Jeff Evans
Just because Craig you cannot think of an application, does not mean it does not exist. It is a bit like clip gain changes actually changing waveforms. It IS handy and useful and fast. And so is this too. Faster.
I didn't say an application, I said a use case where this would be essential. I come up with applications all the time that don't have an essential use case
One is where a virtual synth may actually do something different every time you use it in real time. eg either driven from a pre recorded midi part or you fiddling with it live as it plays.
If you're fiddling with it, you can record those automation moves. If it does something different every time it plays, you don't know what it's done until you've recorded it...and if you bounced it, you wouldn't know what it did until the bounce was over. So I guess the advantage of recording it is if you didn't like what you heard, you could stop
immediately and start over rather than wait for a bounce to complete. Personally, if it did something different each time I might or might not like, I'd just bounce it five times and splice together the best bits.
Another is where you might actually be mixing and making moves over some tracks or buses live while a mix is going down. It's handy to be able to route the main stereo buss back to a track as well. You should be putting some human element into your mix ie making moves. It always sounds better to me. It sounds better than sitting back and letting the computer do all the work.
So as I understand it, what you're saying is that you want to be able to
record the real-time changes rather than
audition the real-time changes and after getting it the way you like, bouncing. I can see that as a valid application, but
for me, I still don't see it as
essential because you can still make real-time changes and have them recorded in individual tracks, buses, and the master bus. What you describe is more immediate in the sense that if you like it, it has already been recorded rather than still needing to be bounced. Then again, if I did record something in real time, I'd still want to listen back to it to make sure that what "seemed like a good idea at the time" sounded good when listened to objectively. I don't need to do that if I've already had the chance to listen to something objectively, which is what happens before the bounce. To each his own...to me it seems like six of one, half a dozen of the other but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise if I'm missing something.
Wasn't it George Carlin who said something along the lines of "Some say the glass is half-full, some say it's half-empty. I say they need a different-sized glass."