[PD-dev] Multiple instances of Pd

[Marek]

Hi All

What I’m trying to do is to be able to dynamically create instances of
Pd, so I can have separate signal paths for each patch (i.e. not
static). I'm actually working with libpd, but it's still pd under the
hood. The reason being that I want to make an audio plugin for Logic,
and hopefully other formats, so people can create their instruments
and effects in Pd.

At the moment, since everything is static in Pd, my audio unit works
fine when there’s only one instance, but sounds dreadful or crashes
when there’s another one running – this is because its running the
same instance of Pd, but calling libpd_process_float() for both
patches twice in one block.

I’ve tried a couple of ways now to make libpd instanceable:

1. Make it into a dylib, then dynamically load it for each instance.
This doesn’t work because when you load the lib a second time, the OS
sees that it’s the same lib and reuses the one in memory (even if I
copy the lib to a new location with a new name!!)

2. Hacking the Pd source. I’ve had a little bit of success with this,
but I don’t really know what I’m doing, and was hoping there would be
someone out there who could point me in the right direction. I’ve been
trying to copy and clear the dsp_chain after loading each patch, and
then swapping them back before each individual render. What I've got
at present sometimes works for simple patches, but usually crashes
pretty quickly.

Anyone have any ideas? Am I doomed?

cheers

Marek

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