[ardour-dev] plugin routing

[Paul Davis]

>I was wondering what the plan is for plugins.  Perhaps I have missed
>something, but the fact that plugin inputs and outputs are "invisibly" handled
>is a bit confusing.  

IMHO, its confusing only if you're more used to using plugins in systems
like Pd, Reaktor and other modular systems. In most DAWs, there is
absolutely no control over plugin i/o routing at all.

>What if a routing window for plugins could be brought up so that the routing
>could be seen and perhaps also manipulated.  For example a two-in/two-out
>plugin could route both outputs (mixing them) to a one-in/?-out plugin. 

just to be clear, a plugin cannot mix its own outputs. this is
impossible with both LADSPA and VST.

>Another example would be running two different plugins in parallel and mixing
>their output.
>
>I'm envisioning a window where you can drag and drop plugins and draw
>connections between them.  Would this be helpful?  How would some of the above
>plugin setups be implemented currently?  Would I just use a lot of busses?

version 3.0 will include stuff like this. not sure of the overall
design yet.

--p