Scripting

Patchboard currently has a couple of ways to control its behavior from scripts and macros without the UI. It has an OSC API for control over the network as well as a shell CLI for local scripting in applications that don’t support OSC like Keyboard Maestro.

OpenSoundControl

Patchboard currently has a limited set of OSC messages that it accepts which can be used to record arm or disarm tracks and patches or set individual parameters on specific tracks.

/patch/set {patchName} {property} {value}

Set a track property to some value on the track linked to the identified patch.

patchName

A string or regular expression for the patch to record.

property

The property to set for the track corresponding to patchName. Currently, should be one of recordEnable, selected, volume, pan, mute, solo. Only recordEnable and selected are currently available in Pro Tools mode.

value

A number value to assign to the track’s property. For on-off properties like recordEnable, 1 or true is on and 0 or false off.

/track/set {trackName} {property} {value}

Set a track property to some value on a given track.

trackName

A string or regular expression for the track to record.

property

The property to set for the track corresponding to patchName. Currently, should be one of recordEnable, selected, volume, pan, mute, solo. Only recordEnable and selected are currently available in Pro Tools mode.

value

A number value to assign to the track’s property. For on-off properties like recordEnable, 1 or true is on and 0 or false off.

Command Line Interface

For convenience, Patchboard also offers a CLI for use from scripting and macro software that does not support OSC. When Patchboard is already running, you can run Patchboard again with additional arguments to control it:

set <type> <name> <property> <value>

For example, to record arm a track named “CS 6 FH”:

/Application/Patchboard.app/Contents/MacOS/Patchboard set track "CS 6 FH" recordEnable 1

type

Either track or patch, depending on which type name refers to.

name

A string or regular expression for the track or patch to record (based on type).

property

The property to set for the track. Currently, should be one of recordEnable, selected, volume, pan, mute, solo. Only recordEnable and selected are currently available in Pro Tools mode.

value

A number value to assign to the track’s property. For on-off properties like recordEnable, 1 is on and 0 is` off.