[LV2] self automating plugins - RFC

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

On 02/20/2016 12:44 PM, Robin Gareus wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Here's an idea that has been floating around for quite some time.
>
> Many plugins only expose indirect controls.
>
> Prime example is a Gate. You configure: threshold, attack, decay and
> maybe a hysteresis parameter. The plugin does its thing and gates e.g. a
> kick-drum. Except in the bridge of the song, it misses a kick...
>
> Another example is automatic pitch correction.
>
>
> For cases like this, it'd be great if the plugin would have a mode to
>   - first, analyze the data
>   - write its internal values to an automation track [of the plugin host]
>   - the user can modify the data (here: manually open the gate or the
> fixes note/pitch)
>   - later, the plugin processes data using the [user modified] analysis
> results
>
> There are two ways this can be accomplished: online and offline.
>
> The offline mechanism has the benefit that a plugin could analyze the
> complete file (or region), do random seeks and take future data into
> account (read-ahed, no latency).
>
> Online analysis on the other is a lot more simple and very easy to
> integrate into existing projects. A plugin is already analyzing the data
> to process it live.  Also reporting those values to the host is in most
> cases trivial, as is bypassing the internal analyzer and using
> host-provided data instead.

i won't comment on implementation details because i wouldn't know what 
i'm talking about, but this kind of workflow would be absolutely amazing.

for a long time, i had been using mastering limiters that i didn't 
really want to become active, ever (or at least be able to recall 
exactly when so that i could listen to those parts again for artefacts), 
and what i would do is record the output of the limiter minus the 
straight output to an extra track in ardour, to give me something like a 
"history" of limiting. being able to fine-tune the limiting afterwards 
would have saved a lot of work in many cases.
robin's gate example is also something that i know from my own 
experience. i usually ended up automating thresholds (a lot of work, and 
hard to see what's going on afterwards), or use a trigger track (gabbe 
nord taught me how to use that trick effectively). but it's all kludgy 
in the end...

so, yay, i would totally love this capability to become part of lv2.

-- 
Jörn Nettingsmeier
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