Hi everyone. Although similar topics have been discussed before, I couldn't find a good solution to my problem. I'd like to build an effects processor, in which a user will record some sound, then listen to it with different effects. For example, after the recording, the user will press a button and hear it with the reverb, press a button and hear it with phasor, etc. To do this, I need to build a patch that will apply the fx offline, i.e., non real-time. Right now, I can only apply the effects by playing the recorded sound file through one of the fx chains, and record the result, and playback the "wet" sound file. Obviously, the longer the sound file, the longer the waiting time. Is there a way to tell PD to calculate how the fx is going to change the sound and write it to a sound file that will be played later? I feel like I couldn't describe myself clearly, but I think you can understand my problem.

The second issue is, how to build the effects resource-effective. Is there a way to stop an fx chain (let's say, reverb) from working until it is required (without turning the DSP off, of course)? This would be quite nice as I don't want an effect to work in the background and use up the resources until a user needs to use it.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help. It would be great if I can get through these obstacles and start the fun part of patching!

Thanks! That's what I was looking for to switch the dsp off in subpatches. That'll help me a lot.

Now I must find a way to apply fx offline. I wonder how it's done in the daws. There should be a known way (or an algorithm) for that, since probably none of the commercial plug-ins come with an option for offline bounce but most daws (ok, except Pro-Tools) do it anyway. I'm aware that PD is mostly a proud real-time environment but someone must have gotten some use for offline processing as well.