PlugData 0.9.2 will change the Game

Tutorial | Dec 27, 2024

In this video, I discuss the updates and advantages of Plug Data, a patcher platform that allows users to create their own plugins using a collection of great open-source projects in an accessible and visually appealing environment. I highlight how Plug Data simplifies plugin creation and distribution by integrating various libraries and offering a feature to discover and download patches easily. Overall, I express enthusiasm for Plug Data's innovative approach to plugin development and its potential future impact on the music production community.

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Summary

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In this video, I dive into the topic of PlugData, detailing the exciting updates and changes since I last discussed it on my channel. Previously, we might have explored creating a looper or exporting a VST or clap plugin, but today, I focus on what sets PlugData apart and why it feels like a game-changer in the world of music production.

I express my perspective that traditional VST plugins have become somewhat restrictive. They often come as small, closed packages with attractive UIs, but they limit users' ability to modify or repurpose the components. This is where PlugData offers an alternative approach. It's a patcher that allows users to create their own patches using a variety of modules, providing a more flexible and customizable experience. It's a collection of open-source projects, presented through an accessible and visually appealing GUI built on the foundation of Pure Data, which itself is somewhat less user-friendly.

PlugData integrates a range of libraries like ELSE, Cyclone, GEM, and the Heavy Library, enhancing its functionality and versatility. These elements make it possible to compile VST or clap plugins from a patch, a process previously shown in one of my videos. Notably, PlugData also includes PT Lua, allowing those familiar with Lua to create audio processes, animations, or graphics directly within the environment.

A standout feature I highlight is the platform's ability to serve as a hub for open-source projects under one roof, facilitating collaboration and sharing. Users can explore, modify, and learn from existing patches easily. A new library feature allows users to compile a personal collection of patches from others without the hassle of manual downloads, significantly increasing usability.

I demonstrate the straightforward method of importing patches from the library and show how users can view, tweak, and integrate them into their projects. Each imported patch can be opened and modified, aligning with my belief that being able to investigate and adapt these patches is essential for learning and creativity in production.

Moreover, I note that PlugData presents plugins without unnecessary interface elements, allowing for more direct interaction with controls. For instance, I explain how these patches can be saved as presets in Bitwig Studio, facilitating quick access in future sessions.

Beyond just playing with existing patches, PlugData offers a platform for creators to share their works. They can upload their patches to the PlugData page and make them available for others, circumventing the usual hurdles in plugin development like cross-platform GUI creation. This feature is both a time-saver and a creative catalyst, encouraging user-generated content.

I touch on the innovative command input feature, which allows users to script the creation of modules using commands, speeding up workflow and enhancing efficiency, especially for repetitive tasks.

For developers, PlugData's capacity to export VST or clap plug-ins with customizable GUIs is noteworthy. Though I haven't tried it yet, this ability suggests significant potential for personalized plugin development.

In conclusion, I advocate for the support and exploration of PlugData as a tool with transformative potential in music production. As an open-source initiative, I'd like to see more people contribute and benefit from what it has to offer. I share my personal support for the project through sponsorship and encourage others to do the same, underlining my enthusiasm for its continued development.

Transcription

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
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[00:00:00] Hey, folks, welcome back.
[00:00:01] Today I want to talk about plug data and it's been a while
[00:00:04] since I talked about it last time on this channel.
[00:00:07] And I think last time we created some kind of looper
[00:00:10] or we exported a VST or clap plugin.
[00:00:13] I'm not really sure.
[00:00:15] But I want to talk about what's changed since then, right?
[00:00:18] And a lot of things in there are great ideas,
[00:00:22] game-changing ideas.
[00:00:24] In my opinion, VST plugins are kind of me
[00:00:28] or not interesting anymore
[00:00:30] because you get this small little VST package
[00:00:33] and you can't look into it, you can't change it,
[00:00:36] you can't take things out of it and use it somewhere else, right?
[00:00:40] You have this small little great sexy UI-looking package
[00:00:45] that you buy, but you are kind of stuck with it, right?
[00:00:50] So plug data goes in different directions.
[00:00:52] It's a patcher.
[00:00:54] We can create our own patches in there
[00:00:56] with a lot of modules and patch these things together,
[00:01:00] create interfaces here, put it into a plug-in view.
[00:01:05] We can use a scalar here, right?
[00:01:07] And can create our own kind of small plug-ins
[00:01:11] in a different way.
[00:01:12] So that's neat and great.
[00:01:16] And what I really like about plug data
[00:01:19] is that it's become some kind of collection
[00:01:22] of great open source projects.
[00:01:24] So you can see on the right side,
[00:01:25] we are using plug data version 0.9.2.
[00:01:29] It's a nightly build and it's based on pure data.
[00:01:32] So pure data is a visual programming language kind of,
[00:01:36] but it's not really sexy.
[00:01:38] It's not really usable.
[00:01:39] It's very, you know, ugly almost.
[00:01:44] And plug data uses this here in a kind of a sexy GUI environment
[00:01:49] to make it more accessible.
[00:01:51] It also uses here libraries like ELSE or Cyclone,
[00:01:55] which kind of is, you know, a collection of modules.
[00:01:59] So this one here,
[00:02:00] this module I'm using our all-pass reverb is an ELSE.
[00:02:05] Let me open this here.
[00:02:06] Yeah, it's an ELSE module.
[00:02:09] So it's a collection of great open source projects.
[00:02:13] It also uses your gem and heavy lip
[00:02:16] and heavy is basically the compiler.
[00:02:19] So it allows you to compile
[00:02:22] VSC plugins or clap plugins from this patch.
[00:02:26] I showed you this in a video here.
[00:02:28] There's also a video channel
[00:02:32] dedicated to this heavy lip compiler
[00:02:34] by the creator of heavy lip.
[00:02:36] I put you the link in the description below, of course.
[00:02:39] It also uses your PT Lua.
[00:02:41] So if you are familiar with the programming language Lua,
[00:02:45] there's an object now in here where you can use Lua
[00:02:49] to create audio processes or graphics or animations.
[00:02:54] We can do this now in plug data
[00:02:58] just with this small little addition here of this library.
[00:03:03] So it's almost like a small, great, sexy collection
[00:03:07] of open source projects.
[00:03:09] And I really like this idea, right?
[00:03:11] To bring it all under one roof instead of having all these
[00:03:17] single projects doing on their own.
[00:03:22] So here we have this overview, right?
[00:03:26] And I really like this overview
[00:03:28] because you can look into the patch.
[00:03:30] You can see what's in there.
[00:03:32] And I really like to have this here also in Bitwig
[00:03:35] for the grid.
[00:03:36] We can have an idea what is this patch doing?
[00:03:40] How complex is it, right?
[00:03:42] Maybe a thumbnail also would be great
[00:03:44] if you could change here the thumbnail.
[00:03:46] You can do this, now you can't do it.
[00:03:48] So yeah, that's the overview.
[00:03:52] We can also create a new patch.
[00:03:53] We can open up a patch here from the directory.
[00:03:56] And there is now this new library button here.
[00:03:59] And that's really great for the user.
[00:04:01] So instead of creating stuff in here,
[00:04:03] maybe you are not familiar with the patching environment
[00:04:05] and you kind of hate to program stuff,
[00:04:09] you can head over to library
[00:04:11] and can create here a small little library of patches
[00:04:13] that you really like from other people.
[00:04:16] So to get something into Plug Data now,
[00:04:19] before we had to download stuff, put it in a directory.
[00:04:22] So now you have this discover button here.
[00:04:25] And it opens up here some kind of,
[00:04:27] yeah, library of plug-ins or patches
[00:04:30] that you can easily download.
[00:04:32] So here for the instance, we have a disperser patch.
[00:04:36] It's completely free.
[00:04:38] So you can click on it, you have an overview.
[00:04:40] You can also view it online if you want to.
[00:04:43] So we go here to the website of plugdata.org,
[00:04:46] there's a small little overview.
[00:04:47] It kind of roughly works in the same way
[00:04:50] like NVC vREC with modules.
[00:04:52] So we have this overview here.
[00:04:55] You can see the release date, price is free.
[00:04:57] And we can click this button here,
[00:04:59] to download actually the stuff.
[00:05:01] Successfully installed disperse, great.
[00:05:04] Go back and we have it now here in our local library.
[00:05:08] We can click on it and we can use it.
[00:05:11] Looks like a plug-in, right?
[00:05:12] Really great.
[00:05:13] You can also scale it if you want to.
[00:05:17] You can also open it up here and look into the patch
[00:05:20] and change some things, right?
[00:05:22] We can change the button, we can add a button,
[00:05:23] we can remove a button.
[00:05:25] We can use some of these combinations of modules here
[00:05:30] and use it in our own projects.
[00:05:34] It's really great.
[00:05:35] That's how it should be, in my opinion.
[00:05:37] You can learn, you can tweak, you can change it.
[00:05:41] You can make your patch public.
[00:05:45] You can download patches from other people.
[00:05:48] It's really great.
[00:05:49] That's how it should be, in my opinion.
[00:05:51] So let's go back here.
[00:05:54] So this is the plug-in view.
[00:05:55] It looks like a real plug-in, right?
[00:05:57] There's no Chrome or whatsoever.
[00:05:59] You have like all your small little dedicated knobs
[00:06:04] and interface elements.
[00:06:08] And you can say instead of just going into plug data
[00:06:11] or calling up plug data,
[00:06:13] going into the library, click the right thing, right?
[00:06:15] We can say, let's save this here as a preset
[00:06:18] inside of Bitwig Studio.
[00:06:19] So I always say PD for plug data.
[00:06:23] And let's call it Disposer.
[00:06:25] Beta, polarity is not right, but I don't care.
[00:06:29] Only FX, right?
[00:06:31] It's probably digital.
[00:06:32] Make a small description here, save it.
[00:06:39] And then it has here the name inside of Bitwig Studio.
[00:06:42] And next time we can call it up here, PD, Disposer.
[00:06:47] And boom, we are inside of this patch or this plug-in.
[00:06:52] I want to say plug-in because it's actually a plug-in, right?
[00:06:56] And yeah, you have all the pros of a modular environment
[00:07:01] because you can go into the edge, you can change it, right?
[00:07:08] And also all the pros of having a plug-in
[00:07:11] because you can just open this up here as a preset
[00:07:13] and you are strictly or straight into this interface
[00:07:18] where you can change stuff.
[00:07:20] See how it sounds.
[00:07:21] And change to the center frequency.
[00:07:24] We make a short percussion sound here.
[00:07:31] You can hear it.
[00:07:33] (upbeat music)
[00:07:35] So, really great idea to do it this way.
[00:07:46] And I wish we had something like this in Bitwig.
[00:07:49] You can see a disperser.
[00:07:52] We go in there and I actually open this up.
[00:07:55] Hope you have to use here.
[00:07:58] Yeah, you can see in there we have a lot of all-pass modules
[00:08:02] here in serial probably to create this disperser effect.
[00:08:07] But you can learn, you can also learn
[00:08:10] from these plug-ins then, right?
[00:08:12] You can dive into it and see what's going on.
[00:08:14] So this is the disperser.
[00:08:17] You can also use here a clipper or maybe here this,
[00:08:20] what's the name, T4PE Lite, one knob wipe machine.
[00:08:24] Yeah, let's download this one.
[00:08:29] Installed, boom, boom.
[00:08:32] There we have it, wipe machine.
[00:08:34] You can use it.
[00:08:35] Make a longer sound now.
[00:08:38] (upbeat music)
[00:08:40] Yeah, some pitch modulation there.
[00:08:48] Gives you some kind of flutter effect.
[00:08:50] Yeah, it's another module that you just downloaded
[00:08:53] just with one click, right?
[00:08:55] Another great thing for creators
[00:08:58] is actually that you can use here a platform, right?
[00:09:03] If you want to create or if you have actually created
[00:09:05] some kind of plug-in before a VST plug-in, for instance,
[00:09:10] you know all the problems, right?
[00:09:11] You need to code it.
[00:09:14] You need to create a dedicated GUI for all the platforms
[00:09:19] for Mac, for Windows, for Linux and so on.
[00:09:24] And you don't need to do this here.
[00:09:26] You have this plug data platform that takes care
[00:09:28] of all these small little nuances from all these platforms.
[00:09:32] And all you have to do is to create your own patch
[00:09:35] and upload it to the plug data page, right?
[00:09:39] And other people can download it just by clicking your library
[00:09:43] and click Discover, click what they want,
[00:09:47] and then they have it.
[00:09:48] So in my opinion, this is a game changer.
[00:09:50] And I probably use this a lot when this comes out here.
[00:09:55] Also to download stuff and also to create stuff, of course,
[00:09:58] because it's a nice platform, right?
[00:10:01] It's easy to distribute stuff and easy to download.
[00:10:04] Okay, that's it for the library here.
[00:10:08] We also have here, let's go into this one here.
[00:10:13] They also added here some kind of command input.
[00:10:16] This is really an interesting idea.
[00:10:19] So we have this patching environment here
[00:10:21] and we can create new modules pretty easy, right?
[00:10:25] But we can also now use this command input.
[00:10:27] It doesn't help menu with all the commands you can use.
[00:10:32] So for instance, we can use your canvas object,
[00:10:35] 20, 50, metro to 200, right?
[00:10:38] And this one creates a metro object with 200 milliseconds
[00:10:43] and at the 20, 50 coordinate, right?
[00:10:49] So it puts it on a certain point here on this canvas.
[00:10:53] So we can click this here and then it puts it
[00:10:55] into the input, then we hit return
[00:10:58] and it creates here this metro object, right?
[00:11:01] So you can interact with the canvas
[00:11:04] not by only clicking here and dragging.
[00:11:06] You can also use now here the command input.
[00:11:09] You can also use your Lua expressions
[00:11:12] like this for loop here.
[00:11:14] You can iterate over this evil here
[00:11:16] and create canvas objects, right?
[00:11:20] Let's hit return.
[00:11:22] You just created here a bunch of objects.
[00:11:26] So sometimes when you are in the grid, right?
[00:11:28] And you have to create something,
[00:11:29] you have to create a lot of modules sometimes.
[00:11:33] And this makes it a lot easier
[00:11:35] just using here this command thing.
[00:11:38] So this is the command input, really great addition.
[00:11:43] I'm really happy with this.
[00:11:45] And there's also something I haven't tried out yet.
[00:11:49] So maybe open up here the all pass again.
[00:11:52] It just already opened, sorry, on this one here.
[00:11:56] So before I showed you in a video
[00:11:58] that you can export, export VST plug-ins.
[00:12:03] It's not working out for the moment.
[00:12:04] I haven't installed the tool chain.
[00:12:06] I have to download the tool chain first.
[00:12:08] But now you can also export VST plug-ins
[00:12:11] with the GUI in there.
[00:12:12] They added this with a heavy lip compiler recently.
[00:12:17] I haven't tried out yet, but the video looked very great.
[00:12:20] I put you the link in the description below.
[00:12:22] So this is also new.
[00:12:23] We can now export a VST or clap plugin
[00:12:26] with a very basic GUI.
[00:12:29] But you can also then export the source code
[00:12:32] and you can change the source code
[00:12:34] and change the GUI to your liking, of course, if you want to.
[00:12:38] And then you can create really native VST
[00:12:41] and clap plug-ins just with a plug data.
[00:12:45] So in my opinion, it's a great package overall.
[00:12:49] It's also neatly packaged here with this interface.
[00:12:52] This interface is really top-notch.
[00:12:54] I really like it.
[00:12:55] The interface designer is a good man.
[00:13:00] They also do here this store thing with the overview here.
[00:13:06] All the presets, they probably increase here.
[00:13:09] This is just a small collection of presets.
[00:13:16] There is more to come in the future, of course.
[00:13:19] You can head over here to the plug data page.
[00:13:23] Then go to download.
[00:13:25] Then you can download here the stable version, 0.9.1.
[00:13:29] But the version I showed you in this video here
[00:13:31] is the latest nightly.
[00:13:33] It's built yesterday, so it's completely fresh.
[00:13:36] But like I said, it's a nightly build.
[00:13:37] It's a beta.
[00:13:38] It's not probably working 100% correctly.
[00:13:41] There are things missing.
[00:13:43] So if you want to do some work, use the stable version.
[00:13:46] If you just want to explore a bit what's coming up here
[00:13:50] in the next version, then download the latest nightly
[00:13:53] version.
[00:13:55] And yeah, what they are doing here
[00:13:57] is something Placo, Cycling74 Placo did here.
[00:14:03] I have this website open.
[00:14:05] They did this back in the day.
[00:14:07] So this was before Able to Live was buying here.
[00:14:12] It's in 2005.
[00:14:14] This was before Able to Live was buying Cycling74 or Max DSB.
[00:14:20] And then they killed off Placo.
[00:14:22] So Placo was basically a small little collection of 100
[00:14:25] instruments and effects made in this kind of way.
[00:14:29] They are patched in Max DSB on this pure data environment.
[00:14:33] And then they created small little plug-ins from that.
[00:14:36] But when Able to Live bought this here back in the day,
[00:14:39] they killed off this Placo thing and made a lot of people sad,
[00:14:45] really sad.
[00:14:46] And yeah, Plug Data brings it back basically
[00:14:49] with this new patcher or with this new discover feature.
[00:14:53] Really great.
[00:14:54] I'm also a supporter of Plug Data, by the way, here.
[00:14:56] You can head over to the GitHub page here and go to Sponsoring.
[00:15:01] Just leave a tip or maybe sponsor this here.
[00:15:04] I'm here $30 a month.
[00:15:07] That's my donation basically for each month now for over a year.
[00:15:12] And they're doing great things.
[00:15:15] It's a great project.
[00:15:16] I really love it.
[00:15:17] And yeah, give it a go.
[00:15:22] So that's it for this video, I think.
[00:15:25] Thanks for watching.
[00:15:26] Leave a like.
[00:15:27] I put all the links in the description below.
[00:15:29] And thanks to all the open source creators,
[00:15:32] you do really a great job.
[00:15:34] I'm really loving it.
[00:15:36] And I really want to cover this project in the future more often.
[00:15:42] And I think it has a really bright future, in my opinion.
[00:15:47] It's going to the moon next year, probably.
[00:15:53] So thanks for watching.
[00:15:54] Leave a like.
[00:15:55] See you next time.
[00:15:55] And bye.

PlugData 0.9.2 will change the Game

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Summary

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