An age-old problem for DAW users is software limitations and system changes associated with the lack of support for old technologies due to the development of new ones. This simple sentence, oddly enough, illustrates very well a very pressing problem. This situation is confusing and makes it difficult to write or edit music. Many members of the music industry who are involved in creating music, whether at the beginner or professional level, use the popular Pro Tools software, which has long become an almost ideal tool for them in their work.
Changes usually create new problems for users instead of resolved ones. Sometimes the best is the enemy of the good. Over the years, users of Pro Tools, virtually all versions of this well-known product on the market, have been limited in their ability to use RTAS (up to version 10) and AAX (from version 11) plug-ins on board. It is true that FXPansion once offered a VST to RTAS Adapter application but did not support its development for other system and software platforms for several years.
In this matter, a very dynamic manufacturer, Blue Cat Audio, which has gained recognition in the market, came to the rescue, but not like NI or Waves. They offered two products that allow any application – not natively using VST plugins – to run Virtual Studio Technology plugins on any system and software platform. VST plugins have been the most popular format for many years, and therefore there are many of them, especially the resources of free applications of this type are rich. One of the tools we can use to do this is the Blue Cat patchwork. So far, many manufacturers of plug-ins in the form of effects or virtual instruments have not yet prepared 64-bit equivalents of their instruments.
If you take a close look at the Blue Cat Patchwork plugin, you will notice that it can run up to 8 rows of eight columns for connectors, which ultimately gives us access to 64 connectors. When you apply them to ten Pro Tools slots, you get 640 VST jacks per channel. This provides tremendous opportunities for creating music in a virtual studio.
If you need the parameters of a plug-in to change dynamically during playback, you can resort to the help of mixing automation tools. It provides low latency and full backward compatibility with the sessions in which it was used. Which means, among other things, access to saved settings and reading saved automation.
