[linux-audio-dev] XAP spec - early scribbles

[Paul Davis]

>Again, I think we are speaking of slightly different things.  I am talking
>about the time when (for example) the synth at the head of the chain has
>stopped playing notes.  A reverb with this as it's input would be told 'your
>input is now silent'.  It has a tail, of course.  It can be marked silent
>when it's tail is done.  Once it is silent, it does not need to be
>processed._

this sounds very dangerous to me. 

your description sounds OK. but ... my kawai k5000 is an additive
synth with a moderately interesting FX bank. its still producing sound
for most patches long after all of its "voices" are off. if someone
were to write a plugin modelled on this kind of design, you can't
really know when the top of the chain is silent.

i have a gut feeling that this will turn out to be the common case, so
common that trying for this optimization is a mistake. i could be
wrong, of course.

--p