Blue Cat's PatchWork 2.5: multicore processing, Apple M1, promotion and more

[Blue Cat Audio]

Dear KVR Members,

We are happy to announce the release of Blue Cat's PatchWork 2.5, a new version of our multi-effects processor also capable of hosting third party plug-ins.

Including a brand new multicore processing engine, this new version focuses on performanceand compatibility: optimized to the best out of the available CPU resources, it is able to load more effects and instruments on multicore processors, even at lower latencies. It also includes many new features and fixes (full list below).

An optimized build for the new Apple M1 Macs is also available to customers as a preview, with great performance improvements, as shown in our benchmark comparing Apple M1 and Intel Macs for audio.



The free update can be downloaded from the same location as the original full version (link received by email upon purchase). And for new customers, PatchWork is exceptionally on sale (10% off) until May 6th, while existing customers will receive an even better deal by email. Demo versions are available on www.bluecataudio.com in most plug-in formats (and as a standalone application) for Mac and Windows PC.

New Features & Improvements:
- Up to 8 times more processing power with the new multicore engine that processes each parallel chain on a separate core.
- New DSP workload meter that displays the DSP activity and CPU load.
- Added MIDI control support (MIDI CC messages) for Next and Previous Preset commands, with MIDI learn.
- Reduced time to load PatchWork or any built-in plug-in.
- Multiple DSP performance improvements.
- Improved buffer management in standalone application on Mac, reducing both latency and CPU usage.
- Level meters are not updated anymore when the user interface is closed, reducing CPU usage.
- Reduced the number of threads used by the plug-in.
- Improved global and preset settings window loading time on Windows.
- Added ability to select the plug-in to load when a shell plug-in file is dragged and dropped onto a slot.
- Full unicode support.
- Preset files can now be dropped onto the preset LCD area to be loaded.
- Improved "Tone Maps" user interface (available for 9 built-in effects).

Fixes:
- Fixed standalone app not always asking for Microphone access on most recent MacOS systems.
- Fixed host loop end value not properly passed to hosted plug-ins, for the VST2 version.
- Fixed several crashes upon load for multiple third party plug-ins (mostly VST3).
- Fixed display issues with Waves plug-ins V12 in Mac standalone application.
- Fixed MIDI control for hosted plug-ins not always working when fed with silence.
- Fixed VST3 (and sometimes VST) version freezing Ableton Live upon save on Windows.
- Fixed harmonizer and Pitch Shifter built-in plug-ins that did not always flush their buffer upon bypass (short sounds could be heard when getting out of bypass)

System requirements:
- Intel (or M1) Mac running Mac OS 10.7 or newer.
- Windows PC running Windows Vista or newer.

Pricing:
Blue Cat's PatchWork: 89 EUR or $89 (instead of 99) until May 6th

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Very nice update! Thanks!

I'm hoping once the other BlueCat plugs get updated, that a revamped Macro control section would be the next feature coming.

[Blue Cat Audio]

I'm hoping once the other BlueCat plugs get updated, that a revamped Macro control section would be the next feature coming.

That's indeed one of the options for future releases. I must admit Apple has kept us a bit busy on other fronts for the past 2 years!

[Blue Cat Audio]

In case you are wondering what it does and how it works, here is a short blog post that gives more details: Multicore Audio Processing - What is it, and why do you care?

[padillac]

How are patches stored on disk? I am interested in using this to sync FX device patches to two computers via Dropbox. Is there an easy way to create a folder of patches in Dropbox and save / load patches from there? Lots of plugins store things in some special folder (e.g. /Libray/Audio/patches/whatever), but some make it easy to define my own folder for patch files.

---

Does it have any sort of macro control? I see:

Parameters Mapping: map sub plug-ins parameters to automate them or use a control surface.

Are those the 8 knobs at the bottom of the interface?

[Blue Cat Audio]

How are patches stored on disk? I am interested in using this to sync FX device patches to two computers via Dropbox. Is there an easy way to create a folder of patches in Dropbox and save / load patches from there? Lots of plugins store things in some special folder (e.g. /Libray/Audio/patches/whatever), but some make it easy to define my own folder for patch files.

Presets are stored in the user documents folder. I don't know if this works for Dropbox. However you could probably setup shortcuts to get it to work.

Does it have any sort of macro control? I see:
Are those the 8 knobs at the bottom of the interface?

Patchwork does not have macro controls, but you can map up to 40 hosted plug-ins parameters to "external" parameters that can be automated in the DAW or controlled via MIDI. They are indeed located at the bottom of the GUI when mapped. You can watch the following video (at 1'37) for more details:

[Blue Cat Audio]

Whether you already own PatchWork or not, you may be interested in these few tips to enhance your favorite plug-ins by loading them thru PatchWork:



BTW the promotion is ending in two days