Oh, it's been a long time since I've posted here...

Some time ago I made a VST host designed to act as a pedalboard for my guitar, controlled via a hacked joystick-cum-footpedal. It was pretty ugly, and not very good, and I never really used it as much as I was expecting to.

Recently though, I found myself again in need of a decent plugin host for live use. Looking around, it seems there still isn't a good free/low cost solution that would suit me, so I re-wrote the pedalboard.

It's based on the JUCE 'audio plugin host' code, which let me avoid having to code the trickier hosting stuff, though there was still a fair bit of work involved in getting everything working the way I wanted.

The key features are:

• Modular patching (fixing a major limitation of the previous app).
  
• All plugin parameters can be manipulated in real time via MIDI CCs or Open Sound Control messages.
  
• Any number of patches can be queued up and rapidly switched between.
  

It's open source (GPL), and there's Windows and OSX versions. The OSX version will load AudioUnits and VSTs, the Windows version just VSTs.

Download here
Last edited by NiallM on Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:36 am; edited 10 times in total

Niall - I haven't tried this yet, and to be honest, I have no immediate use for it, but I just wanted to briefly hijack this thread to say how much I appreciate the work you've done in the past. I realise that you're no longer actively developing them, but I think you made some of the most interesting VST's out there; Fragmental and Brush Strokes in particular are in my list of essentials. So...thanks! Now back to the program in question...

Niall - thank you
fragmental is in use here often
and pedalboard2 looks simple and usefull.
do you have any twitter account ? some want to follow you

Thanks guys


Well I've started a small record label called Giant Bear Tracks which has a twitter account, but it's more of an experiment than a proper feed (also, I keep forgetting it's there ). There's also a blog for my band though where I tend to write about whatever's in my head at that particular moment.

Nice! Still enjoying buffer synth 2. Too bad the modulator 2 doesn't work well in win 7.

Hey Niall, hope you're well.

Is your site dead? I haven't been able to reach it for days now, eager to try Pedalboard2.

Hi Steve. I'm doing pretty well, thanks Yourself?

I'm in the process of switching domain registrar at the moment, which is why niallmoody.com has briefly disappeared. The site itself is on google app engine now though, so you can still get to it via http://niallmoodyhome.appspot.com/

I'm doing pretty well. Off now to download pedalboard2. I dig the interface change to this, much deeper than the first one.

hi niall,good to here from you.
nice to see your still making things.
look fwd to trying it. soon.

crashed on scanning vst folder.
(win7)

i get that with most hosts.the best i've found is xt's way of just listing them,then only scanning when you load one.

second attempt and it scanned a few more.
i guess i should make a mini vst folder.

i like the wires gui.
though some connections don't seem to want to connect.

Hi gary

I'm afraid there's not much I can do about that myself, as all the low level VST handling stuff is taken care of by the JUCE library (which makes my life a lot easier). It should keep a note of any misbehaving plugins though, and refuse to scan/load them a second time.

Oh, I hadn't noticed that before. The mouse pointer has to be over the connection 'pin' before they'll connect (you'll see the connection snap to it when that's the case). Looking at it again though, when you're dragging a connection, the way it's drawn it actually extends past the mouse pointer. Meaning it could look like it's formed a valid connection when it's actually not.

That's easily fixed though; I'll stick it on my todo list (first thing on that list is to add a trigger parameter to the File Player so I can trigger samples drum machine-style via TouchOSC now that I've finally invested in an ipod ).

I've just uploaded a new version. The big changes are an OSX version and a new VU Meter component, but this version is mainly about fixing some niggling issues.

Complete changelog:
- Display the current computer's IP address in the about window.
- Add Trigger parameter to File Player (to allow drum machine-style playing).
- Make OSC mapping address text editor not require a return keypress.
- Draw dragged connections centred on the mouse pointer.
- Update PluginField bounds when a processor is moved outside them.
- Made Level processor stereo.
- VU Meter processor.
- Ability to double-click a processor's title bar to change its name.
- Give pins a larger hit test radius when dragging a connection.
- Make sure 'Override plugin's MIDI...' button state persists after closing the
  window.
- Update to JUCE v1.54.27.
- OSX Version.

I've uploaded version 2.03. There's a few more fixes for niggling issues, but the big changes for this one are:

• Drag and drop loading of .pdl files (the pedalboard's patch format), and plugin files (.dll, .vst, .component).
  
• Midi Input now accepts messages from all selected devices, not just the default one.
  
• Rudimentary OSC address learn functionality*.
  
• Added a basic Audio Recorder component.
  

* - The app will now keep a note of the addresses of any OSC messages it receives, and offer a drop down list of them in the mappings window. This should simplify setting up OSC mappings a bit, though you can still type in arbitrary OSC addresses as before.

And the full change list:
- Drag and drop loading of .pdl files.
- Drag and drop loading of plugin files (.dll, .vst, .component).
- Set FilePlayer's Sync to Main Transport button correctly on creation.
- Saving an existing patch should no longer open the save as... dialog.
- Dragging a PluginComponent outside the PluginField's bounds scrolls the viewport.
- Fixed Midi Input only accepting messages from the default device; now messages from any devices ticked in the Audio Settings dialog will be available.
- Special case fix for VAZ+, since it doesn't like being put in a resizable window.
- Basic OSC learn functionality; the app remembers every OSC address it's been sent since it was started, and gives the user a combobox list of them.
- Added the same OSC learn functionality to application mappings window.
- Fixed memory leak in the mappings managers.
- Larger hit test area for plugin pins (big enough now?).
- Fixed plugins disappearing off the top left of the screen if you dragged them and changed patch.
- Made AudioFormatManager and AudioThumbnailCache singletons to simplify things (not ideal, but the alternative would be an enormous pain in the bum).
- Added Audio Recorder component.
- Use same stored folder for AudioRecorder as for FilePlayer.

...And we're up to v2.04. Following a suggestion via email I've added support for custom colours:

This version also fixes various issues with the OSX version, makes it possible to set up inverted MIDI mappings, and fixes the Application Mappings not saving (after I accidentally broke it for the previous version ).

Full changelog:
- Display the app's own icon in its titlebar.
- New icon.
- Wrote my own showModalDialog() method, so all the various child windows can share the main app's icon for their titlebars.
- Fixed Application Mappings dialog not saving changes (oops!).
- Added tooltips.
- Added support for custom colour schemes, including colour scheme editor.
- Made it possible to have inverted MIDI mappings.
- Removed GraphEditorPanel dependency.
- Fixed plugins opening blank guis on OSX.
- Fixed preferences files being saved in the wrong location on OSX.