Blue Cat's Connector 1.1 Released (Incl. ASIO Driver)!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Yes, but I use IAC to send the Midi… Works now, and is a bit easier to set up as I only need to deal with ports for the audio connection from Mainstage…
It was a bit tricky to get Mainstage to listen to the IAC bus only, as you need to prevent your keyboard to go there as well. Or you get double note on/offs which then leads to confusion/stuck notes…
You need to assign the IAC bus in the Layout area for all elements...
Try these:
MPE AU to Bitwig via Connector.zip

I definitely need to take the time to check out Mainstage and see what is so specific about it and if there is not another way to solve this!

[Tj Shredder]

The only special thing about Mainstage vs. a DAW, is that Mainstage needs to listen to all incoming Midi by default. You need to decide, how to send Midi to Mainstage and take care of the routing. Its made for live performances, not for incorporating it into a DAW context. Its a workaround to get access to those instruments. Once set up correctly all is fine. I wonder if the settings in my project translate directly to another computer. If so, you could deliver that project as an aid for Mainstage users… My example project is laid out for MPE use, which needed some extra love…

[Mantras]

Is anyone succesfuly routing the logic / mainstage instruments in ableton live and are getting it to stay in sync with the project? I managed just fine with bitwig using the IAC midi port, but I can not get it to work within ableton live. There seems to be no way to offset the IAC midi tracks with negative delay so that the audio from the instruments come in sync with the tempo of the ableton project.

[FreethinkerInc]

Hi,
I'm wondering why I can't choose the Asio Driver for the whole windows system? Anybody having the same issue? I want to stream the whole audio from my remote machine to my main pc. I'm using Windows 10.

Does anybody know how to accomplish it? In other music apps, like Reason or Cubase I can choose the ASIO Driver to be BC Connector.
Kind Regards
Paddy

[machinesworking]

I definitely need to take the time to check out Mainstage and see what is so specific about it and if there is not another way to solve this!

I don't know if it's the new version or not, but I was able to use just Connector to route MIDI and audio from MainStage to DP and I'm sure other DAWs here. I haven't messed with tempo synced patches or AIC yet, but if there was a way for beat clock, MTC or some other sync protocol to be incorporated into Connector that would really up the ante on it as a tool. The lack of ReWire or something better to replace it is glaring IMO, these days there are more and more multi DAW owners..

[Blue Cat Audio]

Hi,
I'm wondering why I can't choose the Asio Driver for the whole windows system? Anybody having the same issue? I want to stream the whole audio from my remote machine to my main pc. I'm using Windows 10.

Does anybody know how to accomplish it? In other music apps, like Reason or Cubase I can choose the ASIO Driver to be BC Connector.
Kind Regards
Paddy

ASIO is indeed only supported by "Pro Audio" applications. It is not a native Windows driver, so it is not supported by all types of appications.

[Blue Cat Audio]

I definitely need to take the time to check out Mainstage and see what is so specific about it and if there is not another way to solve this!

I don't know if it's the new version or not, but I was able to use just Connector to route MIDI and audio from MainStage to DP and I'm sure other DAWs here. I haven't messed with tempo synced patches or AIC yet, but if there was a way for beat clock, MTC or some other sync protocol to be incorporated into Connector that would really up the ante on it as a tool. The lack of ReWire or something better to replace it is glaring IMO, these days there are more and more multi DAW owners..

Maybe it's the new MIDI meter that helps settings things up?

We have not found a way to do the sync (yet), as plug-ins cannot interact with the host's timeline.

[koalaboy]

I'd like to add some feedback, in case it helps, after buying the plugin today (I know I could demo it, but it does solve a problem for me).

Overall, it does what I expected it to, but there are a few caveats that surprised me.

1) Non-resizable UI. Not a blocker in this instance, as DAW/Windows scaling is fine for this purpose, but I honestly expected some sort of HiDPI scaling to start with.
2) Running between a Ryzen 5950X Windows machine (Studio One) and a Mac Studio 20-core (Davince Resolve), I can only get 'happy' results with a buffer size of around 1920samples, so 40ms. It's fine for monitoring, and I could possibly delay the video similarly on the resolve side to match the timing, but I was very surprised at the latency considering I can usually get much lower on Windows.
3) I couldn't get the ASIO driver to work at all - tried configuring it in Studio One, but the other end just kept trying to connect with no joy - not too important as that wasn't my use case, but it would have been nice if it worked.

For the moment, in this case, I think I'll likely just move Resolve across to Windows entirely and move files about as necessary to eliminate any network latency during processing. I will likely have other uses for connector, and try those over the next few days. I really like the concept and the overall approach is really nice - the interface makes sense and I could understand the process (except for the 'auto' buffer size - seriously, rename that to just 'none').

I still think it's worth the money during the intro period, but it would be nice to see more details in the UI (maybe a hidden tab) to help troubleshooting... why are there dropouts ? Where is the problem occurring, etc ? Do the bitrates differ ?
Having to switch between machines (when using a network) to try and troubleshoot is a pain.
Also not being able to 'sync' buffer sizes automatically when they *are* connected - this would help a lot, considering the recommendation is to make them the same.

HTH.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thanks for the feedback.

Regarding the UI, it is currently indeed necessary to use the zoom feature on Windows if you are using HDPI settings. Automated High-DPI scaling is in the plans, but there are a couple of pending issues due to the changes made by Microsoft in every single version of Windows since the appearance of HiDPI support.

Regarding the latency, have you made sure that both apps were setup with the same buffer size? With appropriate settings you should be able to get very low latencies, but it is not only up to the plug-in, unfortunately. Automatic buffer size selection is unfortunately not possible, as there is no guarantee that the buffer length remains constant over time in both the source and destination hosts applications.

Regarding the ASIO driver, have you made sure to update the driver settings with the right ports?

I am indeed not satisfied with the "auto" wording, but "none" is not exact either. "same as host" would be the most precise term, but it's a bit too long, and not very meaningful either...

[Mantras]

Hello. I would like to bring a bug report for version 1.1.

I am now using Bitwig 4.3.2 and Logic Pro 10.6.1.
Same buffer size, same sample rate. No MIDI only Audio (MIDI via MacOS IAC)

I want to record the softsynths of Logic into Bitwig.
I send midi through IAC from Bitwig and get the audio signal returned with BC Connector with the local host setting.

If I create a new project in Bitwig and Logic and set up all the correct settings for Midi / Audio everything works great. I can play, record without any drop outs. Everything is working 100% smoothly.

But... the moment I choose to save the Bitwig project and Logic project and then closing both the applications and reopen the projects I always get numerous drop outs in the BC Connector receiver in Bitwig when playing the Logic synths...

New projects set up 100% smooth
Same projects saved and loaded non stop drop outs...

What might be the issue here?

[Blue Cat Audio]

That's odd. I don't see anything that should change in Connector when reloaded. What happens if you reset the connection from the connector receiver and/or sender? (you can do that by switching to "App" mode then back to "Local Host")

[Mantras]

I am not able to figure out what is the issue. I am using a m1 powered mac but keep getting random drop out issues resulting in occasional clicks when recording the audio to Bitwig. Is there some settings I could do in Logic Pro X or would Mainstage be a better option for a more stable experience? I am not able to find any pattern to the issues. Sometimes it runs just fine for a while and then suddenly the issues appear.

[Blue Cat Audio]

If you are getting random dropouts then I guess you may have to increase the receiver buffer size as there is too much jitter between the apps.

[Mantras]

If you are getting random dropouts then I guess you may have to increase the receiver buffer size as there is too much jitter between the apps.

I got it to work now. I realized that I made the mistake by only trying to change buffersize in the DAW's, but not in Connector. The setting there was always at "Auto". When I increased the buffersize in Connector everything works more smoothly.

One last question. In logic pro x audio settings there is a multithreading setting where you can choose playback or playback & live. Will this have any effect on the connector performance?

[Blue Cat Audio]

I got it to work now. I realized that I made the mistake by only trying to change buffersize in the DAW's, but not in Connector. The setting there was always at "Auto". When I increased the buffersize in Connector everything works more smoothly.

Great! Unless working in a single application, extra buffering is indeed usually required.

One last question. In logic pro x audio settings there is a multithreading setting where you can choose playback or playback & live. Will this have any effect on the connector performance?

I am not sure what this setting actually does, but I guess "live" seems to make sense, as Connector streams audio in real time. But maybe there is no impact at all.