[linux-audio-dev] XAP: a polemic

[Tim Hockin]

> You'll need all these fields at once when sending control ramp events 
> to voices, so unions won't help. The struct is exactly 32 bytes, so 
> we're going to end up with 64 byte events if we add anything. On big 
> deal, maybe. (64 bit platforms will need an extra 4 bytes for 'next' 
> anyway.)

I think it is premature to worry about the size of events.  Let's get what
data we need in there and optimize it after we're done arguing :)

> Well, you do expect a beat synced effect to track the *beat*, right? 
> Now, if you have two timelines running at different tempi, which one 
> do you track?

Actually, no.  I can't think of anything that would track the beat if it
wasn't started on a beat.  Assuming 4/4 time, and a note played on an eith
note between beats - what kind of effect would lock onto a true beat edge?
I really would expect anything to sync to a beat-width and do a (delay,
whatever), but that effect to be off by 1/2 beat because it was started by
1/2 beat off.  Can you give me an example?  

> They need different event types, but that applies to string and raw 
> data controls as well. And this just makes them easier to handle.

I want to limit the number of special case events.  If we have to special
case this stuff, then I'm going to argue against controls again :)

> Do you expect a synth to play anything but some default frequency, 
> without pitch input? :-)

Umm, more or less, yes.  A simple sample player with no pitch control would
just play the sample.  A whitenoise generator would make noise but not have
any sense of pitch.