename, for example, "version 6 (alt) (14.29)" - thus you would be able to create separate branches of the same patch where it develops in a different ways! There could be also (alt2), (alt3) versions etc...

radiokoala

Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 01:16

Hey everybody, I play in Rawo Nam and think the chances are high that y'all, being synth enthusiasts, will dig what we do. Our band was founded no more than two weeks ago with intention in mind to play improvisational dance music, wide in sound palette and free-flowing.

Talking about instruments we use, Dima plays MFOS modular, Anton plays Korg Electribe, and I run one or several Aalto instances, unceasingly tweaking the parameters and switching between the patches. If one can't find me behind my laptop, that means I took a short break to play keyboards.

Below is a video of our performance at the art house Tacheles, Berlin during DACH XV (which is a festival of Belarusian experimental art and music; to make a note, we all are from Belarus):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt8NRMleLso

And here is an high quality audio bootleg for a more detailed listen:

http://www.mediafire.com/?56kdo5npn69ts6r

Thanks for your attention,
radiokoala of Rawo Nam

radiokoala

Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 13:25

About a minute ago I discovered another cool thing - which is #1 below, - about Aalto and thought I should finally start this topic.

1) When you select a patch cord, you can see two circles on its ends. Select all patch cords* and if an input has two or more patch cords plugged into it, you will see that a circle on a patch cord's destination end is white. This tip is useful when you got gallimaufry of patch cords and want to quickly trace the routings. Also it is an irreplaceable feature if you want to grab the logic of how somebody else's patch functions. Seriously, just select all patch cords, and UI becomes twice more descriptive.

To select several patch cords, simply click in the empty area of Patcher and draw a rectangle with your mouse - just like you select multiple objects in Windows Explorer.

2) If you have a MIDI controller with faders, you can map all seq_values to separate faders and do dramatic sound manipulations in the real time with your eight (I mean, of ten) fingers. Set steps to eight and voilà!

3) Of two envelopes, only second has a "Hold" toggle, but if you map sustain of first (env1_sustain automation parameter) to a MIDI note, you can use a key (or a pad if you like) to switch between values of 1 and 0 which is exactly what "Hold" does.

4) I don't know about other DAWs but in Ableton Live 8.2.2 when you load a preset after pressing "Configure" on Aalto panel, all automated parameters will load immediately. Hence no need to click on each and every to map them to the controls of your MIDI controller. Perhaps it works for other plug-ins as well - I dunno; at least it works for Aalto.

I hope someone of you guys has more tips - if so, feel free to share, that's what I created this topic for!..