In 'Live', FX are one of the main sources of CPU usage.
The excellent 'Clip Modulation' envelopes allow the relative effect of FX to be changed via the clip, but even when an effect is modulated to zero effect, the CPU is still drained as the FX is still 'on'.
I know that FX can be turned on and off via automation in the 'Mixer' channel, but it would be really helpful if they could also be turned on and off via automation in the 'Clip' itself.
This would similar to the process of modulating FX with Clip envelopes, but all that would be needed would be an on/off switch. Implementation of an envelope could produce more interesting results, but I could also foresee 'clicking' and 'popping' if FX were able to be turned on and off while processing sound.
This feature would be useful in a in the performance of a 'Live' set containing many songs, as it would allow, for example, 10 FX to be loaded onto a channel. The CPU drain of 10 FX would be great (bad) but a subset of, say, 2 of these FX would be far less draining. Using the automation I am suggesting, channel FX would be turned on only when a clip that required them was triggered.
The next clip that was triggered in the same channel would need to have the ability to turn off any FX currently running, as well as turn on new FX. Perhaps the interface could use 'tick boxes' to indicate which (from a dynamic list) of the currently present FX were selected as being available for use with the clip.
Alternatively (ie in lieu of creating a new feature), could the 'Clip Modulation' feature see FX actually switched off when the envelope was at zero? (although this would require that 'Clip Modulation' envelopes be set up for all clip on a channel. which could be quite time consuming in multi-song sets ...)
If you're not following me, I could draw a picture ...
Cheers
Dan
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