New Plug-Ins Host: Blue Cat's PatchWork now Available as a Standalone Application

[Blue Cat Audio]

Dear KVRers,

We are very excited to announce the release of our first standalone host application: with Blue Cat's PatchWork 1.6, our "universal plug-ins patch bay" is now available as a standalone application for Mac and PC, in addition to all major audio plug-in formats that were already supported.



The new Blue Cat's PatchWork application is a fast and lightweight host that can quickly load audio effect plug-ins and virtual instruments for immediate usage. It supports up to 8 audio I/O, tempo synchronization, Audio Unit and VST plug-ins hosting (up to 64 plug-ins), copy/paste between multiple applications. Presets created with the standalone application or the plug-in are compatible and can be shared between all plug-in formats to quickly reload effect chains. The application and the plug-ins inserted into it can also be controlled via MIDI.

This new version also brings several enhancements and compatibility improvements to the plug-in versions.

The update is free for existing customers and is available for download from the same page as the initial purchase (link received by email). Demo versions of the application or plug-in (VST, RTAS, AAX, Audio Unit and DirectX formats) can also be downloaded on http://www.bluecataudio.com, for both Mac and PC (32 and 64-bit).

New Features:
- Now available as a standalone host application.
Fixes and compatibility improvements:
- Improved presets and session load/save performance (up to 4 times faster in some situations).
- Fixed issue with Izotope Audio Units that were configured as mono effects on stereo tracks.
- Fixed crashes during auto save with Kontakt 5 in Pro Tools 11.

Pricing:
Blue Cat's PatchWork: 59 EUR or $79 (VAT excluded).

More details can also be found on our blog: Blue Cat's PatchWork Standalone Host Application Summary.

[Breeze]

Excellent news! Finally a worthy successor to Chainer? I assume we can import any saved setup from the standalone into a DAW project using the plugin? I've been waiting for something like this for a long time. Digging out my BC customer discount email now...

[Blue Cat Audio]

Yes, presets are compatible between the standalone application and the misc plug-in versions (and also between Mac and Windows - provided that you have compatible configurations for plug-ins).

[Blue Cat Audio]

BTW, you might be interested in checking out the Blue Cat's PatchWork Standalone Tips video, by Pro Tools Expert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCmHGm7DhA4

[thetechnobear]

Is the standalone (and/or vst version) multi threaded?
(i.e. loading each vst into its own thread, so balanced over multiple cores)

[Blue Cat Audio]

That's a good point: processing currently happens in a single thread, but we are working on a multicore version. However, it will only be possible to process parallel chains that have no dependencies between them (no MIDI connections between their plug-ins): effects that are applied in a sequence cannot be parallelized since they require the output of the previous plug-in to operate.

[thetechnobear]

That's a good point: processing currently happens in a single thread, but we are working on a multicore version. However, it will only be possible to process parallel chains that have no dependencies between them (no MIDI connections between their plug-ins): effects that are applied in a sequence cannot be parallelized since they require the output of the previous plug-in to operate.

parallel streams, for me be the main 'win', as Id like to to patchwork to host multiple virtual instruments, which are being controlled via different splits on a controller.

( I think you could offer multicore serial by having the following vsts an audio buffer behind, i.e. its not as good, but may be acceptable for some applications, especially if the users systems is capable of running low buffer sizes e.g. 64)

also it would be nice to see this in the VST version, the reason is, Id like to run patchwork inside a single threaded VST host, so patchwork would essentially be adding this multi core processing
(well I can dream )

(currently i use vienna ensemble pro, which is great, but I think patchwork would be a nice 'lightweight' solution, for when I i don't need all the bells and whistles of VEP e.g networking)

[Blue Cat Audio]

This is indeed the idea: it would be available in the standalone and plug-ins versions (but could be disabled, as some host applications, such as Pro Tools, may not like it).

"Parallelising" plug-ins that are in series would actually add one buffer of latency per plug-in, so it is not usable in practice.

[glokraw]

I tried the Patchwork standalone demo in a linux/wineasio setup, and it seems to work fine,
and with low cpu use. I loaded Diva, then CM Fuzz as the fx, and all the gui's worked properly.

On a second desktop screen, I started Reaper, with a Rapture arppegio,
to provide Diva a dance partner. To use Patchwork and Reaper .exe's, with Diva, CM Fuzz,
and Rapture, and record the mixed output using Jack Timemachine, on such an old computer,
is really nice. Only downside, is I now have to email Santa, to modify last weeks list.
Cheers (Love the Bluecat gui's!)

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thanks! This sounds great!

Would you mind sharing with us a few screenshots as well as instructions explaining how to proceed to run it on linux? Anything special with the configuration of wine?

This would probably be interesting for many people.

[echopark]

The standalone doesn´t have Midi in. Or I am blind ?
So it´s useless for me.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Actually it does have MIDI in. It just listens to all available MIDI ports (no configuration required):

The application also receives MIDI events from all MIDI input interfaces available on the machine, without any particular configuration required.

It would indeed be pretty limited for virtual instruments without MIDI input support!

[echopark]

Where can I select the Midi input ?

[Blue Cat Audio]

Right now you can't: it listens to all MIDI interfaces. You can however select with MIDI channel goes to a plug-in ("MIDI Input" in the plug-in slot menu).

[glokraw]

Thanks! This sounds great!

Would you mind sharing with us a few screenshots as well as instructions explaining how to proceed to run it on linux? Anything special with the configuration of wine?

This would probably be interesting for many people.

Hi. you use a linux package manager gui, like synaptic, or yum, or pacman, to install qjackctl, and wineasio, which will also install the needed extra apps to have
a wine enabled linux audio, and the gui (qjackctl) to connect things.
The normal user (not root) runs a command in a terminal,

regsvr32 wineasio.dll

The terminal output will confirm success. After that, for installing and running .exe files
just use command

wine install_xyz.exe
wine xyz,exe
or msiexec -i xyz.msi

wineasio should be seen by the windows app's dialog to choose the asio device.
winecfg command brings up a tabbed config panel for wine, pretty basic choices.
Audio works by default in most cases.

qjackctl is a three tabbed gui for configuring linux prefs, and then
connecting linux audio hardware and software i/o. When partchwork is launched,
it will appear in the qjackctl Audio tab.

wine /home/me/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files/Blue Cat Audio/Blue Cat's PatchWork/Blue Cat's PatchWork.exe"

You can link the .exe to /home/me and then just command

wine Patchwork.exe (or some systems may provide icons in a menu)

A couple of videos for setting up various aspects of linux audio, but
there are several prebuilt audio linux systems, and some custom software sources,
with long histories, to add to a generic systems software installation repositories.
pm an email address to receive screenshots of Patchwork running as mentioned.
Cheers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2gPqH6kNJU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMz6fDGBnA4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NREeeLr-oyI