FAQ: Pluggo

System Requirements Required to run the latest version of Pluggo 3.6.1:

• Mac OS X 10.2 or later
• G4 processor
• 256 MB of memory
• 55 MB disk space
• VST, Audio Unit, or RTAS host application

• Windows XP or Windows Vista
• P4 processor
• 256 MB of memory
• 55 MB disk space
• VST or RTAS host application

As of Pluggo 3.6 – the pluggo runtime and all of our plug-in products are Universal Binaries and support both PPC and Intel processors.

This problem is caused when people install the CFMAdaptors that come with Max 4.6. In order for Pluggo 3.5.4 to work you must remove these CFMAdaptors. They are the following 2 files:

• /Library/CFMSupport/MaxCFMAdaptor.shlb
• /Library/CFMSupport/MaxAudioCFMAdapter.shlb

You don’t need to worry. Your install of Max 4.6 will still work just fine.

Some sequencing applications that previously supported VST plug-ins (such as Logic Audio or Digital Performer) now use Audio Unit plug-ins. When your sequence file is loaded, no plug-in appears because the original plug-in cannot be located, since it’s now an Audio Units plug-in. This happens with many other VST plug-ins, too. It’s a host application problem – ideally, the host application should keep an internal database of all VST > Audio Unit plug-in matches, so that it knows that it should now be looking for an Audio Unit plug-in. You should contact the creators of your host application to ask them about it.

You probably picked the mono-to-stereo version of Mouse Mod (listed in the menu as “Mouse Mod (m/s)”) rather than the stereo-to-stereo version. Logic monos the stereo channel before passing it to the plug-in in this situation. Choose the stereo-to-stereo version and your mixer channel will remain stereo.

Logic does send controller 1 (mod wheel) and 64 (sustain) to the plug-in.

All other controllers are used for the return, meaning after the plug-ins, this is the audio object or channel itself. There control 7 (volume) and 10 (pan) and a lot of others are used. Controllers after 64 are used to automate the plug-in controls.

If you move the Pluggo plug-ins folder after installing Pluggo, then the Pluggo RTAS plug-in for Pro Tools will no longer be able to find them. To move the Pluggo plug-ins first uninstall Pluggo and then reinstall at the new location.

No. Please update to Max/MSP 4.5.4 or later. Installing Pluggo will update the externals in the shared folder. These externals may rely on functionality that is only in the latest version of Max.

Pluggo 3.6.1, Mode 1.3.1, Hipno 1.1.1, Upmix 1.1.1, Pluggo Jr 3.6.1 and the Pluggo 3.6.1 runtime all require Max/MSP users to have version 4.6.3 installed to function properly. Please note that Pluggo is not supported in Max 5.

Visit the authorization page for details.

If you’re using an older OS 9 version of pluggo, no. Pluggo for OS X will work with a dual-processor machine if multiprocessing is enabled in the application.

Yes, we support Pluggo 3 on ProTools HD systems and we know of no problems specific to these systems.

No. However, we have one TDM product called Octirama.

It’s true — Pluggo for OS X no longer supports hosting of VST plug-ins. We found that it was a full time job keeping up with supporting all the different possible varieties of VST plug-ins that could be used, and that we’d always viewed VST hosting as more of a bonus feature for pluggo from the very start. If you’re interested in hosting VST plug-ins, we would recommend dedicated VST wrapper software products such as the VST Wrapper.

Pluggo has two synchronization modes. First, there’s a direct sync with the host applications. Host sync is supported with the current versions of most major sequencers.

For applications that don’t support host synchronization, you can use PluggoSync. To use PluggoSync, you make a click track and feed it as an audio input to the PluggoSync plug-in, which listens and derives a clock that is synchronized to the clicks. It can also subdivide the clicks so if your click track is in quarter notes, you can make effect changes in 16th notes. Numerous pluggo plug-ins work with both host synchronization and PluggoSync and can do things like retrigger LFOs or advance step sequences in sync with the music.

All Audio Unit, VST, and RTAS plug-ins use 32-bit floating-point samples. The sequencer converts from whatever your source material is into floating-point and hands it to the plug-in. The plug-in processes the audio entirely in floating-point, and gives it back to the sequencer in floating-point.

Pluggo’s Degrader plug-in simulates lower bit resolution, if that’s what you want.

Pluggo processes effects in real time and in that sense doesn’t need to support any file formats; this is handled by the host application.

Both the packaged and downloadable versions of Pluggo include a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) of the Getting Started manual. This manual discusses features common to all pluggo-based plug-ins and contains information about how to use the plug-ins in popular sequencers. Two additional PDF manuals are also included: a Plug-in Reference Guide that lists each plug-in alphabetically and describes its function and parameters, and a Plug-in Development Guide that tells you how to write your own plug-ins in Max/MSP. All of these manuals can be downloaded on the Pluggo download page without downloading the software itself.

The table of contents in the Plug-in Reference Guide Contains a list of all the plug-ins on a single page grouped by category. You can also find a summary of all the pluggo plug-ins in Appendix A of the Plug-in Reference Guide.

To stop this from happening, you need to authorize Pluggo. This information is available in the Authorize Pluggo chapter of the Pluggo Getting Started manual.

It is copied to your hard drive when you install Pluggo. If you’re a Windows user, you can find it at
C:\Program Files\Cycling ’74\Pluggo\Documentation

If you’re a Macintosh user, you can find the documentation in the Pluggo Applications folder inside the Applications folder.

Signal processing on your computer takes a lot of the CPU. pluggo plug-ins vary in how much processing time they will use. The pluggo Plug-in Reference Guide uses an adjective from light to heavy for each plug-in to characterize roughly how processor-intensive a plug-in is likely to be.

Some applications let you “freeze” or “render” a track – essentially, it lets you bounce a single track to disc, creating a new audio track that includes the plug-in’s output. You can use this feature to make the best use of your CPU.

You either double-clicked on the slider or held the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) down while clicking on the slider. This puts the slider into “fine mode” in which changes to parameter values can tweaked with more detail than when you normally drag on the slider. In order to do this, we need to hide the cursor.

Yes. Control click (Windows) or Command click (Macintosh) in any pluggo edit window, and you’ll get a pop-up menu with Undo and a bunch of other fun things such as a Randomize command and the ability to copy the settings from any other effect program into the current one.

Copy from Program only the copies the values of the parameters in the preset you choose from the submenu. The number and name of the current program remain unchanged. In fact, these cannot be changed by the plug-in without leaving the user interface of the sequencer in an inconsistent state.

These plug-ins are pluggo Modulators that generate information used to control other plug-ins. You choose the other plug-in from the Assign pop-up menus contained within the Modulator plug-ins. Modulators pass their audio inputs to their outputs unchanged.

Some sequencing applications that previously supported VstPlugins (such as Logic Audio or Digital Performer) now use AudioUnit plug-ins. When your sequence file is loaded, no plug-in appears because the original plug-in cannot be located, since it’s now an AudioUnits plug-in. This happens with many other VstPlugins, too. It’s a host application problem – ideally, the host application should keep an internal database of all VST > AudioUnit plug-in matches, so that it knows that it should now be looking for an AudioUnit plug-in. You should contact the creators of your host application to ask them about it.

• Hidden parameters may show in DP, Live, and Sonar
• Hipno is not currently supported in Windows Protools TDM
• Audiounits sometimes do not reset correctly. This is sometimes evident in Logic when stopping and starting transport while looping a segment of audio or using pluggobus receive on a bus track.
• On Windows Direct X acceleration must be turned off for the Hipno UI to display properly.
• Amogwai plugin in Hipno – may exhibit CPU hogging while idle
• In Hipno the ‘Grain Selection’ interface element does not display properly for the Deluge, Grain Bandit, and Grain Stream plugins on Windows. Aside from the ‘Grain Selection’ display these plugins are fully functional.

• Digital Performer: Make sure that in your audio hardware settings that you are running DP with a buffer size of at least 512. If it is less than 512 then you may see the CPU usage spike. If you are using Digital Performer 5.0 or greater, we recommend you always run Pluggo-based plug-ins in realtime; use of plugs in non-realtime mode is unsupported
• Cubase 4: “officially” unsupported
• Peak VST: unsupported, AU works fine.
• Wavelab: still officially unsupported due to incompatible threading model
• Kore: no VST on Macintosh
• Protools: PT 7.4+: To hear Pluggo synths on Instrument tracks, an input must be selected on the track.
• Audiosuite is broken, The workaround for this is to bounce the track to disk using effects.
• Earlier PT versions: Pluggo synths do not work on instrument tracks – they need to be loaded on Audio tracks.
• ShapeSynth does not load in Windows Protools LE.
• PluggoBusSend currently crashes Windows TDM Protools.
• Nuendo 4: unsupported due to incompatibility with Nuendo’s “Compatibility Mode”.
• Adobe Audition: Plugins must stored in the main VST folder.
• Logic 7.x + 8: Some Hipno plug-in parameters may not be able to be automated.
• PluggoBus Send/Rcv both need audio on their tracks or to be record-enabled.