Blue Cat Audio has announced a major update of their network audio/MIDI communication protocol, with the release of Blue Cat's Connector 1.4, Freeceiver 1.2 and PatchWork 2.72.
This free update allows the plug-ins and applications to carry up to 32 audio channels for surround and ambisonics streaming, and now supports System Exclusive MIDI data. It also adds network latency compensation and transport/clock synchronization capabilities to synchronize applications and audio streams together, regardless of the network latency and many other improvements and fixes (full list below).
Connector, the virtual cable plug-in that lets you connect applications together locally or thru the Internet, provides the core features of this new protocol. Freeceiver is a free implementation that can receive audio and MIDI signals sent by Connector anywhere. PatchWork, the virtual patchbay for plug-ins, provides network processing capabilities using this network protocol.
New In Connector 1.4/Freeceiver 1.2
Connector Protocol V2:
- Latency compensation: Connector can now evaluate, compensate and report the latency of the connection.
- Transport synchronization: Connector can now send MIDI Timecode (MTC) and MIDI Clock compatible signals to synchronize applications together.
- Manage synchronization with clock anticipation: the clock signal can compensate the connection latency to synchronize apps with no delay.
- Carry up to 32 audio channels for surround and Ambisonics support.
- MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx) support.
- Plug-in/app Features:
- The plug-in can now receive and transmit SysEx MIDI events.
- MIDI Thru option to merge incoming MIDI events with received events.
- Improved connection stability when sender under high CPU load.
- Improved connection status reporting in receiver.
- Find currently selected preset easily in the menu (folders containing the preset now display a check mark).
- New option to cycle next/previous preset in current bank.
- The plug-in can now send Bank Select and Program Change messages upon changes in the user interface to keep in sync with an external controller.
- Fixed memory leak in receiver when using resampling.
- Mac: Fixed location of text edit boxes changing when closing and re-opening the plug-in GUI in previous release.
- ASIO Driver:
- ASIO Positioning Protocol (A.P.P.) support: the ASIO driver can now control the transport of applications supporting the A.P.P. protocol (Cubase, Nuendo...) when being sent a clock signal.
- ASIO buffer size can now be set from the driver settings window.
- Audio compression and UPnP options can now be set from the driver settings window.
New in Patchwork 2.72:
Network Audio:
- Connector Protocol V2 support for network audio device.
- Application now reports plug-ins latency to the network client when running in network mode.
- Network audio device can now manage up to 32 audio channels.
- Adjust compression settings and activate UpnP for the Connector slave network audio device.
- Fixed application sometimes dropping local MIDI events when using the network audio device.
- New Features:
- Reported latency is now displayed in the status bar (bottom right).
- Route MIDI events from hosted plug-ins back to PatchWork's input with the new MIDI Loopback port.
- New "learn once" mode for MIDI and macro controls.
- Fixes:
- Fixed issue with some older VST2 instrument plug-ins not receiving MIDI events (such NI Kontakt 6) in previous release.
- Fixed VST3 plug-ins sometimes not updating meters when loaded in PatchWork.
- Fixed AAX effect plug-in not loading anymore in Pro Tools 11 and earlier.
- Improved WASAPI driver support for some audio devices in the Windows application.
- Fixed Arturia VST3 plug-ins editor not re-opening properly when closed with the plug-in slot button.
- Fixed Audio Player crashes when using file with less channels than the plug-in.
- Fixed Audio Player not properly syncing its playback position when resampling.
- Fixed generated MIDI clock sync issues when already slaved to another MIDI clock.
- Fixed occasional performance issue when controlling PatchWork parameters via MIDI in the VST/VST3 plug-in.
- Fixed CPU meter display sometimes off by one pixel.
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