Blue Cat's PatchWork - Virtual Plug-Ins Patch bay - Now with MIDI Routing + AU Hosting

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Breeze wrote:For the record, I think you have brilliant ideas for plugins but your omission of VST3 sidechains is a serious issue for me. Not everyone shares this opinion of course. But with every new plugin you develop and publish, the time required for this integration to take place increases. I really respect your work and your ideas but I know that I'd just get frustrated; I regularly do with DPM Pro which I've been using for a long time, and it would be so much easier to setup and use with VST3 sidechains.I just want you to know that my decision to pass on this, M7 and other products is mainly based on this. Again, my personal opinion. :shrug:
Yes I'm frustrated with blue cat for not incorporating au sidechain either.. The wait time is just getting ridiculous for the dynamics for example to have this. And it NEEDS it. I wild hazard a string guess that is whey their dynamics plugin is not popular here.

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kiezum wrote:Great plugin. Very useful. Can it pass midi information from one plugin to the other within Patchwork (for arpegiators, Thesys, Reaktor ensembles and scripts in Kontakt)? That would be an awesome feature.
That would be awesome to know as well and number one on my wish list. It would simply solve the problem that logic has in this regard. I heard bidule can do it but I'm not entirely sure as the demo is the standalone only and I'm not willing to spend 100 bucks on a maybe. But this blue cat product is very cheap as a current customer, and of great interest to me. blue, can it do inter plugin in midi chaining?

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Hi TheoM, it's been a while! :-)

We hear you. There are indeed tons of great features that we would love to implement... Again, resources are limited, so we are just trying to do our best!

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Am I wrong in thinking there's currently no way of the 'passing through' automation data from the host to the parameters of plugins that Patchwork is hosting? (Ive looked at the manual, but all the automation information there that Ive found seems to pertain to automating PatchWork alone.)
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

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whyterabbyt wrote:Am I wrong in thinking there's currently no way of the 'passing through' automation data from the host to the parameters of plugins that Patchwork is hosting? (Ive looked at the manual, but all the automation information there that Ive found seems to pertain to automating PatchWork alone.)
Yes, you are right. This is currently not possible with the initial release.

Right now you can pass MIDI data though, so you can simulate automation using MIDI CC lanes.

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Blue Cat Audio wrote:
whyterabbyt wrote:Am I wrong in thinking there's currently no way of the 'passing through' automation data from the host to the parameters of plugins that Patchwork is hosting? (Ive looked at the manual, but all the automation information there that Ive found seems to pertain to automating PatchWork alone.)
Yes, you are right. This is currently not possible with the initial release.

Right now you can pass MIDI data though, so you can simulate automation using MIDI CC lanes.
Cheers. Would you be able to comment at this point as to whether its definitely going to happen, or is that an unknown at this point? My main interest is in being able to host VST under PT11 as 'fully' as possible (specifically including automation), and whilst I have a current solution, its slightly overkill, (and doesnt do multichannel IO the way I'd like), and something simpler would be preferable to me in the long term.
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

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Blue Cat Audio wrote:Hi TheoM, it's been a while! :-)

We hear you. There are indeed tons of great features that we would love to implement... Again, resources are limited, so we are just trying to do our best!
So does that mean that its able to route mid controlled vst or not? Not sure, cheers

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TheoM wrote:I heard bidule can do it but I'm not entirely sure as the demo is the standalone only and I'm not willing to spend 100 bucks on a maybe. But this blue cat product is very cheap as a current customer, and of great interest to me. blue, can it do inter plugin in midi chaining?
Bidule is as complete as it is unfriendly. It's actually officially still in beta! I've done some pretty amazing things with it but the docs are far from comprehensive and if if weren't for the fact that there's a lot of info in the forums (and a responsive dev there as well) I would have given up on it. It'll do anything you want it to, but prepare to spend some serious time with it.

PatchWork, apart from my own issues, is a nice streamlined sub-host utility. MIDI handling is going to be consideration, but maybe that's just a matter of time. It would be ideal if it offered an internal MIDI patch-bay to route things where we need them and even plugins that could alter the MIDI stream (velocity mods, MIDI echo, clock multiplier, CC scaling, xforms, etc...). You could do all of the above and more with Bidule, but it wouldn't be laid out for you: you'd have to build it all yourself and spend some late nights scratching your head, like many devs do... ;)

Right now PatchWork looks a lot like a newer form of Chainer (I hate xlutop for giving up on that efficient swiss army utility...) without being a standalone host. Like most software, it's a work in progress; hopefully some of these things will come to fruition. Of course, the advantage to having features like the above built into the software is efficiency and reliability. The Bidule model works, but every possible configuration can't be possibly worked out and tested thoroughly by the devs and if you're not careful you can end up with an unstable construct. Software built to specific purposes is generally more solid and the code more efficient.

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Would you be able to comment at this point as to whether its definitely going to happen, or is that an unknown at this point?
It's hard to say right now, and we cannot commit on future plans anyway (who knows!). So you may have to wait and see, sorry!
So does that mean that its able to route mid controlled vst or not? Not sure, cheers
It is currently the same as for the MB-7 Mixer plug-in: MIDI data that is coming into the PatchWork plug-in is dispatched to all inserted plug-ins. However, there is no chaining, as the plug-in currently does not read the inserted plug-ins MIDI outputs. Does it clarify?

@Breeze: we should hire you! :-)

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No it doesn't lol. Sorry I am not quite sure I understand. I will demo it, I guess that will answer stuff.

Basically to give you a rundown, imagine I load the vsti version of patchworx, and I add a thesys step sequencer, then let's say any vst synth of my choosing, basically want to be able to control these as if I was using cubase. Logic can't do it without horrible latent workarounds, and you'd have the most niche product on the market if yours could do it internally. I can't do it in meta plugin either for some reason, never been able to make it work even though in meta plugin the midi outputs of vst plugins are indeed rout able.

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Blue Cat Audio wrote:
Would you be able to comment at this point as to whether its definitely going to happen, or is that an unknown at this point?
It's hard to say right now, and we cannot commit on future plans anyway (who knows!). So you may have to wait and see, sorry!
No problem; i'll definiteloy be keeping an eye on its progress.
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

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Also blue please start considering a simple way for an end user, directly on the GUI, to be able to change the colours of your plugins. The black is getting overwhelmingly harder to deal with, the more of your plugins I use. And since there are hardly and other skins available,something with direct access just to be able to at least lighten them a bit would be a godsend.

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Hmm, the cpu usage here is the same as MB-7 in single band mode.. I don't think i need this..as i am happy with MB-7.. but you guys have done one very clever thing.. you have added a wet/dry on pathwrx which is not on MB-7. Why not add that for MB-7? That would be awesome. On the other hand, if you add wet/dry for each individual EFFECT on patchworx, i will buy it for that feature alone without hesitation.

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+1 for wet dry on every band in MB7 and in patchwx
UI too dark...whiteish theme please!

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Looks like a useful tool but like whyterabbyt the first thing i wondered was how it handled automation.

Will keep an eye on this one though.

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