[LAU] VC and jack

[Renato]

Hello, I've never used hardware that uses VC, but sometime ago I had an
idea, that probably many others have allready exploited (never heard of
it though). 

If a control signal is exactly the same as an audio signal,
just very lower in frequency, one could apply all the usual audio
effects to control signal. You could for example turn a knob, have the
signal it generates pass through a delay, reverb or whatever, and then
have it control something (like the frequency of a synth). 

This seems an interesting idea I'd like to play with - the problem is,
how can you do it in our linux-audio environment, where usually the
knob generates midi CC data? Is it possible with some tricks to convert
this to an audio signal (maybe way downsampled to not uselessly waste
CPU) pass it through rakarrack or ladspa plugins, reconvert it to midi
CC and have it control something?

A more general thought: what about implementing a new type of generic
"control" signal in JACK, and having existing audio apps accept these
signals in their input? If you come to think of it, there's really no
difference (other than sample rate) between a control signal and an
audio signal, so there's no reason why one shouldn't be able to do DSP
on control signals. 

cheers,
renato