What's your solution for rack-style functionality?

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

Hi all,

I'm about to start on a big multi-song project and I need the equivalent of Ableton's "Instrument Rack" functionality - i.e. to be able to Save&Load a set of parallel synths & effects as a single preset.

Does anyone know how to achieve this please?

I've investigated 3rd-party solutions without much success - "Carla" won't load as a VST on my system (some seemingly unsolvable QtGui error), Bluecat "Patchworks" uses too much CPU for no good reason, and other multi-plugin hosts don't seem to be loadable as plugins themselves. Would be good to know of others.

What do other people do to in order to Load&Save a multi-synth setup for exchange between songs?
Is there an alternative way of approaching the problem?

I will still need to be able to remote control the synth and effects parameters from a MIDI controller.

Thanks in advance,

Jeremy.

[msmcleod]

A CbB-only solution might be to use track templates, where all the audio tracks for the synths are in a single folder. 

Another 3rd party solution might be Cantable, but personally I've only used this across machines via ADAT and not on the same machine as CbB.  

 

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

22 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

A CbB-only solution might be to use track templates, where all the audio tracks for the synths are in a single folder. 
 

Yeah, I just discovered this a few minutes before you posted it, and I have been doing a bunch of experiments with it.
- it's amazing! - I never knew that CW track templates could be multi-channel and even include nested folders!

It's the perfect solution to my needs! ? 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Jeremy Murray-Wakefield

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

6 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

Interesting you mention Bluecat's Patchwork being CPU heavy for you,

Using Ableton Live's Instrument Rack (as a reference point), I get 30% using both "Dune 3" and "Wavestate Native" synths at the same time, however in Patchwork, it goes up to 50% (and starts glitching) so that's a significant increase.

[jesse g]

There you are, Cakewalk track templates to the rescue.