I can't agree more with this post! As a middle eastern producer trying to incorporate maqam, the workflow is custom...and frustrating...and funnily still better on a workstation. And CV control is not viable as a control for acoustic sampled vsts.
Your opguide site looks like an incredible resource, thank you for creating it!
I'm the lead author of Ardour [0], and I'd very much like to hear more about your frustrations, since over the next 1-2 years, paying attention to non-European musical culture is one of the things I hope to focus on during development. You can reach me via the email address in my profile, or maybe use our forums at discourse.ardour.org. Thanks.
[0] https://ardour.org/ <= a cross-platform open source DAW that has been around for more than 23 years
I've been going down the rabbit hole of using all physically modeled synths instead of sample based VSTs so that I can fully take advantage of MPE controls instead of trying to get samples to be expressive though arcane incantations of key twidding in Kontakt. I think it's probably the best option for doing things in a DAW right now, unfortunately.
Would love to find out more about what you're doing here. Not all physical modelling options allow dynamic retuning. Also, which software will allow a double reed like the mijwiz. We really need modartt to crack the remaining instrument classes :) if you're open to chat, do you mind dropping an email to the address in my profile?
Your opguide site looks like an incredible resource, thank you for creating it!