[ardour-dev] Cool idea or Crackhead ramblings

[Paul Davis]

>Ok.  This brings me to a further question.  For whatever reason, I have
>the impression that Ardour is intended to be used both as a live sound
>mixer and as a recoding platform.  Perhaps I have the wrong idea, but I

this is definitely true.

>think it's probably the most useful audio app I have ever encountered
>simply because of the incredible flexibility of the I/O and bussing
>possibilities.  In my secret sick fantasy world, I envision using Ardour
>on a live gig to run sound and to record at the same time.  So this

certainly possible.

>brings me to the idea of administrating hardware level mixing at the
>higher Ardour level.  I think it would be really great to have a section

this is where you went astray :)

Ardour does not and should not know anything about hardware. 

Lets take the two most common examples, the RME HDSP series and the
various devices based on the ice1712/1724 chipsets. Can you imagine a
common interface for these two hardware device types? I cannot. The
controls they offer, the basic mixing models etc. are so different
that it simply makes no sense to me to try to work on a program that
presented a unified view on their controls.

instead, hdspmixer and envy24ctl represent two very different
applications that provide total control over the hardware in a way
that Ardour never could. nor any other single application, for that
matter. 

virtual workspaces are your friend here. put ardour in one,
hdspmixer/envy24ctl in the other. Click, you're done (TM) :)

--p