I just found a license for PB which I bought eons ago; downloaded the app and it still works! Hoo-rah. I’ve totally forgotten how to use the thing but figure it won’t be too hard to get some nice buffer’y, glitchy, sound-grabby-type effects going on to run alongside my DN/iPad.
Anyone else use this gem?
i used to, a million years ago, have a special place in my heart for it 
It’s got its quirks, right? It’s a nice, lightweight alternative to Max/MSP, too…
Damn! There was AudioMulch, too. I’m sure I’ve got a license key for that somewhere.
After a couple of hours I’m definitely getting my swerve on… This is a daft audio buffer looper that had a bunch of playback speeds, record triggers, and play triggers. It’s pretty random and needs some work for it to be actually useful!
My maths / logic function knowledge is lacking so I’m sure that I’m missing a trick in some places. Still; fun!
I bought this last year because it’s cheaper and easier than Max, can host VST plugins, is great for complex routing of midi and audio, and has some gems of its own as well.
I’m very happy with it and use it for live improvisation and multitrack capture.
Nice! It’d be cool to see how you use it live; what kind of tooling have you set up?
Here is an example. It might look complex, but it’s just a few mixers that act as sends to various places (internal to Valhalla plugs, external to Kaoss Pad and Digitakt) and main mix which goes out on a live stream on the internet (via the ShoutCast plugin). Inputs also have EQ, and it is all controlled from a Livid DS-1 MIDI controller.
That is really cool - so much routing! You’re running sync from PB, too?
The Digitakt is acting as master sync here. It also takes care of sequencing.
Ah, nice. I’m going to have to try some processing/mixing with it. Good work, sir! Have you had a play with any of the audio buffer / sample mangling-type aspects of PB?
Yes, they are fun! I like playing with multiple buffers and using feedback to resample things over and over - the results are some times unpredictable but always interesting.
I also made a midi looper, using midi delay with note quantize and a velocity scaler in the feedback loop.
Could I use stock Ableton plugins with it? Max4live devices?
You can load VST’s. I don’t know what format Ableton uses for its stock plugins.
You can’t load Max4Live devices. You need Live for that, or you can build your own structure around them in Max.
And for what it’s worth, I eventually got Max MSP in the end. I experienced a few bugs and crashes in Bidule. I still like it as much as Max though, just not for live performance.
Just curious if anyone is using it and how relevant it is today in a world of Ableton 11 and Bitwig 5…?
Was trying to find any recent article on it, but nothing interesting found. People much more keen on Plogue’s chip/dac emulations.
Bidule is excellent and the devs are very friendly and helpful if you have any questions. It does all processing at audio rate, and there is no differentiation between ‘signals’ and ‘control rate’ like in Max, Reaktor, Pd, SuperCollider etc (though there is now a ‘discrete’ version which has similar features). Also none of that nonsense about order of connection or object placement having an effect on the patch. It’s missing some useful QoL features like having canvas viewable controls (every value slider or number box opens in its own floating window which can get messy), but the ability to run patches in a VST inside another program is very powerful and makes up for the quirks. Also the spectral processing is much more accessible than the equivalent in Max.
Thanks a lot. Spectral and new granular (since the time I used it) stuff in particular is what interested me again.
I’ve not done much granular with it, but have messed about a lot with samples. The way they are loaded and managed is much easier than Max or Pd IMO. Also it can be very much more manual to deal with playback, kind of like using Max’s [play~] object but with more control. Feels a lot ‘closer to the metal’, to use a phrase from the programming world. Which is to say that I think it would suit granular stuff pretty well.
Wow, that bring me back, used to have a ton of fun with this as an escape from Max, along with Audiomulch and Numerology. Good times!
