The Patchbay family

Unofficial support for the KXStudio Linux distribution and applications.
More info at http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/

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Luc
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The Patchbay family

Post by Luc »

We have quite a family of patchbays:

Catia
Claudia
gladish
Patchage

What are the relevant differences among them?
Is there any reason to use one and not another?
Are they all still maintained?

(I'm having a minor glitch with Catia, but I guess I could use any other.)
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by tramp »

You forgot the old classic qjackctl (which is what I used to use) :)
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Luc
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by Luc »

I see Qjackctl rather as a deprecated precursor to Cadence, not quite a patchbay application, although it does that.

Maybe I'm wrong, as I never spent a lot of time with it. I remember I hated it then replaced it with Cadence for some reason, which is a lot simpler and does the job.
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by ventosus »

For those that don't like to draw virtual cables, there's also my humble JACK patchbay in matrix layout

https://github.com/OpenMusicKontrollers/patchmatrix
Luc
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by Luc »

Thank you, falkTX. I was expecting you to give me just that kind of break down. :-)

(Sad about Claudia, though. I like its concept of "studios" that can be saved and restored.)

ventosus, your program looks good. However, I personally prefer the other patchbay applications. I think virtual cables provide a much better view-in-a-glance of what is going on. That was confusing as hell in Qjackctl, but looks great in the newer programs.
chtfn
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by chtfn »

Hi Luc

About Claudia's studios, it seems you can do something similar with Non Session Manager.

"Studios" are called "Sessions", and if you include "jackpatch" in your list of clients, it should restore the connections you created with Catia/Carla.
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ufug
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by ufug »

This was a super helpful reply from FalkTX a few years back when I asked the same thing.

The way I work I have not found one to offer any advantage over the others, but depending on your needs and workflow there may be a better fit.
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eric71
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by eric71 »

I am getting interested in session management for the first time because the native Linux REAPER has recently become pretty usable (much thanks to linuxmusicians member ubuntuuser for their role in that :) ). My problem is that REAPER does not autoconnect to jack like Ardour or Tracktion (which I have been using). I have a Zoom R16 audio interface/control surface, and also regularly use usb midi eDrums or keyboard. It's a pain to connect 8 audio inputs and a couple midi devices every time I start REAPER. I don't usually use other programs, mostly I keep everything "In the box" with plugins, but I might if needed. So I have been experimenting with Claudia and Gladish. I just saw this thread and saw that Claudia and ladish are no longer being developed. What is the easiest, well maintained tool out there now for getting jack and native REAPER started with all these connections in place? I'm currently using Ubuntu Studio 16.04.2 with KXStudio repos enabled.

edit: just an edit following my original post - in reading up on some older posts about different seesion management options, it is looking like since I am only worried about maintaining jack audio and midi connections, that Qjackctl's patchbay with itsjack session management may be sufficient for my needs without involving ladish frontends. Does this sound correct?
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by Luc »

In your specific case (eric71), I recommend aj-snapshot.
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English Guy
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by English Guy »

Luc wrote:I see Qjackctl rather as a deprecated precursor to Cadence, not quite a patchbay application, although it does that.

Maybe I'm wrong, as I never spent a lot of time with it. I remember I hated it then replaced it with Cadence for some reason, which is a lot simpler and does the job.
For me qjackctl was simpler and effective. I tend to work with audio rather than midi and I suspect that difference underlies many of these kind of conversations.
eric71
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by eric71 »

Thanks for the advice re: aj-snapshot. I wasn't aware of that. It will be a few days before I get a chance to work with my linux music setup again, but I will check it out and report back how things have worked out.
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by eric71 »

Just to follow up: I ended up using the patchbay in Qjackctl. It did what I needed. I also switched to jackd1, just because I ended up with less xruns and made the alsa midi/jack midi stuff a little easier. But now I have all my connections working just by starting jack with qjackctl and loading up REAPER.
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by asbak »

There's also jack-plumbing, it will automagically connect your devices based upon the choices you made in the ruleset you created for it. Works great with qjackctl & a customised startup script.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by ventosus »

I've migrated patchmatrix [1] from a pure matrix style patcher to something between a matrix and flow style patcher - let us call it a flow-matrix patcher.

It tries to omit disadvantages and combine advantages from both matrix style patcher (space efficiency, single-click (dis)connection, short mouse paths vs. hard-to-follow signal paths) and flow style patcher (fast overview of signal paths vs. long mouse paths, virtual cabling mess).

Instead of having virtual cables per port-port connection, a flow-matrix patcher has virtual cables per client-client connections only and a patch matrix for port-port connections per client-client connection.

It is less a mess and faster to patch things up, imho.

For convenience, patchmatrix features injection of simple audio/midi mixers/monitors between connections to adjust/monitor gains in the patchbay itself (a feature I'm missing in JACK since like, ever).

Widget positions cannot be saved yet across sessions, but early testers are invited to give it a spin already. I'm happy for feedback. Binaries are available [2], just unpack into "/opt" and start witih "/opt/patchmatrix/bin/patchmatrix".

Cheat sheet
-----------------
ctrl + left mouse on widget: move widget
left mouse on grab handle: connect clients without connecting any ports
ctrl + left mouse on grab handle: connect clients and ports within automagically
left mouse on patch matrix: (dis)connect ports
left mouse + wheel on mixer dial: adjust gain
right mouse on mixer/monitor: open contextual menu to remove mixer/monitor
right mouse on canvas: open contextual menu to add mixers/monitors

[1] https://gitlab.com/OpenMusicKontrollers/patchmatrix
[2] https://dl.open-music-kontrollers.ch/pa ... stable.zip

Image
chtfn
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Re: The Patchbay family

Post by chtfn »

ventosus wrote:I've migrated patchmatrix [1] from a pure matrix style patcher to something between a matrix and flow style patcher - let us call it a flow-matrix patcher.
This looks amazingly promising! Thank you for your work and sharing it here, looking forward to experimenting with it.
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