[linux-audio-dev] provding plugins with various in/out counts vs. using splitters-mergers

[Doug McLain]

Tom Szilagyi wrote:
>>Hey Tom,
>>
>>Attatched is a patch that creates a 1in / 2out version of TAP Stereo Echo. It would need a
>>new ladspa ID and better name possibly. Ardour now has a strict policy regarding plugin
>>connections, requiring a mono to stereo splitter to preceed TAP S.E. on a mono track.  The
>>popular opinion with the ardour guys is that plugins be made available in various forms
>>instead of trying to make the host too complex or having to use combinations to acheive
>>the desired results.
>>
>>I can do the others as well, like reverberator, etc too if you would like.
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> What if I released a stand-alone mono->stereo splitter plugin ASAP?
> That would solve this issue completely, no?
> 
> Of course, users will have to explicitly use it, but if I agree to make split versions of
> all my stereo plugins, then 1) users still have to decide which one to use and 2) duplicated
> code to maintain arises (and many Ladspa ID-s get wasted) etc etc.
> 
> OK, I see you wrote "having to use combinations to achieve the desired results" is ungood,
> but I still think this is a cleaner solution from an engineering p.o.v.
> 
> So, what's your opinion? Splitter-plugin vs plugin-splitting? :)

At first I agreed that the splitter was the solution, and I wrote one, 
only to find one already exists in the SWH package.  The argument is 
that this is clumsy and not an optimal solution.  After hearing this 
argument, it does seem like a cleaner, faster solution to have available 
plugins in various connection formats instead of building the 
connections from lego's.  I am in no way an authority on this though, so 
I am going to forward this to LAD, as I think it pertains to all the 
plugin projects.  There was recently a thread on ardour-dev regarding 
connections and plugin counts that is probably going to start all over 
again, but discussions are fun anyway, arent they? :)

Doug
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