[linux-audio-dev] XAP spec & PTAF comments [merge]

[Tim Hockin]

> Branching to fill your delay line with explit 0.0's intead of reading them
> from a buffer of zeros doesn't help. We allready know that reverbs cant
> support it at all. Efficieny reasons would also rule out flangers, delays,
> most filters and choruses.

Maybe I'm missing something, but how can a test that amounts to this NOT be
faster than doing any work at all?

if (me->silent && XAP_BUF_SILENT(me->in[0]) && XAP_BUF_SILENT(me->in[1])) {
	return;
}

> I would never, ever use a silence detecting system live, you never
> know when its going to suddenly wake up all the plugins and run out of CPU
> power.
> 
> All it would take was a bit of unexpected noise on an input line and
> suddenly the CPU load goes up 300%.

You may be right for a lot of cases, but there are cases where a live
performance is nothing but on the fly loop-layering, or pattern-based
sequencing.  No live input, no accidentally triggering an otherwise silent
subnet.  In fact, large portions of the tree would be muted at any one time
in the host.

Whether it makes sense or is a good idea, people are doing it now.  And I
have a penchant for faster computers.

As for the 'feature' - let's keep it in mind, and we'll see how it fares.
If it is not effective, or the burden is really too much, we'll scrap it.
That is why discussions like this are so great.