I'm curious to see if anyone has any experience with AALTO by Mardona Labs. I keep coming back to the idea of adding a semi modular synth to my OP-1 and PO's. But can't bring myself to make the investment on something that I still haven't wrapped my head around. I found out about AALTO recently and have been reading up on it quite a bit. It seems to be pretty complex (albeit cpu heavy) and a good start for a beginner on a budget. It could be a fun tool to learn, in my every lasting mission to make super chill lofi music. What do you all think?
If you’re strapped for cash and just want to play around a bit have a look at Caustic 3. It has a nice little modular section. Though it might seem limited at first you should have a look/listen at the presets which have some really nice sounds in them. You can run multiple modular patches in parallel and add other synth engines like a 808-Clone as well. All that on a cell phone (in my case anyway) and with an USB OTG cable you can hook up your OP-1 too
Best of all: There’s a free version that has all the features of the paid one except for saving/exporting your songs (and a time limit on using Midi). The paid version is only around 10 bucks though.
There are some limitations, e.g. sequencing is not very pleasant and there’s lag/latency when playing via touch screen, but this app has brought me countless hours of fun on otherwise boring train rides.
There’s a free version of Aalto by computer music magazine . Aalto CM if I’m not mistaken. Not too sure if its still avalable with current issues. They have a download vault for buyers of mag.
It’s ment to be a good synth ,by recommendation of a respected friend (the full version that is ).
love Aalto. endless fun, only a matter of finding the time. Aalto CM is one voice only but everything else works. Bear in mind it’s a gateway to the full version
@crudeoperator very interesting! I've never heard of this one, checked out the website and was surprised to see it works on android too. Definitely, going to check it out!
@eesn@Spheric_El very nice, didn’t know there was a free one. Now I must google! I’ll probably end up getting the full version most likely. Randy seems like the hardest working developer in the world. Gotta support the arts!
I played around with the monophonic CM giveaway version of Aalto too, it’s a great synth and sounds awesome. Kaivo and Virta sound amazing too. I wish he compiled Linux versions of the plugins too, although at least the CM version of Aalto worked fine running under dssi-vst on Linux.
