One of the things that I really like about Ableton is how quickly you can access a mixer channel from their arrangement view. I think now that FL has Audio/Instrument tracks, a similar idea can be implemented, which from this point on I'll refer to as Sticky Bar.
This is the piece from Ableton that I'm taking influence from so we are clear:
The bar at the bottom that shows the effects of the track that is selected.
In FL Studio, if you drag an instrument or audio track onto a playlist track, this playlist track will be linked to a mixer track. My idea for the Sticky Bar is that it shows previews of all plugins on the mixer slot that is related to the playlist track (if applicable) that was last clicked. So if my instrument "Harmor" is an instrument track and I click on it's playlist track, it would look something like this:
As you can see, third part effects just show a preview with the basic controls of on/off and mix level, and FL plugins could show controls if it's simple like Fruity Balance, or they could show the same third party style preview if they are too complex like Maximus. There's a button that, when clicked, takes you to the selected mixer track in the mixer.
The Sticky Bar would always be there (if you configured it to be on in the settings), with the exception of when the mixer is showing because that wouldn't really make sense. Here is what it would would like when you are looking at the pattern window:
Again it shows the mixer track of the last clicked element.
Here are some various ideas I have for it's behavior beyond what is shown:
-When you click on the name of Sticky Bar (in this case "Harmor") it would open the instrument/audio track. Or maybe there could be a separate button for this.
-When new plugins/windows are open, they are never opened over top of the Sticky Bar. But, plugins/windows can be dragged over the Sticky Bar. That way it's always visible, except for if you want to drag stuff around temporarily it doesn't kill that whole section of the screen, but items do not cover it by default. Kind of like how the browser works, but instead of going "under" the browser when you drags items, it would go over the Sticky Bar. Or maybe you could configure items to go under it in a setting.
-Maybe the background of the Sticky Bar could use the same color as its mixer track.
-Once again I'll mention that the Sticky Bar will be hidden when the Mixer is showing.
-You should be able to drag around the order of the plugins in the Sticky Bar.
-You should be able to drag plugins from the Plugin Database onto the Sticky Bar. This means you could be be editing your patterns in pattern mode and then drag over an effect onto the Sticky Bar all without opening the mixer.
-If it's not obvious, when you click on an effect in the Sticky Bar it would open that effect.
That's all I've got for now. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions if you have any! I know there's a low chance of this getting built but a guy can dream
