Ok, a dim bulb’s come on in the skull.
I’m definitely up for a non limited track voice count. And if i took this to the extreme, i could (in a momentary fit of genius/insanity pick one) have a layer for each violin articulation voice in a track. In a complex work with many articulations, i might use 40 or 50 of them. So, that many layers in a track poses an obvious question (and i’m not dismissing this paradigm by any stretch of imagination) that may, by nature of speedy workflow intent, crop up. How do i handle that many layers at speed? It’s also fair to say, that within reason, i might use 5 or 6 layers in a bar. (legato down bow release, legato down bow non release, legato up bow release, legato up bow non release, etc…)How do i input quickly, then switch between layers quickly to match sample start finishes, add automation per layer, etc…
The idea of unlimited voices in a track is fantastic, imho, (and means i, as you rightly say, have more than 16 channel options per track), but from a practical workflow perspective, it might take some getting used to, to get it all married up smoothly.
But i also note that voices can be stacked in a track, and that begs the question of a couple more height parameters added, as i wrote previously. I can visualise about 5 or 6 layers stacked, and be able to line the notes up fairly quickly that way, if the track height was sufficient to get a clear visual of alignment, without peering at the screen to see tiny dots and blips.
I’m open to this as a potential working method, and think the paradigm, at least in theory, is…state of the art. Hats off to the team for some creative thinking outside the box. Truly a 21st Century idea!
So, more practically, how do i assign multiple ports to a track,and define specifically a particular port, and channel, from inside an ardour midi, multi voice, track? I have at least 4 ports worth of just 1st violins. At the moment, i would need to manually connect and disconnect each port, so the right channel (selected from my midi controller i guess) would be available at the right time, for the right layer?
Is it possible to consider, relavent to a drop down list of some sort in the track face, a choice of whatever’s actually track connected ports? If the track could ‘recognise’ the connected ports, and automatically ‘build’ a list, at least it would remove having to go to jack manually. Click the port, click the channel, press record sort of stuff.
I think this perspective is intelligent, sharp, and open minded thinking, and I would be highly interested in trying it out, to see if it’s practical in ‘realtime.’
Alex.
Onwards and upwards.