Re: [Traverso-devel] Curves (aka envelopes?)

[Remon]

Hi Jonatan, good to see you here ;-)

> Just press a key to add a new curve, which brings up a menu to assign
> the curve to a specific parameter (gain, pan, or any of the tracks
> plugins control inputs).
> The menu could perhaps also be accessible also after the curve is
> created (another key press) if one would like to reassign it to another
> parameter.. But it would probably also be OK if one curve is bound to a
> specific parameter, so that the user does "Add curve for filter1
> resonance control" and that's it.

Makes sense too me, simple, fast what does one want more ? 

> > I would like to point out the way I have in mind for Plugins, the plugins
> > for a Track/AudioClip will be diplayed more or less like in [1]
> > (sorry, the only lv2 plugin I have that works is the simple amplifier,
> > but one can get the idea, no?)
> >
> > I've something similar in mind for Curves. By doing so, they can share
> > the same code for organizing, placement, moving the order (doesn't make
> > sense for curves maybe?), and so on, this would apply for the gui code.
> > By making it a Plugin, one can use the bypass feature, and anything else
> > that a Plugin offers, anyone on this one ?
> >
> > Looking forward to your comments,
>
> I'm not sure I understand this. As I see it, plugins are something very
> different from curves. Plugins displays as boxes in a specific order,
> with ability to open properties dialog for each plugin where one can set
> constant values for all it's control inputs, etc...
> Curves displays as curves :) and each curve can be assigned to gain, pan
> or a control input for _any_ of the tracks plugins.

Ah, I see the confusing part.
Well, from the screenshot, it's very simple to see which Plugins are added, 
their name, and you have something to open a menu / make keyactions on.

Now, if you add a Curve, the only thing you'll see is, exactly, a curve.....
How is one gonna switch the active curve to the gain, or pan, or ... curve ?

If curves _also_ have a similar box, with their name in it, and the active one 
being highlighted, would that make sense ?

About making a Curve a plugin. Well, sure, curves have a  much different 
representation then a plugin, however, they share a lot. They both are 
objects that do some audio processing, have a 'bypass' option, and when it 
comes to the 'box' painting, it absolutely makes sense to re-use that code 
too!

> Say for example that you add a filter plugin and a delay plugin, then
> the user could create 3 curves to control gain, the filters cutoff
> frequency, and the delays delay-time. _or_ the user would not want to
> control the delay-time but set it to a constant value, which would be
> done in the properties dialog for that instance of the delay plugin.
> (it could work like this: if a curve exists for that control input, then
> ignore the constant value set in the props dialog (shade it out to show
> that it's ignored)).

Oops, me forgot a bit about curve support for plugins.... Hmmm, thanks for 
reminding :-)
Well, a dedicated plugin view mode really makes sense, the active plugin could 
show the curves it has, just like in the "Curve View" mode, where we _only_ 
have curves that operate on certain types....

>
> An idea: perhaps the gain and pan should also be implemented as plugins?
> either "built-in" plugins that appears as ordinary plugins, or actual
> lv2 plugins. This way one automagically have the ability to change
> pre/post-fader operation of plugins by reorder them (for example, one
> might want a compressor plugin _before_ the gain, and a reverb _after_
> the gain: [compressor]->[gain]->[reverb])

If Gain and Pan are in fact the only Curve's we can add, apart from plugins, 
this might indeed be a very good solution.
There will be only one "View Mode" then for Plugins and Curves, since as you 
suggest, the Gain and Pan Curves are Plugins :-)

>
> Something to also keep in mind is that one might have multiple instances
> of the same plugin on the same track, then they should be named like
> "gain1" and "gain2", so that one knows which is which when assigning
> curves to control inputs.

Sure, I'll keep that in mind.
At the moment, Plugins don't have curves assignable to their paramaters, in 
fact, we don't have plugins, apart from the Simple Amplifier lv2 plugin, and 
2 native plugins (correlation and spectrum meter)
Maybe a good moment to add 2 more native plugins :-)

>
> Have a nice day!

You too, thanks for your thoughts, and keep them comming!

Remon