Patch Bay

Reading the live project route #

Track, group, device and master cards show the current mixer and device path. A live-route cable reflects that path. Use the owning mixer or device controls to change it. Authored graph cables are separate editable connections.

Activate a device card to descend into its Instrument Grid, Effect Grid or video graph. Use the breadcrumb to return to the project. The interior you open belongs to that device; changes affect the same project device.

Select nodes with the arrow keys. F or Home fits the graph to the view. Delete removes the selection. Start with the live route before adding modulation so you can tell which device receives each cable.

Choosing a compatible port #

Drag an output socket to a compatible input socket. The connection check considers the carrier, channel count, units and voice domain. A similar socket color or a numeric knob is not enough to make two ports compatible.

The four Event note-to-Control converters require the active voice context of a track's Instrument Grid. The top-level Patch Bay evaluates global Control, and an Effect Grid has no active instrument voice context for these nodes. A node appearing in the shared Nodes browser does not establish that it can execute in the current graph.

• Audio carries channel-based sound. Audio channel counts must match. Multiple forward Audio cables into one input sum, so reduce levels when combining sources.
• Signal carries a value or gate for every sample. It can drive a declared audio-rate destination, including frequency, phase, amplitude and supported sample controls.
• Control carries slower parameter values. Use it for ordinary modulation and parameter destinations that do not consume Signal.
• Event carries ordered messages in a bounded stream. Preserve the declared event type and voice identity when connecting note or gate processing.

• Use Event note converters in an Instrument Grid

Inserting adapters and voice conversion #

When a direct connection is unsuitable, use the offered Insert converter action. Choose Hold or Smooth when converting Control to Signal. Signal to Control Sample/Hold samples the faster stream for a slower consumer. Other reducers use their declared measurement rather than pretending the destination runs at audio rate.

A per-voice destination needs a compatible voice source. Use Insert Voice Broadcast, or Hold/Smooth plus Voice Broadcast when offered, to send a global value to active voices. The editor rejects a cable that bypasses the required voice conversion. Do not use Audio as a substitute for a scalar Signal.

Several cables can reach a modulation input, but their combination depends on that input. Numeric parameter controls may offer Replace, Add or Multiply. Loop gates offer Replace, OR or AND. Set the cable combination deliberately before increasing modulation depth. Continuous Signal inputs combine by summing compatible sources; gate Signals combine as gates. Event inputs preserve ordered bounded messages, and Event feedback is unsupported.

Revealing parameter destinations #

Click Parameter inputs or press E to show parameter input sockets. Select a source, move the intended destination control, then use Last touched or press L to create a route to the remembered parameter. The Target picker provides explicit target selection.

Use Routing cards to edit a route's target and depth. A parked route preserves the authoring reference without applying it to a missing or unchosen destination. Resolve the destination before expecting a parked route to change sound or video.

The destination describes its units, Control or Signal carrier, voice scope, Signal cost and processing quality. Use an explicit Signal input when one exists. For example, a filter's ordinary cutoff knob can coexist with a separate cutoff-in-Hz Signal socket. Hosted plugin parameters use Control; they do not provide a general sample-by-sample parameter contract.

Working with audio-rate destinations #

Native destinations include oscillator frequency, exponential pitch, phase, amplitude and reset; filter cutoff, resonance and morph; wavetable and waveshaper position; distortion drive, bias and morph; comb and all-pass delay or coefficient; delay timing and feedback; selected mixer, utility and dynamics controls. Sample Player and granular nodes expose their own typed inputs.

Read the offered destination and its units before wiring. Hertz, octaves, normalized position, seconds, samples and gates describe different operations. A destination that accepts only Control needs a reducer or a Control source. A general parameter label does not enable Signal input.

For a first modulation patch, begin with one source and one destination. Set the destination's base value, wire a low-depth source, and audition the result. Expand the patch after checking the intended range and voice behavior.

Feedback and processing quality #

Use an explicit feedback connection for an admitted Audio cycle. Signal feedback requires an explicit Signal delay node; marking an arbitrary Signal cable as feedback does not create that delay. A graph whose cycle policy forbids cycles rejects the connection.

Feedback diagnostics report peaks, trips and unsafe input, including non-finite values and magnitude limits. A tripped delay stays guarded. Lower the gain or repair the route before using Rearm Signal delay or the feedback Reset action.

Processing quality can form Native, 2x or 4x regions. Region diagnostics describe latency, resampler memory, feedback boundaries and estimated cost. A higher quality region does not change the destination's carrier or add a missing consumer. Preserve the authored delay when routing across a quality boundary.

Starters and reusable modules #

Replace Starter loads a complete patch and replaces the authored graph being edited. The curated library has 46 starter entries. Only Signal Analysis to Control and Session-Parameter Destination support replacing the top-level Patch Bay patch. Open an Instrument Grid or Effect Grid for the other starters. A starter cannot replace an island interior.

Some reference starters deliberately leave a sink parked or a hosted effect unselected. Choose the plugin, sample, key track or real parameter destination named in the starter instructions. Loading a reference patch alone does not complete its routing.

Select a coherent group of nodes and use Wrap Selection to make an editable module. Select one island and use Save Module to store it, then find it in Insert Module. Reload refreshes the saved module library. Inspect module availability before insertion; a package can require nodes, dependencies or programmable-content trust that this graph does not have.

Scope and browser preview #

Patch Bay is an evolving routing workspace. The controls above describe connected source implementation, not acceptance of every destination, recursive patch, module or platform combination. In particular, do not assume that an arbitrary numeric parameter accepts Signal or that an arbitrary cycle is executable.

HTML preview offers limited controls for ordinary track faders in Patch Bay. Select a track fader, enter Volume from 0 to 1 or Pan from -1 to 1, then click Apply. To add an offered route, select an editable node with a Control or Signal output, choose Source output, Destination parameter and Conversion, then click Connect. These destinations are ordinary track Volume or Pan controls. Use Remove routing beside an eligible connection to remove that route. Group and master faders, subgraphs and arbitrary graph cables are outside these browser controls. If the graph changes and a request is refused, refresh the view before trying again. Use the native editor for other patch edits. Draft: these controls are source-reviewed; native browser, routing and audio acceptance remain unverified.

• Open an Instrument Grid or Effect Grid
• Use a video layer graph
• Graph node reference