Configuration articles and guides for software and hardware. These settings are mandatory unless otherwise stated
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v1.0.0 – 2020-March-16
In this little AVID Pro Tools User Guide, you will find the instructions to get our plug-in to work with AVID Pro Tools with ease. We will also use Blue Cat’s PatchWork plug-in as a VST bridge, since we are still working on an AAX plug-in. This is universal tutorial for all of our plug-in, but we are using our Roland JP-80×0 Editor in this guide.
Checkout the Editor user manual prior to this guide, so you have the knowledge to setup the Editor properly.
Also, as we are not AVID Pro Tools experts, we engourage you to read the Pro Tools manual in order to fully understand your DAW.
We hope you have taken all the necessary precautions prior to using our product, like making a full backup of your synthesizer memory.
DISCLAIMER
Our company & plug-in has nothing to do with AVID nor Blue Cat companies, so please don’t bug them if you encounter issues with the Editor – open a support ticket in your account page in such case. You can find support details at the end of this document.
Support is free to anyone who has bought the license from our store
AVID Pro Tools
Preparations
Open your DAW and we will make sure that MIDI ports are disabled for those ports, where your synthesizer is connected at. This will ensure that your DAW won’t crash and we won’t be getting double data in to the DAW processing loop.
Setup -> Peripherals…
AVID Pro Tools Config – Open MIDI Studio Window
Check that the physical MIDI interface’s port is not being used by any of the MIDI Controllers “Receive From” and “Send To” port assignments. See image below.
AVID Pro Tools Config – MIDI Controllers Configuration
Click OK to close and open MIDI Studio Setup.
Setup -> MIDI -> MIDI Studio Setup…
AVID Pro Tools Config – Open MIDI Studio Window
Now, we want to create new device for our synthesizer using the virtual connections we made earlier in our Setting MIDI Devices guide. If you are on macOS, you can create the device with physical ports instead.
Click Create [1] -> add Instrument Name, Manufacturer, Model, Input Port & Output Port [2].
Windows: Input Port; JP-8000 vMIDI In / Output Port: JP-8000 vMIDI Out [2].
macOS: Input and Output Ports; physical Device where the synthesizer is connected.
Send channels [3] should be set to represent the number of available channels / parts of your synthesizer, in this case we have 3 active send channels. Receive channels [4] can be set to all 16.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Configure MIDI Port Settings
Final check before we move on. Open Setup -> MIDI -> MIDI Input Devices…
AVID Pro Tools Config – Open MIDI Input Window
Windows: Disable Physical Ports from the DAW MIDI Input Devices list [1] where the synthesizer is connected. Also, I have disabled JP-8000 vMIDI Out from the list, because we use to virtually route the MIDI out to synthesizer via MIDI-OX.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Configure MIDI Input Ports
NOTE #1: Check our support site for additional guides like Setting MIDI Devices to learn how we added JP-8000 vMIDI In and JP-8000 vMIDI Out ports in the DAW.
You can adapt the settings to your Hardware!
Add new tracks to Edit window
Start by creating new tracks, which we will accociate with the plug-in, MIDI channels and Audio Inputs. Track -> New… See image below.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Add New Tracks
From the image below, you can see how I have assigned new tracks for this setup. I have one Instrument track, two MIDI tracks and one Audio Track.
Once your setup is done, click Create.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Configure Tracks as Needed
New tracks will now appear in the Edit window.
AVID Pro Tools Config – New Tracks in Arrangement
I’m going to rename my tracks to make more sense while working with the project. Click Rename… [1]
AVID Pro Tools Config – Renaming Tracks
AVID Pro Tools Config – Inst 1: JP-80×0 indicating the Plug-in track
AVID Pro Tools Config – MIDI 1: JP-8000 ch1 sending notes to channel 1
AVID Pro Tools Config – MIDI 2: JP-8000 ch2 sends notes to channel 2
AVID Pro Tools Config – Audio 1: JP-8000 In to monitor the JP-8000 audio
Assign MIDI ports & channels
Before we proceed with the plug-in initialization, it is important to assign the MIDI track channels properly.
In JP-8000 ch1 we have set the MIDI Out [1] to Roland JP-8000 1 -> channel-1.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Assign MIDI Channel to MIDI track 1
In JP-8000 ch2 we have set the MIDI Out [1] to Roland JP-8000 1 -> channel-2.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Assign MIDI Channel to MIDI track 2
Note #1: Assign MIDI Channels so that they match your synthesizer part / layer MIDI channels. I have set JP-8000 Lower to MIDI channel 1 and JP-8000 Upper to MIDI channel 2.
Note #2: MIDI out is pointing to JP-8000 vMIDI Out, which I’ve created in our Setting MIDI Devices guide. macOS users can point the MIDI out directly to physical MIDI port of synth.
Note #3: If you have multitimbral setup / use with your synthesizer, which most can do, then add more MIDI tracks and point them to respected MIDI channels.
Note #4: You should always put MIDI blocks in the MIDI tracks because our plug-in can not talk to DAW about delay compensation. This is because we do not generate any audio with our plug-in.
Insert Blue Cat’s PatchWork plug-in and Our Plug-in
Select the instrument channel (JP-80×0) we renamed previously. Click on the Insert slot A and choose multichannel plug-in -> Instrument -> Blue Cat’s PatchWork Synth from the list.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Insert Blue Cat’s PatchWork
Plug-in window will now appear. Enter plug-in Preferences [1] and double check your VST plug-ins directory path [2]. Click Close to confirm your changes.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Open Preferences
Click the PRE area + -sign [1] to open the menu and select Load VST…
AVID Pro Tools Config – Load Our Plug-in in VST Format
New window will open up, navigate to the location of your VSTplugins [1] and locate our plug-in which you wish to use [2].
Click Open once you have located the plug-in.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Browse for the VST File
Plug-in window will now appear.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Plug-in Windows will now appear
MIDI IN / MIDI OUT
Now we can select the Physical MIDI input port which receives MIDI data from your synthesizer.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Assign MIDI Input Port
And then we choose the Physical MIDI Out port which sends data to the synthesizer MIDI input.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Assign MIDI Output Port
Plug-in will now attempt to establish connection with the synthesizer, so it might take some time if your settings are not right or if you chose a wrong MIDI port by mistake. You should see plug-in saying PROCESSING… somewhere in the plug-in interface and also ABORT PROCESS button will appear.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Editor Attempts to connect
If all of the settings are correct, you will see “Plug-in is ready to go!” [1] message in the plug-in display.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Connection Established
If something is wrong with your settings, plug-in will say “No response from JP!” [1] and that indicates something is wrong with your synth settings, MIDI device or Studio One Preferences.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Failed Connection
Once the connection is in, you should sync the data with your hardware. Usually this function can be ran from the patch librarian tab / page of the plug-in & “Sync Data From HW” button. Check the plug-in user manual to learn more.
We can now close the plug-in window and move on.
Note #1: Check troubleshooting from the Editor, DAW or synthesizer manual if you can not establish connection. You can also seek help from our support site if you can’t find out what is causing error in your setup.
Automating Plug-in Parameters
Close the plug-in window click right mouse button over the plug-in name [1]. This will open up a menu where we can see lots of different functions. Choose Params Map [2] -> Group [3] -> Parameter you want to automate [4]. – See image below.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Configure Automation Parameters in PatchWork
To confirm your parameter selection, do the same action again but don’t select any parameters now. Just see how the previously selected parameter now has (Control 01) assigned to it. Remember that. – See image below.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Parameter Mapped
Now click the Plug-In Automation Enable [1] button in the PatchWork plug-in window.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Enable Automation from PatchWork
Choose parameters [1] from the list which you need to automate and click Add >> [2] to move the in the enabled list.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Assign PatchWork Parameters to DAW map
Once you have added the necessary parameters, click OK to finish parameter configuration.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Mapping Done
To view the parameters assigned, click the little arrow in the bottom left corner of the instrument track [1] and then click the excisting parameter [2] to open a menu. Now choose the JP-80×0 (fx a): Blue Cat’s PatchWork Synth [3] and choose the control [4] you want to automate.
As I previously mentioned, remembering these parameters is important. Control 01 in this case controls the Lower Panel Filter Cutoff.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Select Parameter from DAW to Automate it
Parameter is now assigned to the Edit window [1] and I did draw some automation lanes with the Pencil tool [2]. See image below.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Start Automating!
Pick a parameter you want to automate and start drawing in OR move the knobs in the plug-in while recording to make automation!
You can also see from the image above, how I have created some notes to JP-8000 ch1 and JP-8000 ch2 to trigger sound from both layers individually.
Note #1: You can add as many parameters as you wish. System Exclusive (SysEx) parameters and system buttons can not be automated.
Note #2: With some Editors, it is not yet possible to draw automation in DAW when moving the knob from the hardware. Move knob from the Editor user interface instead.
Finishing it up!
Final step is to modify the Audio track, so we can hear the synthesizer in action. First, we want to choose the right input [1] where our synthesizer is conneted [2]. Lastly, toggle on track monitoring to hear the synth [3]. See image below.
AVID Pro Tools Config – Setting up for Input Monitoring
AVID Pro Tools Config – All Working like well Oiled Machine
Note #1: You might have routed your Audio Output from the synth itself to external mixing desk or speakers, so make sure you power those units on. Otherwise there won’t be any sound because our plug- in does not transmit any audio data to the DAW.
Thats it for the AVID Pro Tools user guide. We hope you find this useful.
Troubleshooting
loopMIDI and MIDI-OX are both shipping their own user manuals, so please refer to their documentary to learn more about how they work.
Editor User Manuals: https://docs.auraplugins.com/
Editor Updates: https://auraplugins.com/downloads/
Check our Knowledge Base for documentation regarding to the Editor and Hardware configurations.
Use the website search to find answers / solutions to possible issues.
You have some suggestions? Yes please!
We are always open for new suggestions and ideas regarding to our products. Send your suggestions to us because it will make our products better.
Head down to our main site and drop your idea in, we will have a look at it and let you know if it can be done.
If you have found an error in this document, open a support ticket or join our Discord server so we can have it fixed.