Plogue Bidule

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:55 pm

I decided to get Bidule as a standalone app. in hopes of running VSTi's, and Creamware together in what appears to be a totally modular looking enviroment.

Brotha' Man Valis has spoken highly of it, and he always has given great advice here. Also, a new member synthetic88, who I know to be a fierce warrior has also told me how well GVI runs on it, so my problems w/ Cubase 4 being my live host, I hope will be over. I would rather use it as a recording app., where I know it excells.

Does anyone here use Bidule w/ Creamware?

I have just started it up and it already has a Creamware module displaying it's noble name.

Thanks,

mr. prawn · Post by **mr. prawn** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 1:50 am

in the realm of modular vst hosts there is energyxt (http://www.energy-xt.com/) and console (http://www.console.jp/en/about/about_1.html). both are very cheap and have worked quite well for me together w/ scope. ext also has (at least from what i have read) a quite extensive 'live mode' which i have not explored personally.
i have used bidule brielfy on the powerbook and it seemed very nice too. having a modular interface to load vst ints/effects and route asio is much more intuitive to me than doing so in an app like cubase. much better workflow, especially if you dont intend to use the host sequencer ie.playing live...
yeah.

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:49 am

Honestly I think in many ways console and EnergyXT are more straightforward for most uses. EnergyXT has the added benfit of actually being useful to non-gurus in its vst plugin mode (Bidule is very bare bones and u must load projects you built externally to make sense of it).

Personally I prefer Bidule because I think it's a bit more abstracted and offers more low level tools. It's actually missing some of the higher levels tools that the other 2 do, in the sense that things like the dedicated sequencer UI's that include all functions you'd want to do in simple menu commands. Instead in Bidule you get a few simplfiied sequencing modules which are really quite bare, and it seems overly simple and lacking in functions until u start to dig into Bidule and realize that with all of the low levels tools you can do things that aren't really possible anywhere else. For instance to quantize an imported midi file you will want to use a few modules chained together rather than setting a UI dropdown menu or menu command.

And by abstration I mean not only the low level tools that u can combine to achieve higher order functioins, but also things like the fact that there is no central timebase (every device can generate & recieve its own sync). The fact that it makes a quick & dirty VST shell is an added bonus.

There was an interesting discussion here as well:
http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/en ... 0487741988

mr. prawn · Post by **mr. prawn** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 4:50 am

^^this is all true.
i would like to spend some more time w/ bidule at some stage, it did seem like a very nice app. i do think though, if one was using bidule to actually compose music (as opposed to just processing vst's, or building synths/effects) it could easily end up sounding like some 'idm' noodle type stuff. i mean i think it would be difficult to coax something musical out of it, although of course that would be possible.

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:57 am

Well I think it depends on your method of composition. If you're a mouse-driven producer then yes I believe you could wind up with something 'noodly and idm-y' very easily. But if you're a live synth player as Scope4live is I can see setting up some rather incredible things that happen with each note press. Modulations and interactions that would even make John Bowen's creations blush. Also it should be clear that I use several machines here in my studio and Logic is my primary sequencer of choice. Bidule is one of the additional tools that I use. It's especially handy on my laptop when I am not running Live on it for quick edits.

LHong · Post by **LHong** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 12:05 am

Yeah, Bidule is a good choice for VST Host application!
However, if One already has Cubase or Sonar, I would not recommend to switch, unless you are as VST(i) Developer (for Testing purpose).
We need a host can be plugged-in another Host if it is possible?

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:28 am

Bidule (registered version) can run as a VST plugin. Same with EnergyXT.

LHong · Post by **LHong** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 2:11 am

Cool!

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Sat May 19, 2007 11:15 am

Which ASIO driver should I choose in Scope for Bidule? I see:

ASIO 24 Bit Dest
ASIO Dest
ASIO1-16 Dest 64
ASIO1-32 Dest 64
ASIO1-Flt Dest 64
ASIO2 24 Bit Source (but not dest)
ASIO2 Dest
ASIO2 Dest-64

"ASIO 24 Bit Dest" and "ASIO2 Dest" don't show up as audio devices in Bidule. I only get MME drivers popping up.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:16 pm

GaryB,.....Man Or Myth.

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:56 pm

synthetic88 wrote:"ASIO 24 Bit Dest" and "ASIO2 Dest" don't show up as audio devices in Bidule. I only get MME drivers popping up.

I think you mean ASIO2 24bit Source and ASIO2 Dest as a pair, right? If so then it works fine here. When Bidule starts just delete the instance of "Microsoft Sound Mapper" and then add ASIO from Audio Devices > Duplex > ASIO > ASIO SCOPE (duplex)

Works fine here.

Post by **garyb** » Sat May 19, 2007 6:05 pm

yes, it definitely works. you'll need an "asio2 24bit source" and an "asio 2 dest" module to be in the routing window with the proper number of i/o before opening bidule. this works very well with GVI.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sun May 20, 2007 9:57 am

Ladies And Gentlemen,................................................GaryB.

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Sun May 20, 2007 10:44 am

So you need both a source and a destination for it to work? Or did I confuse source and destination? I think it's both. Thanks, it's working now. Now I need a Scope mixer...

Post by **hubird** » Sun May 20, 2007 11:27 am

'source' is coming in from..., 'destination' is going out to...
you don't have to load both to get one of them working tho, audio as midi as well