Elusive aspects of Bidule and DP audio routing

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I've finally gotten DP8 running 64 bit to use my 32 bit VIs with Plogue Bidule reliably (running PB standalone in 32 bit since in 64 bit it doesn't run 32 bit VIs). There are a few aspects of this which were somewhat elusive for me and I thought documenting them here might help others in the future.

1) Bidule Rewire audio sends must be configured/activated while DP (or presumably a different DAW) is not running. Run Bidule in standalone. You'll find the screen you need in the Tools menu of PB as "Device Configuration." What was odd on my machine was the configuration screen didn't allow selection of options (# of outs, etc) and appeared inactive. Yet after simply accessing the configuration screen in PB and clicking around, then quitting PB; launching DP (and then PB); the Rewire device appeared in DP and was functioning, sending audio to bundles 17/18 in DP8. You can see the audio coming in by activating the audio monitor in DP.

Now for the DP stuff:

1) In the Tracks Overview window, MON must be DISABLED to PLAYBACK recorded audio on the PB Rewire device track.

2) Conversely, MON must be ENABLED to hear MIDI data on the VI during editing MIDI data (as opposed to hearing the recorded data) on the MIDI tracks.

You cannot hear both at the same time, at least as far as I can tell. I suspect this is implemented to avoid a feedback loop.

3) Not surprisingly, audio from MIDI channels (meaning: VI instrument tracks) being piped into DP from Plogue Blidule cannot be frozen or bounced until they are rendered with a real time record into DP.

Hope this helps some of you guys int the future. Much thanks to Seb at Plogue Bidule for his patience in fielding my questions about this. My hope that Plogue Bidule can be used as a bridge for 32 bit VIs in a 64 bit DP8 are now a reality. Good job Seb!

ps - of course, be sure your PB and Rewire bundles, etc., are up to date!