I've recently started to use the patchwork and I just have some question regarding the patchwork.

First one is, if I had VST plugins that I wanted to use in between other AAX plugins on pro tools, would I be using patchwork twice in the channel? or is there some way to route it within the Patchwork itself?

For example, if I wanted to use the plugins in the following order; A (AAX plugin) - V (VST) - A - V, am I suppose to insert bluecats for every V plugins that I'm trying to use?


Second question is, am I able to choose which V plugins I want to sidechain within the patchwork, or do I need to use separate patchwork for each plugins? (One patchwork with sidechain, other without)

For example, say I have VST plugins of EQ and MB loaded in the "PRE" of patchwork, is there way to only sidechain the MB and not EQ? or do I need to use separate patchwork for each?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

 

If you put Patchwork on a channel, why wouldn't you load others in the chain on that channel to Patchwork also?

Any plugin you load to get sidechain data and react to it needs to be set to accept an external sidechain source. You could see what I am referring to as an example if you load Fabfilter Pro-C2. You can link it to the sidechain, but unless you change it to external sidechain as source on the plugin instance's gui, it will ignore it.

Your question is probably too nebulous without actual examples.

 

I suppose I could find VST version of other plugins and load all of them there. I’m just used to putting the plugins directly onto the channel itself so didn’t really think of it.

As for the 2nd question, I had Fab Q3 and MB on the PRE of patchwork, and I only wanted to side chain the MB (which I’m aware they have external to switch on and off), but I couldn’t find that on Q3, so I wasn’t sure if it’d try to automatically run itself as side chain if I were to side chain the patchwork itself.

I just started using patchwork couple days ago, so I’m slowly figuring out what it can do.

 

It doesn't change the sequence you add things to as an insert. Say for example, Pro-Q3-> Patchwork (containing a chain of 3 plugins)->Limiter plugin. It's still going to run those plugins in Serial from top to bottom down the strip until it hits Patchwork in the signal chain. Then run everything in Serial inside it, and then continuing on to the rest of the channel strip inserts.

In Pro-Q3 you need to click on the Analyzer button on the bottom of the plugin for Sidechain to be linked to the incoming sidechain source.

Personally, I would avoid using plugins inside Patchwork that I was concerned with results of sidechaining. Because the wrapper is going to add some measure of Latency. Maybe your DAW's latency compensation can detect it, but since it is within a 3rd party plugin, I am not so sure. Also, when we sidechain a compressor; often you change the compression ratio to infinity to get the compressor to react "faster". It's really a steeper ramp based on the higher ratio, but often thats you're only control available to make it react "faster". Like the lookahead value of a compressor you want to sidechain, you just need to pay attention to the impact of other seemingly unrelated parameters.

If I wanted a faster reaction to sidechain signal, I would not use a wrapper for it, if the option is available within the actual scenario. It may not matter at all, and it's just something to be aware of.

The Patchwork manual is ok, but it can't cover every scenario with the different options that it makes available. Some things you have to try and test to really know for certain what results you will get. Loading different format (vst,vst3,au) plugins inside it shouldn't be different, but I only keep AU plugins for Logic or I would check it.