GUI Strangeness-Access for plug-in parameters very limited

[Joseph Hanna]

My rig:-Mac Studio-Ventura 13.2.1-Pro Tools v 2023.3 Running Natively under Silicon (Behavior however is the same under Rosetta)-Studio One v6.1.1-Reason v 12.5.1-Blue Cat v 2.65-Omnisphere (up to date)-Scaler v 2.7.3-Kontakt v 7.3.0


Having trouble with GUI access to plug-in information inside Blue Cat running Pro Tools and VST plug-ins. As an example, if I load an instantiation of Scaler VST3/latest version, I get limited or no access to pull-down menus or other areas of the plug-in itself. I can see the very bottom of the pull-down menus but there's no way to actually access them. It's essentially hidden behind the plug-in itself.

Spectrasonic stuff is similar. If I call up a VST version of Omnisphere in Blue Cat I get a locked bottom 3rd-ish of the Omnisphere GUI. I can't maneuver inside Omnisphere itself. No way to search pre-sets. Also, at some point, Blue Cat will not allow access to Omnisohere at all. Clicking on the "show plugin button and..no Omniphere. Native Instrument stuff behaves the same. I haven't tried all of my softsynth VI's as of yet but Omnisphere, Scaler, and Kontakt are core for me.

It's important to note audio seems to behave exactly as it should. I just can't access plug-in parameters and pull-down menus.

It's also important to note Studio One runs Blue Cat chains exactly as it should across the board, BUT Reason+ behaves exactly as it does in Pro Tools.

Distilled; Bluecat works in Studio One but does not work in Pro Tools and Reason+

Hope someone can help and thanks in advance!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thanks for the heads up.

After a bit of research, it seems that this update of Pro Tools contains some pretty large changes regarding GUI behavior that trigger some bugs in many AAX plug-ins (especially those using the JUCE framework). I am pretty sure that this is also what happens with those VST plug-ins here.

Regarding the menus, have you tried to enable (or disable) the "plug-ins editors always on top" option in the PatchWork preferences? (You may have to reload the session to make sure it is active).

[Joseph Hanna]

Thank's for the quick replay!

I have not tried enable (or disable) the "plug-ins editors always on top" option in the PatchWork preferences cause for the life of me I can't find the preferences. I can find the preference page in the stand-alone app but that doesn't display the "plug-in editors always on top" option.

I can't download the manual right now cause I think your servers are temporarily down. Could you perhaps direct me in the right direction?

[Joseph Hanna]

Found the preference page. Kinda was right in front of my nose, but still getting used to the layout. I got a chance to disable all editors on top and that worked for Scaler. I didn't get a chance to look at the other VI's but will tonight, and report back.

--Thank you,
Don

[Joseph Hanna]

Just to update: The great majority of my VI's are behaving correctly now including Scaler. The Native Instrument stuff, of which I was having problems, is now working. The Spectrasonic's stuff (Omnishere and Stylus) is still problematic both from a parameter access perspective, as well as eventually it freezes Patchwork completely. The only way out is to ditch that instantiation. Some, but not all Arturia plug-ins show the same anomalies.

I think I have enough latitude to do most of what I need to do with Patchwork, but if you could look into it that'd be swell. I'd love to have some Omnisphere/Arturia/Blue Cat presets.

Thanks again