Carla 2.0 beta3 is here!

[noedig]

falkTX, what are the chances you could implement patchbay panning with the middle mouse button?

[noedig]

I mean, when viewing the patchbay in Carla, instead of using the horizontal and vertical scroll bars or the little box on the bottom left to move around, be able to use the middle-click drag, to quickly move around (pan) in the canvas. (similar to panning in e.g. Gimp or Inkscape). It's reallly not a big deal, but I just thought I'd mention it as it is something that would add a bit of value to the GUI in my opinion.

[danboid]

I'd like to see a 'headless' mode / option added to Carla VST. Such an option would enable the user to directly access a plugins native UI (when only one plugin with a UI is active) when opening a Carla VST instance instead of having to go via the Carla UI. Does that sound doable F?

Also, I'm still unsure about why I'd want to use the rack versus the patchbay versions?

[JohannesTress]

danboid wrote:I'd like to see a 'headless' mode / option added to Carla VST. Such an option would enable the user to directly access a plugins native UI (when only one plugin with a UI is active) when opening a Carla VST instance instead of having to go via the Carla UI.

Something like this?

[danboid]

And how would that work?

...

The rack mode doesn't require making connections.
You can easily build up something like this:
host -> midifilter -> synth1 > synth2 -> fx1, 2, 3, 4 -> host
without ever needing the patchbay, just adding the plugins in the proper order.

It sounds like headless Carla could function as a feature of Rack mode then. If you use the Rack mode plugin with only one plugin being hosted and have headless mode enabled, you wouldn't see the Carla UI after the first plugin has been added to the rack. Instead, opening that Carla rack plugin will take you straight to the plugins native UI.

This might mean that once a rack has been made headless, there is no going back to the Carla UI without deleting that instance and starting over but I'd be fine with that.

[danboid]

ah, if you're fine with it then yes I can make it happen.

BUT! (and this is a big but) this is only possible for LV2.

Sounds good to me but then...

VST requires embedding the plugin UI which is not possible for all plugins types (DSSI, LV2 external+bridges and vst bridges).
Since I know you're onto Tracktion now this might not be helpful for you...

LV2 external+bridges? I thought you said you could make this work for LV2? There are internal and external LV2 plugins and LV2 bridges?

DSSI is pretty much as dead as its name intended so I'm not too concerned about them not working headless.

Thanks F!

[danboid]

Ah right!

You're right, it'd be no use to me then so forget I mentioned it.

[bazsound]

new version looks great.

Just a couple of things.

I tried loading eq10q however the gui fails ot load, i press the gui button it highlights but then un highlights and no gui appears.

Also im not quite sure i understand rack mode.

Is it possible for carla to function like waves multirack where you have each rack connected to its own input and output then load whatever processing you want on a per channel basis?

this would be awesome as i have been looking for something like this for using live with a venues new awesome midas m32 digitral consol

[bazsound]

Odd im running kx studio 12.04.

Ill try running an upgrade maybe ive missed some important updates

I installed it on my laptop which is running lubuntu 12.04 with the kx studio repos and have the same issue with eq10q. other plugins guis show fine though.

[tatch]

-what's the difference between the FX modes and normal modes?

-one of the reasons i was excited about carla-rack having a plugin was because it could make it easier to sidechain things but it is still as hard as ever since carla-patchbay only has 2 i/o (or 16/32). am i the only person in LAU who wishes sidechaining were better supported? is it possible to custom-compile my own 3i/2o carla patchbay?

-plugin save/loading still does not work which is a huge problem. i saw it's already listed on github as a bug

-plugin reordering still not implemented, any ETA on this?

-any ETA on midi-learn?

-i recall you saying for carla-rack the only plugin receiving midi-in would be the first. for patch-bay i'm assuming it acts as normal unracked carla?

-given how carla seems to revolve around the patchbay more and more the rack gui doesn't seem like the most efficient design. Then again i am also beginning to disdain the patchbay for its inefficiency and clutter. i have been thinking of alternate designs lately but haven't come up with anything concrete.

is lv2 never going to be able to support dynamic numbers of ports? That seems like a terrible design limitation.

sorry to pile so much onto your plate as usual falktx. thanks again for all your hard work.

[ssj71]

I've been thinking of a Carla-Mixer design myself.
Like a standalone mixer where each strip is a separate carla-rack. The Carla C++ API already allows this.
This is not something for 2.0, but I won't stop anyone from trying it.

I submitted a feature request for this some time ago (https://github.com/falkTX/Carla/issues/110). I think its a great idea.
Just a follow on dream feature would be to somehow configure how many ins and outs each strip has and maybe even name them. Then in the graph have subgraphs that you can edit the routing inside the mixer strip. This would be perfect for sidechaining and whatever crazy weirdness you could think up.
BIG DREAMS!

As always amazing work, falkTX. Thanks!

[tatch]

the rack will remain 2x2, and although a separate audio port for sidechain is possible I'd have to design something to control that first.
I can add a 3x2 patchbay mode though, just reply "yes" if that's good for you.

yes!

incorrect, saving and restoring state does work.
the issue here is people who report bugs and then forget about them.
when I can't reproduce an issue I have to rely on users to test if it has been fixed.

i'll try to do some testing soon and see what happens.

plugin reorder is already implemented on the backend (but untested).
it's only a matter of implementing it on the frontend side.
this is not done yet because I want to finish some rack designs first.
should be implemented in the next beta.

hm, alright. If time permits I'd be happy to help with this...

I've been thinking of a Carla-Mixer design myself.
Like a standalone mixer where each strip is a separate carla-rack. The Carla C++ API already allows this.
This is not something for 2.0, but I won't stop anyone from trying it.

yeah I've seen that discussed on github. That'd be good, but I think if possible carla rack/patchbay should remain separate applications from carla-mixer to maintain LAU modularity (though your secret agenda may be to write the next ardour?). Particularly I like the patchbay flexibility but not its cumbersomeness: for example, when you want to add a plugin in carla to an existing signal chain you have to

1) search for the plugin (also i think the best way to do this is an external sample/plugin browser so it can interact not only with carla but also with other programs like hydrogen or another drum machine or sampler)
2) add the plugin
3) connect the two inputs
4) remove the existing two connections (detrimental if you are doing things live which i always do)
5) connect the two outputs

If you want to reorder plugins it's just as bad.

there's got to be a better way that still retains patchbay flexibility. Some sort of smart drag-and-dropper. It would have to be configurable to handle multiple situations and wouldn't solve every problem but would help for most. An alternate carla patchbay/rack hybrid could show the plugins stacked horizontally/vertically with their connections and you can drag/drop plugins inbetween other plugins to add or remove them from the chain. Functionally it'd act as a rack but if you wanted you could mangle the inputs. Something like this could also be configured to handle edge cases like sidechaining. Sort of like this I think https://github.com/falkTX/Carla/issues/120 . I actually like the idea of keeping plugins as separate JACK clients even more than using an internal carla patchbay.

I've been thinking of some sort of LAU DAW-supervisor program that can communicate with LAU apps to self-organize itself into a coherent DAW using JACK. For example if a track is created in non-mixer then a track of the same name is created in non-timeline and a carla-rack is created for it, and they're all connected in a predefined chain. When you open hydrogen it's recognized as an instrument and a track is created for that in all your programs too. You'd also be able to maintain track color consistency between non-mixer and non-timeline which would be cool. There are an incredible amount of potential issues that could be caused by this but I think they can be ironed out at least for one specific use case, and from there it may be possible to make it easily configurable. This is still just thoughts though.

That's not directly up to me.

yeah, i know, just complaining.

[dakylla]

Hello falkTX,

I have a strange behaviour on carla-rack.
when adding an instance to an Ardour's session, when reopening the session, the rack's plugin get doubled.

Please see the screen capture:

snapshot1.gif (197.64 KiB) Viewed 1960 times

do you guys know if this is related to Ardour or is it a Carla's probhlem ?

Regards

[dakylla]

Yep the Carla and Ardour are both fron git.

I can't give you the exact version cause i am on the road.
I'll give more info mater today.

[dakylla]

Hello Falk,

Ardour and Carla are the latest both compiled from today's git.

Am I the only one with this behaviour ?

D.