It's primary use is for instantiation and overview.
An instantiation example:
- You select 10 tracks
- You right-click on an insert slot in the mixer, maybe with a modifier. Old Protools solved this by having a second clickable field in the insert area. We've got right-click.
- A list pops up to let you select a plugin for that virtual slot. The plugin populates that virtual slot.
It doesn't have to be very fast either. It's about precision setup to save you from instantiating the same plugin in the same virtual slot for every track. A simple time saver.
On the other hand if this messes Reaper up too much, it's not worth it. Back to the drawing board.
Here are the problems I wanted to solve with this mixer grid.
- Setting up plugins on a large number of existing tracks without resorting to track templates. EXISTING tracks.
Why existing tracks ? Because material coming in via AAF/OMF/PT/other stuff is often on already named tracks. I just want to save time.
So, I don't instantiate plugins on tracks. In fact I almost never do, because it's so slow for mixing projects and I have so many tracks.
I use one of the prepared tracks, duplicate it, rename the dozens of tracks, colour them and then SHIFT the material from the source tracks to the pre-prepared tracks.
- Deleting/replacing plugins across selected tracks
- Improved overview in the mixer view for larger sessions.
My reference is old Protools for this. I haven't missed it a lot, because I use colour to tell tracks apart. This was to be an additional graphical indicator of where I was in the session.
As much as I'd like a helping hand for those tasks, the mixer grid might be a good idea, if it can fit in to Reaper in an intuitive way without breaking stuff. Otherwise I don't see the point either.