Topic: [Request!] Plugins inside Totalmix
Running plugins inside Totalmix (and be able to change them with Snapshots) would be game-changing for anyone with room correction software like Sonarworks, or headphone-to-speaker emulation like Canopener or room simulations.
I'm currently using Audio Hijack to run my system audio through Sonarworks/CanOpener, and it causes latency because of how it steals system audio. Not only that, but I have to run one Sonarworks instance for my speaker profile and one for headphones — there's a fair amount of CPU overhead.
I assume RME could run FX on audio going out to the speakers/headphones without introducing additional latency (other than what the plugins require).
Many studio professionals (and probably audio enthusiasts) would buy RME just for this feature.
5-10 years ago hosting plugins was a complicated/messy process, but it really isn't that bad anymore. I can foresee a few objections:
1. It's out of scope.
With Sonarworks' and Canopener's popularity, I would re-asses that for 2023. Cubase even has a dedicated section for Monitoring Plugins, for exactly this. But Cubase's solution doesn't affect all system audio — RME is in a special position to solve this.
2. Some plugins introduce latency, and some users may be confused why their system has latency.
In this case, simply have a notice that the plugins they've added are causing x ms of latency. All your customers understand that, I believe.
3. Plugins crash.
They only really crash on first load, and you could sandbox the plugins so they don't crash Totalmix (Bitwig does this.)
The other time plugins crash is during plugin scanning, but honestly you don't even need to scan plugins, just have people choose the VST3 file and load it. No need to support VST2, AU or AAX, although you could if you want.
You could even limit/whitelist plugin loading to Sonarworks, Canopener, and select plugins of that nature, which are built for stability. This might be what I would do.
4. Building a plugin host is complicated.
Use JUCE's plugin host, it works.
Looking forward to your response.