I have downloaded and installed the latest nightly build 8.6.34. I am looking to check out the newly added region-fx. Right clicking on a region, I was not able to see anything that looked related to plugins on the region. In the upper Menu, I could not find it either.
Are they enabled ? Or just pulled into the nightly ? Where did you hide the magic @x42? 
I am looking forward to giving this a try.
Thank you.
I found it…
It is part of the Region Properties.
When using the object tool they can be shown via double-click on the region.
Alternatively region properties can be show using the region menu or right-click context menu.
Effect settings can be constant, or automated. Only one automation line can be shown at any given time on the region. By default the region-gain envelope is displayed.
Once an effect has been added, the drop-down menu in the region properties dialog allows one to select the visible automation line (and switches to the draw tool). Adding automation points to the line automatically enables automation playback for the given control (it can later be disabled using the context menu in the region processor box).
To find a given automation line “Show on touch” can be used with the plugin’s GUI (assuming the plugin GUI supports touch start/stop events).
Ok. Thank you for the clarification. The double-click on region was so easy, I did not think of trying that! These FX seem to be POST track effects, and in parallel ? I see the routing in the plug-in is not available, understandably. I tried the LSP delay, and got the dry guitar delayed, with the track plug ins working in parallel. I could not find a way to position the region FX in the chain. So, would most use cases be for already processed regions ? AKA, the dry track gets the processing ?
EDIT: Other plug-ins did not seem to do the parallel processing. It may have been some settings. I will keep an eye on it.
EDIT: This was a stereo track that was using one Ardour sound card input for both channels.
Region effects are applied prior to any other processing. These effects run offline when reading audio data from disk, directly after applying region-gain.
They are entirely unrelated to plugins in the mixer signal flow.
The intended use-case is to allow to use a dedicated effect only with a single region during production, and retain automation relative to the region when moving or copying the region.
Region Fx are not part of a track’s effect chain, but you can configure the track’s chain to only run an effect on the live signal (without wet-recording it).
Use Disk I/O > Custom (mixer-strip context menu) and then place a plugin between the Recorder and Player.
That way the effect plugin (here x42-eq) is applied after the signal was grabbed for recording, and it does not have any effect on data read from disk, which comes later (and may include region Fx for dedicated regions).
Excellent! Thank you! That explains the region-fx behavior and a good idea of how to go about what I want to do using the Disk I/O Custom.
Just an FYI, It has been my experience that Ardour has a much better UI, workflow, and greater flexibility compared to the other DAW’s I have used. By better UI, I mean that it makes better use of the screen space, and it has all the necessary info available at a glance, without opening a multitude of windows. The REC, EDIT, MIX, and CUE pages makes for a smooth, uncluttered workflow.
Thank you and @Paul.
Just went ahead and downloaded the latest nightly after seeing this thread, all I have to say is hell to the freaking yeah!!!
Here is a video demonstration for reference:
This looks interesting.
As a GUI suggestion, would it be possible to have a new block in the track processor box representing the region plugins when one or more have been added to a region on a track?
This would fulfil 3 purposes:
It could also have a pop-up window when double-clicked to give a list of the regions which had plugins or something else useful.
Cheers,
Keith
how would blob in mixer indicate that plugins are used by region? what happens if you scroll timeline too fast? I think this would make a mess
i think current approach is totally fine (one with fx shows ‘(Fx)’ in the region name) (acid pro and reaper have same approach, but instead text, it’s a symbol if i recall correctly)
i just tested fx regions, they look and work great!
wow, every day i learn something new here. Very practical in following example: multiple singers who are used to different gain levels and are limited to single set of headphones
can we have option to bypass multiple/selected regions fx?
That will be hard, and also conceptually at odds.
The Mixer has no information about the the Playlist(s) used by the disk-reader that provides audio data.
Different regions on the timeline can have different effects, and you can combine regions, each with their own effects, and stack them. Playlists can be reused and shared on different tracks. Particularly the latter does not allow any direct relation to tracks (or mixer strips).
Region Fx are not part of the signal flow, they are embedded in the region (like bouncing an effect to disk).
Yeah, bypass is missing.
I considered a bypass of plugins per region, or a second stack of plugins to allow A/B, but punted on the idea. I did not want to commit to this early on and it is something that may show up in a future version.
There is an indicator on the region itself. An (FX) suffix is added to the name on the timeline. It’s a bit weak, but consistent with other properties (mute, locked, etc).
Improving display of the left-aligned region name and properties on the timeline has long been on our ToDo list, but that is a different topic.
That is a good idea. Currently the RegionList does not have an indication about Fx either.
