Future Development
This is a tentative list of features/changes/redesigns to be considered as Ardour progresses. It is in no particular order.
- Performance.
- Improved crossfade manipulation, including animating of crossfades as regions are dragged.
- Take management.
- Track/region comping.
- Folder tracks.
- Revisit scrubbing
- Record path management, including the ability to set a record path for each track, independant of the session record path.
- Region colour management - See Mantis entry 2755 ( http://tracker.ardour.org/view.php?id=2755 ).
- Edit audio in external editor.
- Arbitrary region grouping.
- Make vari-speed controls more usable.
- Separate shuttle functionality and playback speed - Playback speed should be a constant between transport starts and stops. The current control for shuttling forwards and backwards can remain, but always return to either 'Stop' or the currently set 'Playback speed'.
- Cloned regions (audio and midi).
- Definable record point within mixer channel ie input or anywhere in the redirect/plugin chain.
- Media management.
- Multi-resolution peak files. Including clipping indication data
- Reverse logic of opacity for regions. Change to transparent, which should be off by default.
- modularize Session?
- move static methods into utility namespace?
- move vectorized methods?
- Improve surfaces code, add surfaces, extract more generic/abstracted code model to make adding surfaces easier by sharing more code
- Copy/paste of regions and/or chunks between instances?
- Tear off groups for mixer strips.
- Performance.
- Finish "operation applies to selection" - no more clicked_regionview, clicked_trackview etc. as targets.
- All plugins on/off button.
- Option for recording stereo (or any multi stream) tracks as one file rather than split into two (or more) files.
- Automation overhaul - Including global Automation on/off control.
- Make Aux busses more aux-like - both visually and functionally.
- Per region Plugins.
- Add clocks and other info to preferences dialogue for incoming external timecode (MTC, LTC) - provides confirmation of external TC presence and format.
- Define more precisely what happens when chasing external timecode (MTC, LTC, JACK) and the timecode varispeeds or stops.
- Define more precisely what happens when EBU, SMPTE or Film timecode goes outside the legal range ie 00:00:00:00 -> 23:59:59:23/24/29. Examine the two cases of either chasing external timecode or not.
- Comment/Remark tracks.
- Allow region sources to be changed dynamically.
- Allow media location searching to optionally traverse the file system into lower levels.
- Scenes - Implement Scene storing and recalling, including scene sequencing.
- Theme manager Window showing the widget/elements of the UI that the colours are being changed for.
- Larger panning control window open-able on each channels panner, allowing finer control and more info. Particularly for the new stereo panner.
- Implement more comprehensive panning.
- Identify (and name) the places where panning/positional information must be applied (e.g. outputs from ardour, summing points in busses), and deliver positional information along with audio data to them, then pan according to the i/o configuration.
- Allow panners to be disconnected from the above if, for example, sends need to pan independently of the main route panner.
- Option to number tracks (Numbering is now implememnted as an option in 4.0) and have track jack port names include this numbering.
- Shuffle/Ripple edit mode overhaul.
- More comprehensive click management.
- Ability to define different sounds for each beat.
- Ability to place accent on different beats.
- Change tempo with vari-speed.
- Add transport keys and a clock to the monitor section.
- Performance.
- Rework sorting of the region list in the Editor Notebook Tabs.
- Allow track/mixer strip reordering by dragging directly on track headers or mixer strips, including dragging multiple non-contiguous tracks/strips and have them become so on dropping.
- Allow the loading of audio directly to the time line from any file type and of any sample rate without conversion i.e. real time SRC.
- Template manager
- Prevent user playhead-locates when slaved to external timecode-source, while the transport is rolling (or the slave is locked).
- Improve auditioning in both the import dialogue and the region list.
- In the Import Dialogue add a waveform view of the file being auditioned. Have a playhead on this view and allow clicking to locate within the file.
- Performance.
- Pre and Post roll.
Done (or in progress)
- Add the ability to insert plugins in the monitor section. Mainly for adding meters
- Save as ...
- VCA style Master and Slave grouping, with unlimited depth of nesting.< (Automation still requires significant work as of 02/2017)/li>
- Tempo ramps. (mostly done but work still ongoing as of 02/2017)
- Remove/hide stub files -- Partially implemented 07/2010 - Completed 03/2011.
- Key bindings not tied to menu entries -- Partially implemented 08/2010.
- Export multiple individual tracks - Stem export implementation started.
- Joining regions (Composite regions) - Partially implemented 05/2011. Now complete.
- Native linux VST plugin support - Added 09/2011.
- Input monitoring selectors - Partially completed 10/2011 - 'Cue' still to be added.
- LTC chase through any input. - Implementation started 10/12
- Cairo-based canvas. Impelentation started June 2013
- Meterbridge. Impelentation started June 2013. Now complete.
- Video track and associated re-sizable video monitor window with overlays to show, for example, Timecode, ADR wipes etc. Implemented and released in 3.2
- Latency compensation for busses. First incarnation started June 2013
- Improved metering. Implemented and released in 3.4 and 3.5.
- Boolean automation - ie automation of Mute buttons and other on/off buttons. Implemeted in the upcoming 4.0 release