Madrona Labs New Instrument "Kaivo"

[paradiddle]

Couldn't resist! Bought!

[pdxindy]

Couldn't resist! Bought!

It is on my short list... but Bitwig is coming out soon so am saving my cash for that (assuming I actually want to purchase it once I demo it)

[fceramic]

Was really look forward to this and had my finger on the buy button, but the higher price made me demo it. And I'm glad I did. This is pretty much unusable in Live. Four voices use 50-60 % of CPU and even worse I was very disappointed with the sound. I'm a sucker for both granular and PM synthesis so I thought this would be the ultimate instrument for me, but it just sounds narrow, unmusical and unpredictable. Aalto is masterfully designed, where every miniscule tweak does something interesting, but with Kaivo I tweak and tweak without getting a sense of control or satisfying results.
I'm sure with future updates, Kaiva will be refined and optimized, but as it is now I felt none of the joy I got from Aalto.

Also the demo noise is unbearable and actually made me curse out loud in annoyance.

[Sendy]

Was really look forward to this and had my finger on the buy button, but the higher price made me demo it. And I'm glad I did. This is pretty much unusable in Live. Four voices use 50-60 % of CPU and even worse I was very disappointed with the sound. I'm a sucker for both granular and PM synthesis so I thought this would be the ultimate instrument for me, but it just sounds narrow, unmusical and unpredictable. Aalto is masterfully designed, where every miniscule tweak does something interesting, but with Kaivo I tweak and tweak without getting a sense of control or satisfying results.
I'm sure with future updates, Kaiva will be refined and optimized, but as it is now I felt none of the joy I got from Aalto.

Also the demo noise is unbearable and actually made me curse out loud in annoyance.

I understand where you're coming from, I'm having the same experience. The Aalto workflow also didn't agree with me, though the sound most certainly did so I stick with it But I'm not getting that instant draw into the world of Kaivo like I did Aalto. Perhaps another hour playing with it and the penny will drop?

And yes, due to the greatly variable output volume of the synthesis engine, the white noise demo restriction is very annoying. If I buy Kaivo it'll mainly be for sample and FX/bed/sound design creation and not really for jamming with.

[Sendy]

https://soundcloud.com/sendy/about-yay-high

I love how surreal this can get. I thought this was pretty funny.

[Delfinoverde]

Too bad : only for Mac 10.6.8 and above!
Why devs get more and more selective excluding other OS users?

[dayjob]

Too bad : only for Mac 10.6.8 and above!
Why devs get more and more selective excluding other OS users?

you mean you need 105.x support or windows? 10.5 has been dropped by many many developers.

Aalto was OS X only for a little while. the Windows version came a little later. I haven't heard anything about it not coming out for windows users at some point.

[Neon Breath]

Was really look forward to this and had my finger on the buy button, but the higher price made me demo it. And I'm glad I did. This is pretty much unusable in Live. Four voices use 50-60 % of CPU and even worse I was very disappointed with the sound. I'm a sucker for both granular and PM synthesis so I thought this would be the ultimate instrument for me, but it just sounds narrow, unmusical and unpredictable. Aalto is masterfully designed, where every miniscule tweak does something interesting, but with Kaivo I tweak and tweak without getting a sense of control or satisfying results.
I'm sure with future updates, Kaiva will be refined and optimized, but as it is now I felt none of the joy I got from Aalto.

Also the demo noise is unbearable and actually made me curse out loud in annoyance.

Funny, cause I exactly feel the same way. Exactly… But I'll give the demo more time and try, maybe Kaivo will grow in me. But for now, meh unfortunately… The big click I was looking for didn't happen…. Yet. But congrats on the dev though, it's a unique instrument that's for sure, opening new worlds for exploration. I'm not just sure about what have heard so far and the huuuuge CPU consumption in Live, it almost makes it unusable.

[donato]

Love love LOVE Aalto, but the demos to me for Kaivo just sound so terrible. I think it must be one of those things you have to play with and then you're like, "ah-ha!". But to be honest I'm terrified to download said demo because I don't want to buy anymore synths haha. I think he missed the mark on the price too. Definitely a psychological advantage of keeping things at $99.

[andrelafosse]

A few patches cooked up during the beta test period...

The funkier side of Kaivo:
https://soundcloud.com/andrelafosse/kai ... ah-wah-and

Ambient and/or glitchy:
https://soundcloud.com/andrelafosse/kai ... -glitchy-2

Erratic reed-playing robot:
https://soundcloud.com/andrelafosse/kaivo-meltdowns

Granular murmurs and bleeps:
https://soundcloud.com/andrelafosse/kai ... agitations

Glitch-bient:
https://soundcloud.com/andrelafosse/kai ... -glitchy-1

[Jonathan Shepherd]

Big cpu hits here too, but I expect it for a bit. That said, this is an absolute sonic demon. Just like Aalto in that it resides in uncharted places all the time, just right for me. Makes my jaw drop a lot. It will never get old. Randy Jones 2016!

[paradiddle]

Couldn't resist! Bought!

It is on my short list... but Bitwig is coming out soon so am saving my cash for that (assuming I actually want to purchase it once I demo it)

I will most likely checkout the bitwig demo. I'm pretty much using live 9 now but the version 2 of bitwig is suppose to include internet, lan jamming and modular building of effects. Certainly might be something to look at.

[Teezdalien]

I think he missed the mark on the price too. Definitely a psychological advantage of keeping things at $99.

I tend to agree with this statement. I was also expecting the price to match up with Aalto. Even though it's not a great deal more, I've held back from purchase mainly because of this and other issues already outlined by other posts.
I definitely think the instrument sounds amazing, but I'll hold out until a sale comes along.

[ShawnLeonhardt]

Spent whole weekend playing with this... for those who bought it tell me how this patch sounds (to get full effect start at default and paste from clipboard the copied info below... it will start out building and then when you play keys it has a very organic bass sound)

<Kaivo pluginVersion="65536" presetName="BittyBass" scaleName="12-equal" key_voices="3" key_mod="2" key_bend="2" key_unison="1" key_glide="0" seq_trig="1" seq_rate="0.4340000152587890625" seq_range="48" seq_pw="62" seq_value_delay="8" seq_pulse_delay="5" seq_value0="0.17000000178813934326" seq_value1="0.31999999284744262695" seq_value3="0.44999998807907104492" seq_value9="0.28999999165534973145" seq_value10="0.31999999284744262695" seq_value12="0.079999998211860656738" seq_pulse0="1" seq_pulse2="1" seq_pulse4="1" seq_pulse5="1" seq_pulse6="1" seq_pulse8="1" seq_pulse10="1" seq_pulse11="1" seq_pulse12="1" seq_pulse14="1" lfo_offset="1" lfo_offset_x="-0.040000021457672119141" lfo_offset_y="-2.2351741790771484375e-08" lfo_rate="1.1999999284744262695" lfo_level="0.45000001788139343262" lfo_rate_p="-0.2400000840425491333" lfo_level_p="0.93999993801116943359" lfo_function_num="5" noise_peaks="7" noise_width="2" noise_falloff="1" noise_offset="0.4999999701976776123" noise_rate="10000" noise_level="0.45999997854232788086" noise_auto="1" noise_filter="1" noise_offset_p="0.99999994039535522461" env1_attack="1.1800000667572021484" env1_decay="3.6399998664855957031" env1_sustain="0" env1_release="0.0099999997764825820923" env1_level="0.44999998807907104492" env2_repeat="0" env2_sustain="1" gran_position_x="1" gran_position_y="1" gran_rate="0" gran_pitch="-1" gran_pitch_env="0.20000003278255462646" gran_pan="-2.2351741790771484375e-08" gran_follow="1" gran_smooth="1" gran_wrap="1" gran_position_x_p="0.27999997138977050781" gran_position_y_p="0.99999994039535522461" gran_rate_p="0.99999994039535522461" gran_pitch_p="0.99999994039535522461" gran_pitch_env_p="0.99999994039535522461" gate_level="0.50999999046325683594" gate_mode="1" gate_decay="1.8999999761581420898" gate_level_p="0.23999999463558197021" res_position="0.45999997854232788086" res_brightness="0.44999998807907104492" res_pitch="220" res_nonlin="0.84999996423721313477" res_sustain="0.77999997138977050781" res_pan="-2.2351741790771484375e-08" res_out_pos="0.059999998658895492554" res_lambda="0.93999999761581420898" res_length="277" res_bridge_height="1.6000000238418579102" res_bridge_len="0.05300000309944152832" res_bridge_amount="0.019999999552965164185" res_mode_num="3" res_position_p="0.55999994277954101562" res_brightness_p="0.79999995231628417969" res_pitch_p="0.99999988079071044922" res_nonlin_p="0.4999999701976776123" res_sustain_p="0.2199999690055847168" res_pan_p="0.1099999845027923584" res_mix_wet="0" body_position_x="0.50999999046325683594" body_position_y="0.46999999880790710449" body_nonlin="0.099999994039535522461" body_tone="0" body_pitch="-2.2351741790771484375e-08" body_sustain="0" body_pitch_mode="2" body_mode_num="3" body_height="4" body_position_x_p="0.5" body_position_y_p="0.5" body_pitch_p="0.99999994039535522461" body_mix_wet="0" body_mix_dry="1" output_tilt="4.470348358154296875e-08" output_chorus="1" patcher_input_1="00000000000000000000011101000000000000010100" patcher_input_2="00000100010010001000000010000010000000000000" patcher_input_3="00000000001000000000000001000000000000000000" patcher_input_4="01100000000000000000000000000000000000000000" patcher_input_5="00000100000000000000000000000000000000000000" patcher_input_6="00000000000000000000000100000000000000000000" patcher_input_7="00000000101000000000000000000000000000000000" patcher_input_8="10001000000000000000000001100000000000000000" patcher_input_9="00000000000000000000000000000100000000000000" patcher_input_10="00010000000000000000000000000000000000000000" patcher_input_11="00000000000000000000000000001000000000000000" patcher_input_12="00000000000000000000000000000111000000000001" patcher_input_13="00000010000000000000000000000010010000000010" patcher_input_14="00000000000000000000000000000001101000000000" patcher_input_15="00000000000000000000000000110000000010000000" patcher_input_16="00000000101101100000000000000000000001111101" patcher_input_17="00000000000000010011000000000000000001000001" editor_x="0" editor_y="0" editor_width="981" editor_height="531" editor_num="1" editor_anim="1" lfo_function="knights" res_mode="gut string" body_mode="metal plate" sample_name="Oscillators/analog saw.wav"/>

[paradiddle]

It didn't start building when I pasted it. It was more like an explosion. Everything is maxed out. Luckily you put the limiter on.