Mixer scenes seem like a cool idea, but I would like to use them for having e.g. one mix for the choruses and one mix for the verses - and for that to work I would need to be able to automate switching from the verse mix to the chorus mix on the edit window - or ideally morphing from one to the over a configurable time span. I don’t think this is possible with the current implementation - but I hope I’m wrong because it would be very cool.
Otherwise I have to export both scenes and crossfade between them in a separate session. (Or use duplicate tracks and buses and not use mixer scenes at all).
We discussed integration on the timeline, as well as fading between scenes. The current conclusion is to implement neither.
The latter is complicated since you cannot fade boolean automation (mute/unmute track, enable/bypass plugins). Not to mention plugins have internal parameter smoothing and interpolation differs between parameter type (equal power, equal amplitude, log scale frequency,…). In a generic mix situation cross-fading mixer scenes will almost never do anything useful. Although there are some specific situations where it can be valuable.
The general idea it to defer any time-based changes to automation, and offer an “all touch” mode to snapshot all [or any modified] controls at a give point in time. Expand a scene to automation on the timeline.
Track local settings could offer an interesting alternative to parameter modulation with clip-launching though.
Explicit automation is generally preferable, since restoring a mixer scene is destructive.
It is very easy to accidentally loose any changes to the mix you might have made.
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PS. you can write a Lua script to restore a mixer scene at a given point in time.
Ardour comes with a “Stop at Marker” script. Instead of stopping transport, just replace the line with Session:apply_nth_mixer_scene (1).