[Traverso-devel] more about plugins

[Jonatan Liljedahl]

I think the plugins needs some more thinking...

First of all, there's two ways of using plugins:

1) track inserts, each instance of a plugin is used only on specified
track and there's no 'dry' signal going through.

2) effect sends, plugins belong to the song, and any track can send any
amount of it's signal to the effect (aux busses), this is currently not
supported in traverso.

As it is now, plugins are connected in a chain, and only as track inserts.
What inputs and outputs are used if there's more than stereo in/out?
How is mono-plugs handled?
Some plugs takes control inputs, these should be controllable from
curves or from the outputs of other plugs! (like sweeping a filter
cutoff with an LFO).

I think that the only real and fully flexible solution is to have a free
connection network, where each output can be connected to any input(s).
So in this network/patch, the following ins/outs would be available:

Outputs:
- From track (send to plug-network)
- Curves (selected by ID?)
- All outputs of all plugins in this track
Inputs:
- To track (return from plug-network)
- All inputs of all plugins in this track

But, perhaps this super-flexible plug-networking should be saved to (2),
where we would have aux busses also added to the lists above. And simple
track inserts would be used for stuff like in a real studio: gain-plug,
compressor, EQ, etc.. But if track in/out was also available in the
signal router, one could still build a complex patch of plugs and run a
track audio through it just as if it was a track insert!
Also, with (2), one could have special curve-tracks without audio just
to control parameters in the song-global plug-patch.

-- 
/Jonatan         [ http://kymatica.com ]