Here's a new release of [vstplugin~] - a Pd external to load VST plugins on Windows, macOS and Linux!

Binaries are available on Deken or can be downloaded here: https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin/-/releases

If possible, please report any issues at https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin/issues, otherwise leave a comment.

NOTE: macOS users might consider using my Pd vanilla fork, where the VST GUI doesn't run on the audio thread. You can download binaries here: https://github.com/Spacechild1/pure-data/releases/tag/v0.51.1-eventloop. It is the same as Pd 0.51-1, but it offers the option to run a Cocoa event loop. Maybe this feature will make its way into a future version of Pd vanilla.

Here are the major new features:

• automatic bit bridging (load 32-bit plugins on a 64-bit Pd and vice versa).

• [open(: new flags "-p" for sandboxing and "-b" for bridging. Both options allow plugins to crash safely without taking down the Pd. This can be handy for buggy/unstable plugins (especially during live shows

• [open(: new "-t" flag for multithreading (process plugins in seperate helper threads to utilize more CPU cores)

• [latency( message is sent whenever the plugin's processing latency changes

See the release page for the full change log.

Have fun!

Christof

Thanks for this great plugin. I am using it for my PD class. One of my students appears to have latency issues when running it on a PC. I can't emulate this as I am using a Mac. Is there a way to get the object to report any latency associated with a loaded plugin? I can't see anything in the documentation. Thanks

One of my students appears to have latency issues when running it on a PC.

[vstplugin~] by itself doesn't introduce any latency. A VST plugin might have latency (as reported by the [latency( message), but few actually do.

Have you checked your student's audio settings? Make sure that

• the student has installed the ASIO driver for their audio interface - or in the case of built-in mic/speakers, a generic ASIO driver like ASIO4all
• the ASIO backend ("ASIO (via portaudio") is selected
• the "delay" value is set as low as possible. Something like 10ms or lower should be ok. I think the default value is 50ms, which is much too high.

Sometimes it is also necessary to experiment with the hardware buffer size, e.g. setting it to 256 instead of 64.