Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Sound Design Experiment with Aalto and AudioCubes

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I decided to combine the fluid tangible spatial control of Percussa AudioCubes with the some droning patches I made from INIT with Madrona Labs wonderful Aalto synth.

Aalto has an awesome gate feature which allows you to create interesting drones leaving your hands free to modulate the hell out of parameters to create expressive and unique performances. You can also modulate the gate. Two AudioCubes in Sensor mode allow you to modulate with 8 MIDI CC’s with two hands.

AudioCubes Makes Virtual Synths Tangible

Watch the video above first with annotations on, then a second time with annotations off. On the second pass through watch how fluid the control is and how many parameters I’m managing at the same time. You’ll also see I’m getting visual feedback in the form of light intensity and color. After you perform with AudioCubes for a  while your brain starts to fool you into thinking that there are pressure bubbles around the sensors. In other words, even though the throw is about three inches when using your fingers with cubes, you can become quite accurate with control – especially when you combine visual feedback and audio feedback.

Because you can configure and map cube function differently with each patch, set and instrument, you start also thinking of each combination as an instrument on to itself. Once I set something like this up, I find myself coming back to it again and again getting a little better with the “instrument” with each use. This often results in me wanting to push things further and I learn the synth better plus creating more expressive performances.

Configuration Notes

I used the configure button on the Ableton Device holding the Aalto synthesizer select a set of parameters that I then map to faces of two Percussa AudioCubes in sensor mode. I did a video on the this Ableton mapping process a few years back with different devices, but the premise is the same. These cubes were configured via Percussa’s free MIDIBridge app.  I then use spatial movement of my fingers modulate parameters in Aalto. In same cases cubes modulate each other if sensors are facing each other.

Links

• Aalto Synth: http://madronalabs.com  | More Modulate This! posts on Aalto
• AudioCubes: http://www.percussa.com | More Modulate This! posts on AudioCubes

Mark Mosher
Electronic/Experimental Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

Synth Geek Blog: http://modulatethis.com/
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Thumbs Up for Madrona Labs AALTO Software Synthesizer

 

Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music did a post on a new synth by Madrona Labs last month. Even though I wasn’t in the market for a new synth right now I ended up buying Aalto within an hour or so of downloading the demo so I wanted to pass this along and help promote Madrona’s great work. At $99 this is an incredible value.

Brief Video Overview

Watch embedded video

Features

• Semi-modular software synthesizer.
• Fantastic flat popup-free patchable UI.
• A Buchla-inspired complex oscillator, with FM, timbre and waveshape controls that enable a wide range of expressive sounds… made with dynamic calculation, not static wavetables.
• Each voice has a separate, built-in sequencer with a patchable, independently controllable rate and offset that make it easy to achieve evolving, chaotic textures.
• Each voice also includes a lowpass gate module with a vactrol emulation in the control path. The vactrol equation slows down the response to incoming control signals through a complex nonlinear filter. You can turn the vactrol response down to instantaneous, or up to a pronounced ring.
• A patchable waveguide / delay module with a waveshaper and a peaking EQ built into the feedback loop. Because it has such short and controllable delay times, unlike a typical analog delay, it can be used as an additional oscillator or waveguide.
• Aalto's filter is a state-variable topology with mixable simultaneous outputs, tuned to have a similar range to an Oberheim SEM filter.

Aalto 1.1 Acid House Demo Video

View embedded video by Madrona’s Randy Jones

Share Patches XML Patch Format

Another cool feature is the ability to copy patches in XML format to the clip board which allows you to email patches to a friend simply by pasting them into the body of an email.

Speaking of sharing patches, there is a site for patch sharing here http://www.patchdump.com/.

Use the Factory Sounds for Inspiration, Then Get Patching!

I emailed Madrona’s Randy Jones just to let him know how much I was loving Aalto and he emailed back “It's my hope that Aalto's ease of use will suck some people into patching, who might have been relying on presets otherwise.”

First Impressions

I love the GUI and work flow which is very straightforward yet extremely flexible. I’m a big fan of FM synthesis and I’m really glad Madrona chose this type of synthesis with it’s straight-forward “patcher” modulation architecture. It’s an immediate and transparent approach to FM with a huge range of sonic and rhythmic possibilities.

The gate feature offers the possibility of creating and modulating drones without MIDI input. It is such a simple idea and I'm loving creating self-triggering rhythmic patterns.

My personal experience was that I groked the synth almost immediately and then started patching new sounds from “default” within the first hour of use.

Sound

I like sound quite a bit and the factory patches are unusual and inspiring. Note they are not huge “workstation” type sounds and while there is a reverb and a waveguide / delay module built-in, Madrona assumes you are going to bring your favorite fx plugins to the table.

“Subjectively speaking, Aalto can make a wide range of soundsAalto can make a wide range of soundsfrom lush to edgy, including some very complicated ones, without sounding too thick in a mix. Aalto's sounds are not hyped or confined, they are wide-range, open and natural. We hope our approach will appeal to experienced sound designers who have their own favorite EQs and limiters. And for those just getting into synthesis, Aalto is an accurate and honest tool for learning. We have tried to make Aalto a deep instrument that will reward lasting engagement.”

Recommendation

If you are a seasoned sound designer you’ll enjoy the immediate interface, sonic possibilities and work flow.

If you are newer to programming yet ready to branch out beyond subtractive synthesis, you can’t go wrong with Aalto. The price is right and there are a good amount of sample patches to learn from.

If you are a composer looking for some very unique sounds to add to your palette, Aalto is worth a look as well.

Links

• Madrona Web Site (Buy, Try)
• Madrona Labs YouTube Channel

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

http://modulatethis.com/
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html