Bluecat Connector - MIDI and audio over network

Plugins
29

BCC is awesome, have many of them running over several GP instances and it works great. I’m even sending audio from one instance to a second instance, doing some processing and then to a third and I don’t perceive any latency. This really opens a lot of possibilities.

2 Likes
31

Thanks for posting this!

1 Like
32

has anyone tested this with a DAW and GP4, using GP4 in a similar fashion that you would use Vienna Ensemble Pro?

E.g. have the GP4 instance load up an Orchestral template (where you have all you VI-instances presets and Audio+MIDI-routing setup) that you can then pipe MIDI data from DAW->GP4 and return audio from GP4->DAW?

1 Like
33

Anyone else getting startup pops with Connector? What about feedback? Just about blew my ears out. Quadruple checked to make sure everything was setup correctly. Wasn’t having these problems before, going back to that.

34

I’ve just started playing around with BC Connector , I have the demo trial and took a while to figure out how to use it , like originally “where do you host the plug-ins?” oh you don’t , do you ? You create unique Send and Return instances to do that in my case : Successfully playing live Guitar/AmpSim in Reaper on a PC and streaming the digital audio over a small network Gigabit switch into a MacPro 2008 3,1 hosting GP4. Created a track in Reaper with an AmpSim Suhr PT100 and perhaps some verb via a bus , insert a BCC [blue cat connector] Send instance in the Reaper Master Bus , sending over Network to my MacPro with a BCC Return instance loaded in GP4 , 'just blowing in the wind , i.e. no audio nor midi wired into the input of the Plug-in Block , only the BCC Return status in Network and then the audio out of that plug-in block to my MacPro audio interface, works pretty well , pretty stable and buffering around 1024 or so , other than auto . Could also record that stream into Logic Pro by wiring another BCC instance Send which I could also name and then BCC Return instance inside Logic , which then I could assign to a Bus and after make yet another track to record that Bus input , monitoring said input would elicit the latency which was high enough to want to avoid monitoring , that extra jump in Logic wasn’t handled that well, on a midi controlled AU effects track , I’ll try a few more scenarios this weekend , but the opportunities BCC affords are unique and quite useful even at this early stage.

P.S I also use Vienna Ensemble to host Virtual Instruments , and at this early stage I wouldn’t imagine BCC could handle VI’s as well as VE can ,for my experience … however BCC can be a useful tool in the Muti DAW or Multi PC environment it has promise !

1 Like
35

Blue Cat’s Connector 1.1 is here!

This free update adds a new MIDI meter to monitor MIDI activity and offers a free Windows ASIO driver: you can now use any audio application as an audio server for Connector

I’m curious how this might be used by Windows users with GP. Would it be mainly useful for those without a multi-client ASIO driver?

3 Likes
36

This is great news. I’ll try it definitely.

1 Like
37

Hm… maybe this could be a modern replacement for the (still functional but old fashioned) ASIO Link Pro. I think, i’ll give it a try this time. :+1: :beers:

2 Likes
38

It does function well as a 2-channel ASIO server. You can send audio from other applications via the Connector plugin, and a different audio app that is set up to use the BC Connector ASIO receives the audio as a direct 2-channel input and can be processed in that app.

If you require more than 2 channels of audio that you wish to process in that BC Connector ASIO server, however, this approach will not work. For my own personal use, ASIO Link Pro is still required.

1 Like
39

I just received an email that Blue Cat’s Connector has been updated to v1.12, which can be downloaded from your download page via the link in the update email announcement. Note that I deleted the link from this post because I think it is the URL to my account.

What’s New:

  • Improved resampling and drift compensation when the plug-in starts streaming audio.
  • The plug-in now reports when more than 100 dropouts occurred.
  • Improved user interface meters refresh performance.
  • The plug-in has now been tested for long distance communication and online jamming. More information and setup instructions can be found in this tutorial: Jam/Rehearse with remote musicians
  • Fixed VST3 MIDI input not detected by Ableton Live 11.
2 Likes
40

Dream-Mode: an iPad version for Bandhelper and auto-connect to my Mac…

BBB

PS: One of the most annoying things for me: “virtually wire” Bandhelper to my Mac each time I enter the rehearsal room…

41

Yeah, I have exactly the same problem — as far as I can tell, there is no way to automate that “Connect” button in Audio MIDI Settings and so there’s no choice other than to open Audio MIDI Settings and do it manually.
There isn’t even an AppleScript dictionary for it.

Bizarrely frustrating.

42

I’m doing this with Danté & RTPMidi.

1 DAW laptop for midi
3 VSTi machines
1 VST fx machine & mixer
1 ESI Planet 22x Danté interface

Works flawlessly :slight_smile:

1 Like
43

Has anyone successfully used Blue Cat Connecter in GP4 with 2 Windows PC’s, that could share a pic of your setup on both computers? I have tried it on one PC, and get a signal verification, but can’t seem to get the two PC’s (or one to the other) to communicate. I had my two PC’s connected to an external router, then tried a direct connect between the ethernet with no results. Do I need a cross over cable to do that maybe? I tried unique port numbers, that did nothing. Any idea’s?

44

There are a few things you need to verify:

  1. Does the interfaces come ‘up’? You can easily see this in the advanced adapter screen (formerly part of the control panel). When you use a cable to connect the computers, there is a (big) chance that you need a cross-cable, unless one of the interfaces is ‘auto-mdx’. Auto mdx only works when the speed and duplex setting is configured to ‘auto’ or ‘auto-negotiate’. When none of the interfaces supports auto-mdx, you must use a switch or a cross-cable.

  2. Does both computers have an ip address on the interface you use? Especially important when you use only a cable between both computers. Open a cmd box and enter ipconfig or ipconfig /all

  3. If one of them hasn’t an ip address, you can set them manually, BUT NOT THE SAME RANGE AS YOUR OTHER CONNECTIONS (sorry for yelling). When you’re wifi has an ip address like 192.168.1.x, mask 255.255.255.0, then you might choose 192.168.2.x, mask 255.255.255.0 (no default gateway!). Both computers must use the same range. Or even better, use a link-local address 169.254.0.1, mask 255.255.255.0 for computer A, 169.254.0.2, mask 255.255.255.0 for computer B.

  4. Try to ping the other computer. Assuming you use the link-local address, from computer A ping 169.254.0.2 and from computer B ping 169.254.0.1.

  5. If pinging doesn’t work, the Windows Firewall is active. You could add an inbound rule allowing icmp (that’s also ping). After that retry ping

  6. Last thing: If the Windows firewall is active, you might have to add an inbound rule for the port blue cat is listening on. Sometimes Windows automatically shows a screen asking you whether a program is allowed to listen on a particular port. Once you’ve answered that question with ‘no’ or ‘cancel’ then a block rule is added to the firewall, so you would have to remove that first and then add an allow rule. Please note that you might have to add 2 rules: one for udp and for tcp, or a rule for Gigperformer.exe. Last method allows a GP to listen on any port. Vst’s run at the cost of their hosting process. Gigperformer.exe in this case, so their listening ports inherit the permissions.

In a cmd box: With netstat -ano you can list the ports.

netstat -ano| find ":8000" (8000 just an example of the port you’re expecting to see) will help you find the thing you’re looking for more easy. The command also returns the process id of the process that ‘owns’ the listener.

Hope this helps

1 Like
45

Just read your reply Frank. Thanks for taking the time to give some good suggestions. I will check those things now. Good Day sir!

46

Thanks a million Frank.
I was actually entering the names of my PC’s - NOT - my IP addresses. This program is amazing and opened up things to a new level for me. I still needed to figure out how to configure things a bit, and how to route things in GP4, but I got it to work.

Thanks again. Hope to chat soon.
Glen

47

One extra note to you is, my original PC is working so much better without AVAST installed. Now I can access my heavier load VSTi’s on the new one without having to reinstall all my software to the new PC.

48

Maybe this blog can help?
Link: Gig Performer | How to use a single-client ASIO driver with multiple applications on Windows

1 Like
49

Meant to thank you for chiming in on this Nemanja.