gloriajusten's Recent Posts
Hi Randy,
Can you please give a super basic chain of instructions for how to output OSC from Soundplane to play Aalto or other softsynths using Ableton Live 9? If Live isn't compatible, is Pro Tools? A very simple list of instructions such as "check this box" and "send output to" would be great.
I am on a Macbook Pro running OS 10.9.3.
Is it possible to do this using ready-made OSC options, without any programming? Several months ago I got things working using OSCulator as a go-between, but I put the Soundplane away for a while, and now I can't seem to get things working. Not sure where the problem is. Could be something very simple I am missing.
I am a musician (violinist by trade) not a programmer, although I have learned quite a bit about electronic music over the last several years. However, all the learning curves are getting exhausting. For now I'd like to delve more into the musical aspect than the programming part.
Do you have a new manual in the works for the updated version of Soundplane software?
Thank you so much for any help! I do love my Soundplane (it's number #0028, bought on eBay.) It is a beautiful and organic interface, and I look forward to exploring the possibilities.
Best Regards,
Gloria
Anyone else experimenting with this?
I wanted to compare the results of playing Aalto with OSC messages vs. playing it with just MIDI messages in Ableton Live 9.
In Live, I set up my first MIDI track with Aalto, but set the track to No MIDI Input. Aalto was connected to OSC directly from the Soundplane. Track 2 (audio) was set to record audio from Track 1.
Track 3 (MIDI) recorded MIDI coming from Soundplane IAC out.
I recorded a performance simultaneously to Tracks 2 and 3. Then I inserted another instance of Aalto with the same preset onto Track 3 (which can't also connect to OSC because the Track 1 version is.) I recorded audio to Track 4 using the MIDI from Track 3.
(I didn't try recording both instances of Aalto at once, although it probably would have been fine. Wanted to keep it simpler for me to keep track of.)
What this gives me is two audio tracks from the same gestures through Soundplane/Aalto, same sound patch, one with the OSC version and one with "regular" MIDI. They are very different! The OSC version seems to have more subtleties, but the MIDI version has a completely different slant on the instrument. Putting them both into the Arrangement view to compare, they have similar flows, but sometimes where one is very quiet the other is louder or has a different resonance or frequency. They sound good separately or together. For this experiment I used a sound which is like a Chinese mouth organ/flute (Soundplane dizi.)
On the technical side, per Randy's suggestion (thanks, Randy!) I turned the OSC rate on the Soundplane down to about 30, which seems to work OK in Ableton. Do you have more specific recommendations on this? Or on MIDI rate?
Are these Zone options available for Soundplane 1.1.2? I have 1.1.2 installed and there are just three zones available that I see: chromatic, rows in fourths, and rows in octaves. It is my impression that these zones just refer to note arrangements. Would using other zoning options require programming, and if so, what kind? Are there other kinds of zones available that could be dropped in like a preset?
Also, I do not find any support files in Music/Madrona Labs. There is only one in my User Library/Application Support/Madrona Labs/Soundplane, which a SoundplaneAppState.txt file. Am I supposed to move it, based on your post here?
Hi Randy,
Continuing our other conversation: relevant breakthrough!
I realized there were two possible locations for plugins and presets: my HD Library and my User Library. At some point, having stuff in both places, I consolidated files, and I've been putting all downloaded VST and AU plugins in the System Library. However, there were some duplicates in the other folder, and some presets only in the User Library. Is there a benefit to the plugins and presets being in one or the other Library location? Or a danger to putting them in the System Library?
Now that all presets are in the same Library where Aalto lives they are all showing up within the preset window when I have Aalto running.
In other words, if you have Aalto in one library and the presets in another, you can load them but they will not automatically be in the drop-down menu.
How I have it working:
HD/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST/Aalto (also AU version in Plug-ins/Components)
HD/Libary/Audio/Presets/Madrona Labs/Aalto/ (folders of presets)
I will try reducing the OSC rate. It would be nice to have as much expressivity as possible, since that is one of the Soundplane's talents.
Thanks for the instructions and the presets! The basic routing is working fine, both regular MIDI and OSC directly from Soundplane to Aalto. The sound output in Ableton seems much heartier and more reliable with regular MIDI than with OSC, though. For now I'll use that until I have a better understanding of OSC.
Edited message: At first I did not see how to load the presets, because although I put them with all the other presets (in Library/Audio/Presets/Madrona Labs/Aalto) they did not appear in the preset area of the Aalto plugin. But I figured out how to access them through the Live Browser. Cool sounds!