Visual Mixing Environment for Ardour

Community Ideas for Ardour
#1

It would be really convenient if Ardour had a feature that allowed you to see where each track is sitting in the stereo spectrum, and what frequencies they are taking up. Something similar to this plugin:

Of course, you could just buy the plugin and run it in Ardour. But doing so requires you to keep all faders and pan pots at zero. Having this functionality integrated into the DAW itself would be a lot easier (not to mention more cost-effective).

I know we already have the real-time perceptual analyzer. But it gets cluttered fast, and it only shows one element of a much bigger picture. What I’m suggesting here is something that would let you visualize your whole mix.

This is just a suggestion of course. I know you guys are busy, and I understand if you are not interested in pursuing this.

Have a great day!

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#2

At some point this sort of thing was subject to a US patent. That might not be the case anymore, or this plugin may have found a way around it.

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#3

I think David Gibson (author of The Art of Mixing) had a similar idea back in the 90s. US patents typically last 20 years, if I’m not mistaken. If he patented it back then, it’s probably expired now. If he didn’t, then the idea should have entered the public domain when he published it.

#4

Here’s a page from David’s website that talks about it:

https://soundhealingcenter.com/virtual-mixer/

#5

If you’re thinking of the one that covers spectral peaks it expired a couple of years ago I think. I recall I posted about it at the time.

#6

Yes, Comparisonics’ patent on spectral peaks expired in 2018. Even if it was still in force, it would not apply to what I’m suggesting here.

The plugin I shared in my original post isn’t using color to show frequency content. That is shown by the track’s shape, which corresponds to how much frequency content it has across the spectrum.

My vision for this is that the color of the track would correspond to its color in the mixer. If you color a guitar track forest green, then it would be forest green in this environment as well. This is the same thing that the real-time perceptual analyzer does to differentiate the tracks.