The way you frame the question already suggests a solution, and one that indeed doesn't fit ECS that well. That doesn't mean you couldn't design a DAW using ECS, but you'd have to redesign how it works.
For example:
- create custom components for different instruments
- create systems for specific instruments that match the necessary components
- write the result to a common component (e.g. "ChannelOutput")
You could then add components for EQ, effects, routing, ... and introduce systems that match those. The advantage of this approach would be that you end up with a bunch of loosely coupled systems (for instruments, effects, mixing, ...) and an in-memory representation that's cache & parallelization friendly.
One other datapoint would be that Unreal's animation sequencer uses an ECS design, which has a lot of things in common with a DAW.
Glossing over lots of details here, you can't of course design a DAW in one paragraph.
For example:
- create custom components for different instruments
- create systems for specific instruments that match the necessary components
- write the result to a common component (e.g. "ChannelOutput")
You could then add components for EQ, effects, routing, ... and introduce systems that match those. The advantage of this approach would be that you end up with a bunch of loosely coupled systems (for instruments, effects, mixing, ...) and an in-memory representation that's cache & parallelization friendly.
One other datapoint would be that Unreal's animation sequencer uses an ECS design, which has a lot of things in common with a DAW.
Glossing over lots of details here, you can't of course design a DAW in one paragraph.