Whats up with Bidule

[Tj Shredder]

There is that thread in the instruments forum called „whats up at Plogue“. But its so frustrating, they talk 100% about chip synths. Which is the least interesting topic imaginable, whereas Bidule would be something to talk about.
Its a modular, so it belongs into this forum anyway…
I wonder if there had there ever been a sale?
Will it ever reach version 1.0?
But they seem to support CLAP, which makes me believe its still in development…
I didn‘t get it yet, so arguments for or against it are welcome…

[ghettosynth]

There is that thread in the instruments forum called „whats up at Plogue“. But its so frustrating, they talk 100% about chip synths. Which is the least interesting topic imaginable, whereas Bidule would be something to talk about.
Its a modular, so it belongs into this forum anyway…
I wonder if there had there ever been a sale?
Will it ever reach version 1.0?
But they seem to support CLAP, which makes me believe its still in development…
I didn‘t get it yet, so arguments for or against it are welcome…

There has been a sale. Don't ask me what it was, I don't remember, but I bought it on sale. There are aspects of it that I like, and aspects that annoy me. The biggest annoyance is the limitation of building usable panels. I still don't have an environment that works well for what I want here. That is, it has to be a VST plugin/host that allows you to build up a modular effect/instrument, but mostly effects, from other plugins and then create a panel for said instrument with the ability to map knobs/switches to plugin parameters.

Synthedit use to host VSTs, but not the last time I checked. That would be a reasonable approach, but I really want something that can be edited while hosted. I wish that Bidule worked better here. Max would be perfect if it worked as a plugin, it does not. Reaktor hosting VSTs would be the cat's meow, I wouldn't bother looking for anything else.

[vurt]

yes, development is ongoing.
i like it, although im sure as above, others may need more, but for me it does more than i need.
had an issue once, late friday night, emailed, thinking id get a reply on the monday, was up and running within a couple of hours from my first email

[ElVincente]

There has been a sale. Don't ask me what it was, I don't remember, but I bought it on sale. There are aspects of it that I like, and aspects that annoy me. The biggest annoyance is the limitation of building usable panels. I still don't have an environment that works well for what I want here. That is, it has to be a VST plugin/host that allows you to build up a modular effect/instrument, but mostly effects, from other plugins and then create a panel for said instrument with the ability to map knobs/switches to plugin parameters.

Synthedit use to host VSTs, but not the last time I checked. That would be a reasonable approach, but I really want something that can be edited while hosted. I wish that Bidule worked better here. Max would be perfect if it worked as a plugin, it does not. Reaktor hosting VSTs would be the cat's meow, I wouldn't bother looking for anything else.

Mulab plugin maybe ?

[jersmi7]

Well, I think Plogue products are pretty solid, and I can appreciate the love for chip synths, I’m happy for their success. Some folks just have no time for a complex modular environment like Bidule. Personally, I’ve always loved Bidule… Bidule was Plogue’s flagship product, a couple decades in now, the foundation upon which everything else they’ve done was built. The Bidule side of Plogue is really a one-man operation at this point, but the dev is cool and approachable. It will likely never go to version 1, but as you noticed with CLAP, it’s managed to stay pretty up-to-date regarding the important stuff. Forum support has always been spot on. I turned to it from max/msp way back when because for me it was much more of a musical environment, stable plugin host, modular building blocks, multichannel plugin version, etc. It feels dated at this point because there are some pretty amazing modular products that surpass it with GUI and ease of use (I like Audulus). So if you are looking for something that looks really pretty, maybe not. But if you don’t care about that and you just want stability and power, it’s pretty great. Bidule remains viable.

[ccDuckett]

Came here to express the same sentiment as OP... while all things chip/DAC will always have eager pursuers, for me, there's no real "there" there- having the absolute most accurate emu of a particular processor's idiosyncrasies is NOT the missing key to bringing my musical ideas to full fruition.. not to de-value the chip stuff for others, but Bidule is right up there with AudioMulch (RIP.. what happened, Ross?), Hollyhock(Usine), and other genuinely modular systems that let you explore ideas at your whim/leisure. While software like this usually offers more than I'll ever need/use at one time, I like products which lead to new approaches, rather than focusing on streamlining production/turnaround of genre-of-the-month work, and that reward long-term exploration of capabilities.

[gentleclockdivider]

Came here to express the same sentiment as OP... while all things chip/DAC will always have eager pursuers, for me, there's no real "there" there- having the absolute most accurate emu of a particular processor's idiosyncrasies is NOT the missing key to bringing my musical ideas to full fruition.. not to de-value the chip stuff for others, but Bidule is right up there with AudioMulch (RIP.. what happened, Ross?), Hollyhock(Usine), and other genuinely modular systems that let you explore ideas at your whim/leisure. While software like this usually offers more than I'll ever need/use at one time, I like products which lead to new approaches, rather than focusing on streamlining production/turnaround of genre-of-the-month work, and that reward long-term exploration of capabilities.

yes they are modular in nature but there are so many differences between all them , Imho you can't compare bidule to max or audiomulch at all ( instead rip what an awesome program AM t is-was)
Audiomulch fantastic off the shelve modules -automation lanes , morph panel etc , none of that in bidule .
Bidue's forte was the spectral stuff but it still has those ancient horrible sequencers , no ow level dsp ( apart from some formulas )
As a vst host and global environment it still rules , however in the end I choose Loomer architect for midi duties ( absolutely amazing ) and reaktor for audio stuff ( bidule won't let you go as low level as reaktr core ) and supercollide when I want to stay in one environment only.
Never really got on with hollyhock , some swear by it , maybe I should give it an N-th try ?

[bharris22]

OT, but is Audiomulch still relevant today? It seems that development on it has ground to a halt. I don't necessarily have a problem with that if it still works well, but can't see spending $189 on a full license on it at this point .

[ghettosynth]

Came here to express the same sentiment as OP... while all things chip/DAC will always have eager pursuers, for me, there's no real "there" there- having the absolute most accurate emu of a particular processor's idiosyncrasies is NOT the missing key to bringing my musical ideas to full fruition.. not to de-value the chip stuff for others, but Bidule is right up there with AudioMulch (RIP.. what happened, Ross?), Hollyhock(Usine), and other genuinely modular systems that let you explore ideas at your whim/leisure. While software like this usually offers more than I'll ever need/use at one time, I like products which lead to new approaches, rather than focusing on streamlining production/turnaround of genre-of-the-month work, and that reward long-term exploration of capabilities.

yes they are modular in nature but there are so many differences between all them , Imho you can't compare bidule to max or audiomulch at all ( instead rip what an awesome program AM t is-was)
Audiomulch fantastic off the shelve modules -automation lanes , morph panel etc , none of that in bidule .
Bidue's forte was the spectral stuff but it still has those ancient horrible sequencers , no ow level dsp ( apart from some formulas )
As a vst host and global environment it still rules , however in the end I choose Loomer architect for midi duties ( absolutely amazing ) and reaktor for audio stuff ( bidule won't let you go as low level as reaktr core ) and supercollide when I want to stay in one environment only.
Never really got on with hollyhock , some swear by it , maybe I should give it an N-th try ?

Bidule as a VST host would be great if you could easily design decent panels for it. Maybe I'm missing something, and to be fair, it's been a long time, but what I want from something like Bidule is the ability to design a nice virtual plugin front panel. I want to load a preset and see that front panel. That's it. Reaktor works well enough here, but of course, doesn't host VST (or suitable alternative) plugins.

What I think would work great is just using Reason's Combinator. That's a reasonably good environment. Unfortunately, you can't host VSTs, AFAIK, in the Rack. I can see why, that would create more challenge for little reward. However, I find it frustrating that something like this doesn't exist in terms of being DAW independent.

Also, I can't get on with Hollyhock either. I'm not going to bother trying it again. Audiomulch was fun, very many years ago, but, IMO, they went in a strange direction and I lost interest.

[liquidsound]

Came here to express the same sentiment as OP... while all things chip/DAC will always have eager pursuers, for me, there's no real "there" there- having the absolute most accurate emu of a particular processor's idiosyncrasies is NOT the missing key to bringing my musical ideas to full fruition.. not to de-value the chip stuff for others, but Bidule is right up there with AudioMulch (RIP.. what happened, Ross?), Hollyhock(Usine), and other genuinely modular systems that let you explore ideas at your whim/leisure. While software like this usually offers more than I'll ever need/use at one time, I like products which lead to new approaches, rather than focusing on streamlining production/turnaround of genre-of-the-month work, and that reward long-term exploration of capabilities.

yes they are modular in nature but there are so many differences between all them , Imho you can't compare bidule to max or audiomulch at all ( instead rip what an awesome program AM t is-was)
Audiomulch fantastic off the shelve modules -automation lanes , morph panel etc , none of that in bidule .
Bidue's forte was the spectral stuff but it still has those ancient horrible sequencers , no ow level dsp ( apart from some formulas )
As a vst host and global environment it still rules , however in the end I choose Loomer architect for midi duties ( absolutely amazing ) and reaktor for audio stuff ( bidule won't let you go as low level as reaktr core ) and supercollide when I want to stay in one environment only.
Never really got on with hollyhock , some swear by it , maybe I should give it an N-th try ?

Bidule as a VST host would be great if you could easily design decent panels for it. Maybe I'm missing something, and to be fair, it's been a long time, but what I want from something like Bidule is the ability to design a nice virtual plugin front panel. I want to load a preset and see that front panel. That's it. Reaktor works well enough here, but of course, doesn't host VST (or suitable alternative) plugins.

What I think would work great is just using Reason's Combinator. That's a reasonably good environment. Unfortunately, you can't hose VSTs, AFAIK, in the Rack. I can see why, that would create more challenge for little reward. However, I find it frustrating that something like this doesn't exist in terms of being DAW independent.

Also, I can't get on with Hollyhock either. I'm not going to bother trying it again. Audiomulch was fun, very many years ago, but, IMO, they went in a strange direction and I lost interest.

What would be the difference between Bidule and the Mutools MUX?

[ghettosynth]

Came here to express the same sentiment as OP... while all things chip/DAC will always have eager pursuers, for me, there's no real "there" there- having the absolute most accurate emu of a particular processor's idiosyncrasies is NOT the missing key to bringing my musical ideas to full fruition.. not to de-value the chip stuff for others, but Bidule is right up there with AudioMulch (RIP.. what happened, Ross?), Hollyhock(Usine), and other genuinely modular systems that let you explore ideas at your whim/leisure. While software like this usually offers more than I'll ever need/use at one time, I like products which lead to new approaches, rather than focusing on streamlining production/turnaround of genre-of-the-month work, and that reward long-term exploration of capabilities.

yes they are modular in nature but there are so many differences between all them , Imho you can't compare bidule to max or audiomulch at all ( instead rip what an awesome program AM t is-was)
Audiomulch fantastic off the shelve modules -automation lanes , morph panel etc , none of that in bidule .
Bidue's forte was the spectral stuff but it still has those ancient horrible sequencers , no ow level dsp ( apart from some formulas )
As a vst host and global environment it still rules , however in the end I choose Loomer architect for midi duties ( absolutely amazing ) and reaktor for audio stuff ( bidule won't let you go as low level as reaktr core ) and supercollide when I want to stay in one environment only.
Never really got on with hollyhock , some swear by it , maybe I should give it an N-th try ?

Bidule as a VST host would be great if you could easily design decent panels for it. Maybe I'm missing something, and to be fair, it's been a long time, but what I want from something like Bidule is the ability to design a nice virtual plugin front panel. I want to load a preset and see that front panel. That's it. Reaktor works well enough here, but of course, doesn't host VST (or suitable alternative) plugins.

What I think would work great is just using Reason's Combinator. That's a reasonably good environment. Unfortunately, you can't host VSTs, AFAIK, in the Rack. I can see why, that would create more challenge for little reward. However, I find it frustrating that something like this doesn't exist in terms of being DAW independent.

Also, I can't get on with Hollyhock either. I'm not going to bother trying it again. Audiomulch was fun, very many years ago, but, IMO, they went in a strange direction and I lost interest.

What would be the difference between Bidule and the Mutools MUX?

I tried MUX, I can't remember all of the reasons that I didn't like it, but I didn't.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Damn, last release of Audiomulch was 2016. I loved the granular devices, had their own awesome sound and character, even by todays standards.

Id be tempted to upgrade if it was a bit cheaper

[gentleclockdivider]

Came here to express the same sentiment as OP... while all things chip/DAC will always have eager pursuers, for me, there's no real "there" there- having the absolute most accurate emu of a particular processor's idiosyncrasies is NOT the missing key to bringing my musical ideas to full fruition.. not to de-value the chip stuff for others, but Bidule is right up there with AudioMulch (RIP.. what happened, Ross?), Hollyhock(Usine), and other genuinely modular systems that let you explore ideas at your whim/leisure. While software like this usually offers more than I'll ever need/use at one time, I like products which lead to new approaches, rather than focusing on streamlining production/turnaround of genre-of-the-month work, and that reward long-term exploration of capabilities.

yes they are modular in nature but there are so many differences between all them , Imho you can't compare bidule to max or audiomulch at all ( instead rip what an awesome program AM t is-was)
Audiomulch fantastic off the shelve modules -automation lanes , morph panel etc , none of that in bidule .
Bidue's forte was the spectral stuff but it still has those ancient horrible sequencers , no ow level dsp ( apart from some formulas )
As a vst host and global environment it still rules , however in the end I choose Loomer architect for midi duties ( absolutely amazing ) and reaktor for audio stuff ( bidule won't let you go as low level as reaktr core ) and supercollide when I want to stay in one environment only.
Never really got on with hollyhock , some swear by it , maybe I should give it an N-th try ?

Bidule as a VST host would be great if you could easily design decent panels for it. Maybe I'm missing something, and to be fair, it's been a long time, but what I want from something like Bidule is the ability to design a nice virtual plugin front panel. I want to load a preset and see that front panel. That's it. Reaktor works well enough here, but of course, doesn't host VST (or suitable alternative) plugins.

What I think would work great is just using Reason's Combinator. That's a reasonably good environment. Unfortunately, you can't host VSTs, AFAIK, in the Rack. I can see why, that would create more challenge for little reward. However, I find it frustrating that something like this doesn't exist in terms of being DAW independent.

Also, I can't get on with Hollyhock either. I'm not going to bother trying it again. Audiomulch was fun, very many years ago, but, IMO, they went in a strange direction and I lost interest.

THats where loomer architect shines besides a vverry low level midi moduleswhich let's you build anything , you can also create your front panel for vst's
That's exacty what I did to make gforce sem into a 4 voice poly , each voice send toa different sem instance and all controld under 1 gui.

But , loomer architect audio routing is non existent apart from vsti-->mixer .
viewtopic.php?p=8482410&hilit=sem#p8482410

[VariKusBrainZ]

Mutools Mux is no more.

Even better now you get the whole daw, not just the modular guts as a plugin!!

[ghettosynth]

But , loomer architect audio routing is non existent apart from vsti-->mixer .
viewtopic.php?p=8482410&hilit=sem#p8482410

Yeah, that's the deal breaker right there. I need to be able to setup chains with the ability to tap and process the chain in parallel at any point.