Both sounds pretty helpful. 
A direct way to recall a specific snapshot (and maybe additionally assign it to an external control) could be an alternative to using the “infamous mindi” with ProgrammChange + MIDI Loopback.
For the ability to " exclude specific parameters from snapshots" I’m undecided what the best way would be to realise, because a decision would be required to either
- Save everything and decide which parameters should be recalled
or - Save only selected parameters and recall everything that is saved in the snapshot
This only scopes the question how unchanged pedalboards and their snapshots are handled.
It also becomes interesting what should happen to existing snapshots if pedalboards are extended with new plugins → those won’t be covered by the existing snapshots…
(which -by the way- seems to be a current solution/workaround if someone likes to exclude a plugin from snapshots)
I suppose Option 1 is the most compatible, as I suppose that it’s implemented like that already.
But an “exclude plugin” or “exclude parameter” feature brings also the necessity for a “ignore exlcusion” or “force complete load” option, as a flag inside each snapshot.
Why? If I’d save & use the snapshots on a song structured base like described above
a general exclusion of plugins/parameters could make it impossible to switch between Song 1 and Song 2, if those should require different settings on the “protected” parameters.
I don’t know how other MOD users work with snapshots and pedalboards.
If the question would be to decide to have “load protection” or “scripts” realized the decision could be dependent on the size and complexity of the pedalboard, and of course of convenience.
While writing this answer I came to the conclusion that I still would prefer “custom scripts”.
For me it feels very straight forward - but this is maybe due to scripting experience.
But also in terms of “what you see is what you get” I could imagine that other users would follow as well.
You would just need to write down what should happen when triggerd–> and that would happen.
No extra “exclusion” features to implement, or specific flags into the snapshots…
And based on scripts users could also scope the problem if they have extended their pedalboard with additional plugins…reloading/resaving snapshots would not be required → just editing the scripts if necessary.
@James: I’m sorry: Short quesiton, long answer 