Record Audio Directly in Video Sequence Editor

Not having the ability to record audio directly into the Video Sequence Editor(VSE) slows down the workflow for people doing voiceovers and tutorials by constantly needing to switch programs. Blender's most appealing attribute in 3D production is the time saved not needing to switch programs. This should be true for the VSE. Recording audio is a feature in all commercial editing software I've used including Divinci Resolve, Premier and imovie, but no open source video editor, Shotcut nor OpenShot has this.

To implement this we need to solve these things:

1. The placement and design of an audio record button. I think this would fit best in timeline workspace to the left of the record button. The icon would be a microphone

2. A track to record to would need to be set. Currently there is no way of selecting a track in the video sequencer work space. I have two ideas for this. Either a drop down connected to the record audio button where you can change set which track with a default of track 1. Another idea, which doesn't have a default would be to have an empty audio track type to record from, but there could only be one of these objects in the scene unless there was still a selection drop down connected to the recorder

3. Input needs to be setup: This would fit best in the preferences under file paths with the current setup even though that doesn't totally match the description. Input manager preferences. If there were more input types like video, live streamed coordinates for motion capture there could be a separate page in preferences for Input. Along with this input there would need to be an option to enable and disable the input. For ease of use the drop down where the track selection could have the input options and select the first device listed. If video where ever implemented, maybe there could be a toggle for data type

4. The track would start recording where the play head currently is. This could be of the most ease of use. Only thing to change is that if someone deleted their recording immediately after recording, the play head should snap back to where the recording originally started, to save the user a step if rerecording what they deleted.

5. Deciding what happens when recording strips into another strip. Simplest solution but clunky is to move the other strip to the first empty track.

6. Default to disable animations and other video strips only when recording if the scene is too heavy. With my understanding, animations, and other strips will play simultaneously which could limit the performance of recording.I If these are disabled only when recording audio it will not interfere with the performance of either. Alternatively the video could be shown at a lower resolution and animation sampling fewer frames or objects as referencing the visuals may be important.

Once all of this would be implemented, basic audio filters that can be used while recording and implemented after. For cleaning audio some filters most important to me are noise reduction, compression, and normalize. Musicians would like features like reverb, delay, echo, and modulate. I common response I see on forums for new features in areas Blender hasn't developed suggest the solution to things like audio recording is to find another program. From doing 3D modeling, animation, and video editing in Blender, I am happiest and work the most efficiently when it's all in one program. For people who are new to Blender and don't know about open source programs or how to find completely free to use options, it would be nice to have these features in the program. i understand Blender wants to stay light so anyone can download it and I think this should be implemented in ways that doesn't require large libraries to weigh down Blender.

I suggest audio recording and not live video or motion capture because I want this proposal to be something achievable that can build to something bigger. I think this is a better start than video because video would take up two tracks, video and audio, which currently can exist on any track. Once audio is figured out I think that would be a great next step. If other inputs such as midi or outputs like an Arduino it could open up the door to many more projects and expand how far Blender goes to inspire artists.