Re: [Traverso-devel] Routing concept

[Nicola Döbelin]

> I think I get the idea, we have talked about it before, however then it
> was more about subgrouping, right? IIRC, you called a subgroup also a 
> Bus, which was similar to the AUX Bus concept, however you wrote that a 
> SubGroup Bus could have AudioClip just like Track's.

Technically subgroups and tracks are pretty identical. Differences (speaking of 
analogue/traditional mixing desks) originated mainly from the limited 
flexibility of hardware devices and limited space on the desk. But the point in 
subgroups is to be able to sum and process some of the tracks before summing 
with the remaining tracks. So if the output of several tracks can be routed to 
the input of another track, exactly the same effect as with subgroups is 
achieved. In this case I see absolutely no need for separate subgroups. Now you 
may ask: If a track is used as a subgroup, why should it be possible to record 
on this track, and why should it contain audio clips? Indeed there seems to be 
some redundancy as it doesn't make much sense to record on a track used as 
subgroup. My answer would be: Just don't do it, even though it's possible. 
However, *if* you decide to add a separate subgroup feature, I would recommend 
to

- disable the record function
- lock the track view so as not to be able to move audio clips onto the subgroup
- only accept tracks as input source, no hardware channels

This would emulate subgroups as found on hardware mixing desks pretty closely, 
but again, a flexible routing scheme as proposed in my previous mail would 
render subgroups completely obsolete.

The story is a bit different with AUX busses, because their input must be hard 
wired. There would also be a rather severe risk of feedback loops if an AUX 
track had an AUX send to itself.

> I need to re-read the emails about that subject to refresh my memory, 
> I'll try to do so in the weekend. From a coding point of view, it would 
> be nice if things are very clear for me what Tracks and (AUX/Grouped) 
> Buses share, how the routing code should look like, and if for example an
> AudioClip, Plugin or even Song 'share' or could benefit from some of the 
> routing concepts. (If they all 'share' the same routing concepts _and_ 
> code or parts of the code, they could inherit from a "Routable" class for
> example...) Also, things not 'possible' in hardware, could be done easily
> in software, like adding AudioClips to an AUX Bus ;-)
> Just something to think about hehe.

I think AUX busses could easily be derived from tracks, as they are basically 
stripped down tracks. Maybe you could add a flag to the track object, something 
like 'is_aux_bus=true', and in case of 'true', disable some features. I'll try 
to list some of them, but there may be more:

- hide the record button / skip all recording-relevant code
- don't add AUX send ports / skip all AUX *send*-relevant code
- don't allow to connect anything to the input in the patch bay dialog
- instead connect all corresponding AUX send ports of all tracks to the input
(- lock the track view so as not to be able to move audio clips onto the AUX 
track)

I'm not sure about the last one, though. You could leave it to the user to 
decide how much he wants to confuse himself ;-)

So maybe it's not even necessary to declare an AUX track object if you can just 
switch normal tracks to 'AUX' mode. (This is how I would do it in my chaotic 
coding style...)

Do you understand how the input routing of AUX busses is supposed to work (with 
the AUX send stuff from tracks, pre- and post-processing etc.)? This is rather 
crucial and we should make sure you really grasp it before you start 
implementing it. So don't hesitate to ask 'stupid' questions. I know how it 
works because I had plenty occasions to play with buttons on hardware mixers, 
and it also took me quite some time to explore the full potential of the 
concept.

Have a nice weekend!
Regards,
Nic

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