Welcome to PlogueBidule. Please try out the tutorial patches in the "layouts" directory. Don't forget to activate signal processing by clicking on the "Power On" icon (the 6th one) in the toolbar.
To add a bidule drag and drop it from the palette window on the patchbay or right click in the black area of the patchbay and select the one you would like to add
Every bidule has a contextual menu : right click on the bidule to access it
You can have a short description of a connector in the status bar by highlighting it.
Color codes : blue is sampled audio, white is midi signal, frequencies are yellow and magnitudes are orange.
The media pool allows you to share waves between bidules.
You can link parameters in the "Parameters" dialog (Tools->Parameters or the chain icon on the toolbar)
To link a parameter to a midi controller you must add a "midi input" to the pathbay so it can emit signals
To PAN the patchbay : Control + LeftClick in its black area. You can also use the arrow keys
The HOME key centers the patchbay an resets its zoom level
To ZOOM in and out the patchbay : Control + up or down arrow
Control-Space toggles between play and stop
Double clicking on a bidule (blue node in the patchbay) raises it's configuration window
A bidule whose label is in italic is actually a group of bidules. CTRL-double-click on it to expand (view it's content). Backspace will go back to the parent group.
A bidule has 3 processing modes : normal, mute and passthrough. You can access these modes in the contextual menu (right-click on a bidule)
Ctrl+doubleclick to expand the layout of a Group.
Press Backspace to go up a level (from inside an expanded Group).
Turn two channels of the Mixer bidule into one stereo channel by linking the Volume parameter of the first channel to that of the second, and panning the first to the left and the second to the right.
Feedback IS fun! Connect the audio output of a Bidule to a Gain bidule, then connect that Gain output to the input of any bidule earlier in the audio chain. Use the Gain slider to keep feedback to a bearable level.
Group together VST plugins you use often to recall the combination with the exact settings and re-use it in other Bidule layouts.
If you want to re-use a collection of bidules often, but keep them ungrouped, save those bidules as a .bidule file, and import the whole structure at once using the File > Import command.
Parameters from two bidules linked inside a group will be saved with that group, and will automatically be linked every time you add the group to a layout.
Select multiple objects at a time to change their processing mode simultaneously. E.g., to mute an instrument and its effects all at once.
Want to split your keyboard note range between two (or more) instruments? Use a MIDI Note Filter bidule to filter out all the notes above (or below) the desired range. Use as many filters as you want for multiple keyboard regions.
Experiment with linking parameters! All sorts of automation, strange as well as useful, can be controlled by linked parameters.
Link the Playing parameter of one Step Sequencer to another to have them both start and stop at the same time.
Link MIDI CC messages from an incoming MIDI device to plugin parameters in order to control the plugin by MIDI... even if it doesn't have its own MIDI automation.
