We are very excited to announce the release of our first standalone host application: with Blue Cat's PatchWork 1.6, our "universal plug-ins patch bay" is now available as a standalone application for Mac and PC, in addition to all major audio plug-in formats that were already supported.

The new Blue Cat's PatchWork application is a fast and lightweight host that can quickly load audio effect plug-ins and virtual instruments for immediate usage. It supports up to 8 audio I/O, tempo synchronization, Audio Unit and VST plug-ins hosting (up to 64 plug-ins), copy/paste between multiple applications. Presets created with the standalone application or the plug-in are compatible and can be shared between all plug-in formats to quickly reload effect chains. The application and the plug-ins inserted into it can also be controlled via MIDI.

This new version also brings several enhancements and compatibility improvements to the plug-in versions.

The update is free for existing customers and is available for download from the same page as the initial purchase (link received by email). Demo versions of the application or plug-in (VST, RTAS, AAX, Audio Unit and DirectX formats) can also be downloaded on Welcome to Blue Cat Audio - Professional Audio Plug-ins and Applications (VST, RTAS, AAX, Audio Unit, DirectX), for both Mac and PC (32 and 64-bit).

New Features:
- Now available as a standalone host application.

Fixes and compatibility improvements:
- Improved presets and session load/save performance (up to 4 times faster in some situations).
- Fixed issue with Izotope Audio Units that were configured as mono effects on stereo tracks.
- Fixed crashes during auto save with Kontakt 5 in Pro Tools 11.

Pricing:
Blue Cat's PatchWork: 59 EUR or $79 (VAT excluded).

More details can also be found on our blog: Blue Cat's PatchWork Standalone Host Application Summary.
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That's cool that it's now standalone as well. Thanks for the heads up Dingus.

 

VST3?

 

Well, standalone feature is nice, but actually not overly useful: As far as I see, one cannot use Patchwork as plugin host within the computer playback chain. By which I mean you cannot position it between a playback software (e.g. foobar etc.) and the audio output.
To use it that way, Patchwork's audio setup would require its INPUT being selectable among the system's audio driver OUTPUTS; because the outputs are where the playback software does deliver its signals to, not the inputs! Foobar + Co. let you choose among the system audio outputs, not the inputs, so playback takes place on output, not input channels. But since Patchwork doesn't "listen" on output channels (as its audio input), it can't be used as plugin host inserted into the playback chain...

 

I was wondering if it would be useful myself but perhaps they're laying the groundwork for some changes in the future that would make it more useful.

 

Yes, Catalyst, thanks, that may be the background for the standalone version.

I don't know enough of audio driver architecture to judge if it would be possible at all to get a solution as I described it (with INPUT drivers on both sides in Patchwork), but however that is what would be necessary to make the standalone a really useful insert plugin hoster in computer playback chain.
Perhaps at least with 2 different drivers it might be possible (?). Example: Among other audio drivers, I have two ASIOs in my system, RME HDSP AES32 and RME Fireface UFX. If Patchwork would let one choose among different drivers' inputs both for Patchwork's input and output, I could choose an AES32 output as Patchwork's input and a UFX output as Patchwork's output. Then the player software could be set to deliver to the AES32 output on which Patchwork would receive its input, and after the Patchwork signal processing, Patchwork would deliver to UFX's output (which is connected to my preamp and active monitor speaker hardware).
Would be useful and fine, wouldn't it?...

 

Use it with virtual audio cable ... then it is useful

 

Thanks a lot, sagascor14, for that hint.
Had checked VAC (more precisely: its website only) some time ago, but hadn't thought of it now, in connection with Patchwork standalone.
Maybe the workaround to use Patchwork (apart from floating point audio formats, which VAC doesn't support), as long as Patchwork itself doesn't offer the necessary part of the VAC functions...
Thanks again!

 

No problem. If only there was a win crack I could test it