Decouple the instrument reload from VST3 activation, and make the master meter's accumulate exact

docs/product/instrument-control-surface.md

@@ -50,9 +50,8 @@ own width formula, not carried over from a prior measurement. The stale geometry
   when off, the lookahead when on, reported to the host's PDC. This is **routine VST3
   behaviour**; the `restartComponent(kLatencyChanged)` it costs is the normal contract, and
   the deactivate/reactivate the flag mandates is **accepted** — the toggle is a patch-design
-  gesture. The only reason the cycle is expensive at all is that **our** `setActive` re-decodes
-  the WAV, which is a latent improvement filed in `docs/TODO.md`, not a design constraint.
-  §3.1.1.
+  gesture. The cycle used to be expensive only because **our** `setActive` re-decoded the WAV;
+  Γ-W3 decoupled the two lifetimes, so it no longer does. §3.1.1.
 - **The cortex limiter does not clear the bar** — §3.5. Read it, take nothing.
 - **Loop gets an explicit enable on the chrome row** (Γ-F4), and the four-mark grammar
   sits under it. The core finding behind the re-approach: three identical bars draw a
@@ -560,31 +559,28 @@ plugins — lookahead limiters, linear-phase EQs and oversampling processors all
 REAPER handles it as a matter of course. The deactivate/reactivate is the *normal* cost of
 the flag, and for a typical plugin it is cheap: `setActive` allocates and frees buffers.
 
-**What makes it expensive here is entirely our own design, in one line.**
-`ReaSamplerProcessor::setActive` is deliberately destructive in both directions
-(`reasampler_processor.cpp:85-109`):
+**What made it expensive here was entirely our own design, in one line** — and Γ-W3 removed
+that line. `ReaSamplerProcessor::setActive` was deliberately destructive in both directions:
 
-- `setActive(true)` calls `reloadInstrument()` (`:89-97`) — **a bridge read and a full WAV
-  re-decode**, plus a fresh engine. This is the expensive half, and no part of it is required
-  by the SDK: it is there because activation was the convenient trigger for a reload, not
-  because activation implies one.
-- `setActive(false)` frees `live_`, `draining_` **and** the graveyard (`:98-107`), so every
-  sounding voice dies. The comment there explains why that is correct and must not be
-  softened casually: a surviving `live_` would be displaced into the drain slot on reactivate
-  and *"resurrect stale sustained voices as ghosts."*
+- `setActive(true)` called `reloadInstrument()` — **a bridge read and a full WAV re-decode**,
+  plus a fresh engine. That was the expensive half, and no part of it was required by the SDK:
+  it was there because activation was the convenient trigger for a reload, not because
+  activation implies one.
+- `setActive(false)` frees `live_`, `draining_` **and** the graveyard, so every sounding voice
+  dies. That half is correct and must not be softened casually: a surviving `live_` would be
+  displaced into the drain slot on reactivate and *"resurrect stale sustained voices as
+  ghosts."*
 
-**So the cost is ours, and it is ours to reduce.** The reduction is **decoupling the reload
-from activation** — keeping the decoded `SampleData` alive across a deactivate while still
-destroying voice state, which is exactly the shape `rebuildVoiceEngine`'s drain-slot swap
-already implements for voice-count edits. **That is a latent improvement with a clear trigger
-condition, filed in `docs/TODO.md` ("Decouple the instrument reload from VST3 activation") —
-not a reason to abandon dynamic latency, and not scheduled in this phase.**
+**The cost was ours, and it has been reduced (Γ-W3 — see §7.11).** The deactivate now parks the
+decoded `SampleData` and the reactivate rebuilds only the voice state around it, through the
+same drain-slot swap `rebuildVoiceEngine` uses for voice-count edits. An activation cycle costs
+no disk read and no decode; an instance with nothing decoded still takes the full reload, which
+is where the pre-v10 legacy lift lives.
 
-**The honest cost of the toggle today, stated plainly:** every sounding note stops and the
-sample is re-decoded from disk. **Daniel has accepted it** (Γ-F6): *"Toggling the limiter
-killing the voices isn't a deal breaker though, the limiter will either be on or off on its
-instance, toggling during playback is not a use case."* There is no fallback design and no
-measurement gate.
+**The honest cost of the toggle, stated plainly:** every sounding note stops. **Daniel has
+accepted it** (Γ-F6): *"Toggling the limiter killing the voices isn't a deal breaker though,
+the limiter will either be on or off on its instance, toggling during playback is not a use
+case."* There is no fallback design and no measurement gate.
 
 #### The standing scar, and why this is nonetheless not the forbidden change
 
@@ -660,10 +656,9 @@ What is in scope alongside it — and what each is actually for:
   in the **not-automatable** class, and it is emphatically not the plugin's `kIsBypass`
   parameter either.
 - **Observe what REAPER does, and record it — as evidence, not as a gate.** Whether notes
-  cut, whether the re-decode is perceptible, whether transport hiccups, is DAW-observable
-  only. Record it in Γ-W1-T2's review because it is the trigger-condition evidence for the
-  `docs/TODO.md` decoupling entry. **No outcome changes the design**; Γ-F6 is closed either
-  way.
+  cut and whether transport hiccups is DAW-observable only. The re-decode half of that
+  question is gone (§7.11), so what remains to observe is the voice cut alone. **No outcome
+  changes the design**; Γ-F6 is closed either way.
 
 ### 3.2 The meter
 
@@ -1401,13 +1396,18 @@ squarely on `ReaSamplerProcessor::setActive`, which is deliberately destructive
 directions. **Those four are hygiene against the `kIoChanged` scar (§3.1.1), not a hedge
 against the flag itself** — Γ-F6 is ruled and the restart ships.
 
-**7.11 — `setActive` conflates two lifetimes, and dynamic latency is the first feature that
-makes a user notice.** Activation currently means both "the audio thread may run" and "the
-decoded `SampleData` is (re)built" (`reasampler_processor.cpp:89-97`). Phase Γ does **not**
-separate them — Γ-F6 accepts the cost — but the conflation is now a named, filed improvement
-(`docs/TODO.md`, "Decouple the instrument reload from VST3 activation") rather than an
-unremarked property. **Do not restructure `setActive` inside this phase**; its destructive
-shape is deliberate and its reasoning is documented at the call site.
+**7.11 — `setActive` conflated two lifetimes; it no longer does (LANDED, Γ-W3).** Activation
+used to mean both "the audio thread may run" and "the decoded `SampleData` is (re)built", so
+every host-driven cycle paid a bridge read and a full WAV decode. The two are now separate:
+`setActive(false)` parks the decoded sample and destroys the voice state, `setActive(true)`
+rebuilds the voices around the parked sample through the drain-slot swap `rebuildVoiceEngine`
+already used. **This section's earlier instruction — "do not restructure `setActive` inside
+this phase" — was superseded by Daniel's ruling that this track does it**; the deactivate's
+destruction of voice state is still deliberate (a surviving `live_` would resurrect stale
+sustained voices as ghosts) and only the PCM survives. Nothing parked routes the activation
+back through the full reload, which is what keeps the pre-v10 legacy lift reachable. Γ-F6 is
+untouched: dynamic latency ships and the deactivate/reactivate is still the accepted cost —
+it is simply a much cheaper one.
 
 ---
 
@@ -1427,7 +1427,7 @@ ceiling.
 | **Γ-F3** | Does the log taper raise the 2 s stage-time ceiling? | **REVERSED, same day. Ruled first "not in this phase — stays 2.0 s"; then Daniel: _"extend the stage lengths to 10s."_ The ceiling moves 2.0 → 10.0 in Γ-W1-T1.** The reversal's cause is Ruling 1: parameters now ship in-phase, so the ceiling is a one-way door that has to be walked through *before* them. | **§4.3.1** (new), §4.3; `docs/TODO.md` entry discharged |
 | **Γ-F4** | Explicit loop enable? | **Yes — on the CHROME ROW.** Not a deck cell; loop is a waveform-overlay concept and has no deck. | **§6.4** (new), §6.5, §7.9 |
 | **Γ-F5** | MASTER's reserved slot: one cell or two? | **One cell.** Two would spend 60 of the 82 px headroom on an unnamed control and freeze row 1 forever. | **§1.6** (new), §1.4 |
-| **Γ-F6** | Is the `kLatencyChanged` deactivate/reactivate acceptable as the cost of the toggle? | **Yes — ship dynamic latency as ruled.** No constant-latency fallback, no measurement gate. *Corrected this doc's analysis: the cost is self-inflicted, not SDK-imposed.* | **§3.1.1** (rewritten), §7.10, §7.11, `docs/TODO.md` |
+| **Γ-F6** | Is the `kLatencyChanged` deactivate/reactivate acceptable as the cost of the toggle? | **Yes — ship dynamic latency as ruled.** No constant-latency fallback, no measurement gate. *Corrected this doc's analysis: the cost is self-inflicted, not SDK-imposed.* | **§3.1.1** (rewritten), §7.10, §7.11; `docs/TODO.md` decoupling entry discharged in Γ-W3 |
 | **Γ-F7** | VST3 parameter ORDER: signal flow, or the editor's visual rows? | **Signal flow** — *"signal flow order."* The frozen id numbering and the presentation index both follow the deck's own rule; the visual layout is too mobile to freeze against. | **§8.3**; `parameter-automation.md` §6.4 (argument) and §6.2 (the 44-id table) |
 
 Three of these corrected this doc rather than confirming it, and all three corrections are
@@ -1473,7 +1473,8 @@ reintroduced:
 than just counting:
 
 1. **§3.1.1 was rewritten, not annotated.** Its prior framing — dynamic latency as exotic and
-   expensive — was wrong. Dynamic PDC is routine; the expense is our reload-on-activate.
+   expensive — was wrong. Dynamic PDC is routine; the expense was our reload-on-activate, and
+   Γ-W3 removed it (§7.11).
 2. **The measurement gate was dropped.** Γ-W1-T2's first deliverable is the limiter, not a
    spike. What remains is an *observation* recorded in review as evidence for the deferred
    improvement — it gates nothing.

docs/product/parameter-automation.md

@@ -202,8 +202,8 @@ The consequence for this doc is concrete and it is a **subtraction from the para
 > latency, and the vendored SDK defines `restartComponent(kLatencyChanged)` as *"the host
 > has to deactivate and reactivate the plug-in"*
 > (`pluginterfaces/vst/ivsteditcontroller.h:105-108`). In this plugin a deactivate frees
-> every sounding voice and a reactivate re-decodes the WAV. **An automation lane toggling
-> that parameter would deactivate the plugin on every flip.**
+> every sounding voice. **An automation lane toggling that parameter would deactivate the
+> plugin on every flip.**
 
 Two corollaries the parameter work must carry rather than rediscover:
 
@@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ Two corollaries the parameter work must carry rather than rediscover:
   binding it to `kIsBypass` would hand the host a control that restarts the component.
 - **Latency reporting must be derived from persisted state, not from a transient.** The SDK
   states the new latency is what `getLatencySamples` returns *after* `setActive(true)` — and
-  this plugin's `setActive(false)` frees essentially everything. Whatever holds the limiter
+  this plugin's `setActive(false)` destroys the whole voice state. Whatever holds the limiter
   flag must survive that cycle.
 
 Full reasoning, the SDK quotes, and the required verification steps are in
@@ -221,12 +221,13 @@ There is no constant-reported-latency fallback — that option is closed, not sh
 **this section does not shrink to a footnote and the limiter enable does not become
 automatable.** Plan against the not-automatable classification; it is settled.
 
-**One future condition could reopen it, and it is worth knowing about.** The restart is only
-expensive because *this plugin's* `setActive(true)` re-decodes the WAV — not because the SDK
-requires it. `docs/TODO.md` ("Decouple the instrument reload from VST3 activation") files that
-reduction, and **"the limiter enable is wanted automatable" is one of its named trigger
-conditions.** If the parameter work genuinely needs that lane, the answer is to do the
-decoupling first, not to re-litigate the classification.
+**The decoupling that was filed against this section has LANDED (Γ-W3), and it changes the
+cost but not the classification.** `setActive(true)` no longer re-decodes the WAV: the decoded
+sample now survives a deactivate and only the voice state is rebuilt
+(`instrument-control-surface.md` §7.11). So a flip costs a voice rebuild rather than a disk
+read plus a decode — but **the deactivate still frees every sounding voice**, which is the
+ground the not-automatable classification actually rests on. Plan against not-automatable; if
+the parameter work wants that lane, the question to answer is the voice cut, not the decode.
 
 ---