Host to plugin communication not via parameters

Audio Plugins
1

I think I know the answer to this, but… is there any other communication channel between host and plugin than parameters?

For example, I might want a user to be able to turn a knob on their control surface and with every notch of the knob, a new random number is generated on the GUI. Or something else that doesn’t map nicely to a 0 to 1 value.

Thanks in advance.

2

You could listen to MIDI messages instead. This is how things were done before DAW automation and parameters existed.

3

Thanks for the tip! That’s a good idea.