Re: [Traverso-devel] Thoughts on plugin strategy

[Nicola Döbelin]

Hi Jonatan, (sorry for replying to your personal account)

> I agree mostly with all you said. But one thing bothers me, I don't
> think we should load any plugins but gain and pan into tracks by
> default. Not even EQ or dynamics... _but_ it should be very easy to just
> press a button for "Add plugin", which brings up a menu of available
> plugins to choose from. The privileged plugins (shipped with Traverso
> and with nice GUI's) would be at the top of the menu, perhaps with a
> separator to separate them from other user-installed plugins.

That's a good point. IIRC the TAP- and SWH packages contain a huge number of 
plugins, so a menu "Add Effect" could be organized like that:

- EQ
- Dynamics
- Reverb
- Plugins -> (Submenu with all 3rd-party plugins)

Or maybe we need a dialog which categorizes the 3rd-party plugins.

> Also, if the gain/pan controls (the "fixed" ones at the left of each
> track) uses the actual gain/pan plugins to do their work (multiplicating
> their value with the value of optional gain/pan curves), then perhaps
> those plugins shouldn't be removable from the track. Or, it might be
> better to let these controls do their work as they do now, no need for
> plugins. But only provide _optional_ gain/pan plugins for the sake of
> curve control of those parameters, which would mean we don't load _any_
> plugins into tracks by default. (this would be the best way, imho)

What I like about your idea of gain and pan plugins is that they can be 
re-arranged in the plugin chain just as every other plugin. Pre- and post-fader 
effects would become a no-brainer. If the fixed pan and gain controls do not 
appear as plugins in the chain, however, we need to define a pre-fader and a 
post-fader plugin slot.

I would prefer having a gain plugin loaded by default *which cannot be 
removed*. (One could argue if a pan plugin is always needed.) This plugin would 
do all gain related controls, that is a single gain value as well as the curve.

As to loading plugins by default: How about letting the user decide in the 
configuration page which plugins should be loaded by default when a new track / 
song / project is created?

Best,
Nic

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