Subject: [linux-audio-dev] more on plugins/LADSPA
From: Paul Barton-Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Wed Mar 15 2000 - 07:44:36 EST
[ this may be a repost of some stuff that james resent here as well,
but i haven't seen his repost yet, and thought it important. ]
james and i continued our discussion offlist, not entirely
intentionally. the eventual outcome was the recognition that:
>James writes:
>>
>> Paul writes:
>>
>> There seems to be a great deal of confusion over what the term
>> "plugin" means. At one time, I thought it Ok for it cover both these
>> low-level things ("opcodes", "ugens", "DSP functions") and the high
>> level things ("Sci-Fi", "AutoTune", "Cycling '74", "DeSpider" to name
>> some examples of plugins that spring to mind).
>
>OK I see. There are probably several levels of plug ins then, and so what I
>was asking for is not appropriate at this level.
>
>1) Something like BeOS MediaNodes. Very heavy weight, more like full apps
>that can be piped together.
>2) Statically allocated large processes/effects with GUIs, automation. VST
>and TDM plugins fall here.
>3) Lightweight unit generators. MSP, Csound, SC unit generators.
I think that this is *VERY, VERY* important. We need to make sure that
we define the level(s) that LADSPA is intended to cover. Then we need
to make sure that it the API is adequate and sufficiently well
specified to do so.
One specific example (the one that we were discussing): the meaning of
"instantiating" a plugin has very different connotations and
implications depending on what type of plugin it is (see above
examples).
--p
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