[linux-audio-dev] Plugin APIs (again)

David Olofson david at olofson.net
Mon Dec 9 10:08:01 UTC 2002


On Monday 09 December 2002 15.35, Steve Harris wrote:
[...]
> > > > the RT engine - *unless* you decide on a number of VVIDs to
> > > > allocate for each Channel of every plugin, right when they're
> > > > instantiated.
> > >
> > > That sound most sensible. The instrument has to allocate voice
> > > table space, so there is likly to be an internal (soft) limit
> > > anyway.
> >
> > Yes... But keep in mind that there is no strict relation between
> > Physical Voices and Virtual Voices. A synth with only 32 voices
> > may be played with 8 VVIDs or 256 VVIDs. The number of VVIDs is
> > decided by the *sender*, so it can manage the polyphony it wants
> > in a sensible way. The synth only uses the VVIDs to keep track of
> > which Virtual Voice the sender is talking about - whether or not
> > it actually has a Physical Voice at the moment. Voice allocator
> > in between.
>
> OK, but I dont think that actually changes anything at the API
> level.

Well, if you want hosts to be able to connect to synth event inputs 
without taking the synhts outside the RT thread, it matters a whole 
lot whether or not a plugin needs to allocate memory to manage VVIDs.

And if you want every event source (sequencers and (other) event 
processors) to have a pool of say, 256 VVIDs (default setting for the 
host), you would need 256 VVIDs *for every connection* to an event 
input channel. So, how many VVIDs should the host allocate for each 
channel...?


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

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