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Plogue bidule recording7/2/2023 ![]() Experimentalists and audio nerds will definitely love it. There's some fun granular stuff, and some cool surprises like the Particle Arpeggiator (you just have to see it). It is perhaps more in the vein of Max/MSP or CSound, though again, not as deep.Īll that said, there are some great low-level tools provided, including lots of MIDI stuff and a pretty wide range of FFT-processing bidules. Then again, it's not really the same type of program as Reaktor. For an example, you could bundle some oscillators, envlopes, and filters together to make your own synth, but you can't make your own versions of those filters or oscillators (well, you can combine stuff. Plugins can be included in groups as well. Plumbing the DepthsĪs mentioned above, Bidule doesn't let you go quite as deep as something like Reaktor, but you can build your own "groups", which are, well, groups of connected modules bundled together into a container, which can then be reused elsewhere as its own module. Something I just realized I forgot to mention: it can also be loaded into other hosts as a VST or VSTi plugin. The audio recorder modules have a "never overwrite files" setting, which has saved my ass when I'm messing around while sleep deprived more than once. While we're talking about audio recording, there's one really cool feature I want to mention. ![]() There are a multitude of possibilities here, but one way I've used it is to have different groups of modules set up for several different tracks in a live set, each with their own Sync Transport, so the whole show loads with one project file. Bonus: a project can have multiple sync sources, and any module/plugin can sync to any of those sources. On the other hand, it does have a "Sync Transport" module that works like the transport in any other DAW (play, stop, etc.), which includes tempo sync, and can be the sync source for any sync-able module or plugin. This is not intended as a criticism, it just isn't a standard DAW. Though it includes modules for basic sequencing, as well as recording and/or playing back audio and MIDI, none of this works like it does in a "standard" DAW. The help file includes descriptions of all the included modules, and there are some good examples included with the program to give you an idea of what's possible. Connectors on the modules themselves show their function/label in the status bar when moused over, which is handy. The low level "bidules" (their word for modules) make me kind of imagine it as a sort of digital Radiophonic Workshop with modern conveniences such as VST plugins and instant recall via file management.Įverything connects with virtual cables, which are color-coded according to function (audio, MIDI, etc.). but also not as "high level" as, say, Reason, which is still modular, but doesn't really let you build stuff in the same way. However, it is also a rather capable DSP environment, almost along the lines of SynthEdit or Reaktor, though not quite as deep. What Is Bidule?Īt the most basic level, Bidule is a modular VST host/DAW. That's the kind of thing I want to cover in this series of articles, and this seemed like a great place to start, especially since a new version has been released fairly recently (link below).īasic recording setup, with several inputs from an audio interface being mixed and recorded. Anyway, for some people, myself among them, I think Bidule is the kind of thing that fits into a particular niche quite well. While there are definite similarities, I don't really see Bidule as the same kind of thing, but again, more on that later. For some that do, they might prefer something more like Reaktor. It's not really designed to be a "press record and go" type of DAW, and not everyone has a use for a modular DSP environment. I'm not sure how much of that will be addressed, but there's nothing that ruins it for me, so I don't really care either.īeside lack of marketing, I think the main reason this program doesn't get much attention is that it's not the kind of thing everyone needs, or even wants. There is also room for improvement in ease-of-use type stuff, which I'll cover more later. Being a modular, multi-purpose kind of program though, there's always room for more. I gather there are more planned features, but as it is, it's more than usable, and has so many features I couldn't possibly cover them all here. It's still technically in beta, but I seldom come across a bug or crash (except under certain circumstances, see below). ![]() It's been around for quite some time, seems like I first downloaded an alpha version well over 10 years ago. ![]() I've decided to start with an old favorite of mine, Plogue Bidule (MacOS, Win). This will be an ongoing series of articles, though I'm thinking it might only be every other week or so, since there's only so many obscure bits of audio software out there worth talking about, and in the case of things I may not be familiar with, I want to have some time to get into it.
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