Just in case any of you are dependent upon this great little tool, a heads up that it will not run with MacOS Catalina as 32-bit application capability has been dropped by Apple.
MIDI Patchbay was written back in 2008, and I would not expect the developer to produce a 64-bit version.
On a positive note, there is good news for any of you who are happy with a bit of software engineering. The source code is available in GitHub.
I rebuilt it as a 64-bit application and now have my 64-bit version of MIDI Patchbay working perfectly in Catalina.
Along with build configuration, I did also have to recode it just a little, but it really wasn’t a big deal. Before you ask, I can’t (as opposed to won’t) share the new app with you, as I don’t have an Apple Developer Community licence, so had to code-sign it for my own personal use.
What version of MacOS are you running? Have you previously used the MIDI Patchbay app on your Mac? Have you got xcode installed? Have you any experience of software development? Sorry for all the questions.
I’m using OSX 10.14.6 at the moment and, yes, I am currently using MIDI Patchbay … extensively in my music studio. I have xcode installed and have approximately 50 years coding experience (started on teletype machines in the early 70’s!). Most of my coding in recent years has been with Perl, most because I’m too lazy to learn anything else. I have worked on an extensive C project but that was 30ish years ago. So, I’m not new to coding. It’s just that the code that I look at for MIDI Patchbay looks a bit “alien” to me … at the moment. I’m sure I could get used to it though.
would be good to fork that repo, make the changes for 64bit, and open a PR towards the original repo so the dev can review it. if they won’t, it makes sense that the project stays forked, and if they do, you’ve just helped a whole bunch of people including myself to feel safe installing the 64bit version. sound good to you?
it’s a question, not a point. the question is “do the major DAWs come with midi patchbays?”
i presumed all the DAWs would have midi patchbays. but discussion here of a standalone digital midi patchbay made me think maybe DAWs don’t have patchbays. an online search didn’t really settle the question, so i thought i’d ask here.
another midi patchbay question – do you need to buy a midi hub if you are doing midi routing in the box?
if so, i have a suggestion for a cheap midi hub alternative. the motu timepiece midi patchbays sell for around $50-100. they have 8 midi in and 8 midi out ports. it’s a great bit of gear.
In my use case, the Mac operates as a USB host and the software operates as a MIDI hub.
Whilst my DAW provides this functionality, I tend to set this up differently song by song. Whereas I use a fairly static config in MIDI Patchbay to enable all of my frequently used connections and avoid fannying about when I just want to play.
A bit like using a calculator app on my iPhone to do a quick sum, rather than spinning up a spreadsheet.
some do, some don’t.
Logic’s environment is a full-featured patchbay, and one can do pretty wild MIDI things with it. Ableton doesn’t have a patchbay but has enough MIDI plugins so you don’t feel like you need one. Aum has a useful MIDI router inside. The interesting thing with MIDI Patchbay above is that it’s a standalone ultra-simple app that is deep and capable of pretty good things like transforming data on the fly as well as filtering and/or routing. The downside is, of course, needing a computer. iConnectivity’s first iConnectMIDI has a patchbay inside but has all kinds of electrical issues. I’m not sure what’s inside the later models.
Hard to imagine a complex studio without a MIDI hub…
Hello cloudburst - I would be willing to help out with signing and github, I have the necessary Apple Dev account…let me know if this is an option for you
@cloudburst I just updated and lost midi patchbay without realising. I have absolutely 0 coding experience, am I a lost cause? I really loved the simplicity of that app, it was perfect
Hi @cloudburst, could you give some advise about compiling it since there doesn’t seem to be a compiled version of 1.1.0 available? Do I have to pay for a apple developer license just to be able to compile this?
MĂĄns
Hi @cloudburst,
I downloaded the the code, installed xcode on Catalina, tried to compile, got a Build Failed error.
What should I do?
Regards,
Christian
Hi @christianthibault, I got it to build, I changed the “Team” setting in the “Signing & Capabilities” tab in the project settings. It gives you an option to add your personal account instead and after that i got it to build with product->Build. There ware warnings, but the build succeeded.
Hi @mnskll,
Followed your advice. Found the app here:
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/MIDI_Patchbay-…/Build/Products/Debug/
I thank you for your help.
Christian
