[linux-audio-user] Re: [linux-audio-dev] Concerning libfst, vstserver, and dssi-vst

[Shayne O'Connor]

hey

thanx for jumping onto this one dave! the vst thing, while holding less
and less interest for me, should definitely be reviewed and brought up
to date ... as usual, if the developers are keen to churn out some
updated code, i'm more than keen to test it out :) .... more comments below,



Chris Cannam wrote:

>On Monday 11 Apr 2005 14:14, Dave Phillips wrote:
>  
>
>>    1. The vstserver project is functionally dead. It cannot work
>>with newer versions of WINE, and it appears that Kjetil does not plan
>>to keep it updated to accommodate the new versions. Alas, this also
>>means that his nice vsti, ladspavst, and k_vst~ projects are also
>>unusable. :(
>>    
>>
>
>This does seem to be the case.  There doesn't seem to be anything 
>fundamentally wrong with vstserver, but its choice of threading library 
>doesn't work well with recent versions of Wine for some reason.
>
>  
>

i've never even been able to build vstserver on the wine package that is
available from the same place as the package :(


>>    2. The libfst project is essentially unmaintained. Again, WINE
>>versions wreak havoc with users who want to keep both fst and WINE
>>up-to-date. Paul and/or Torben: Is the libfst project going to see
>>any more activity from your end, or should it be considered an open
>>project and up for grabs ?
>>    
>>
>
>I think libfst in the form in which you can obtain it currently is also 
>effectively dead.  It's very sensitive to Wine version and no longer 
>easy to get working, it's apparently been superseded (has anyone 
>actually seen xfst? I haven't), and it's never been properly licenced.
>  
>

just to repeat - from my experiences, jack_fst appears to work with
*most* versions of wine. the only problems i've had with jack_fst have
been getting ardour compiled with vst support - in this case, you have
to use wine20040505. however, i've just managed to get the latest muse
stable release (can't compile cvs) working with jack_fst vst support
enabled on wine 20041201.

so now my vst situation stands like this:

wine20041201

*jack_fst (and muse w/vst)
*dssi-vst (and rosegarden w/vst)
(a seperate vst path for each, as jack_fst *within* muse appears to be a
bit more picky about which vst's work - still fine-tuning how to call
rosegarden and muse from a script that will give them both the
appropriate VST_PATH)
*jack_fst, getting audio piped from ardour and piping it back in.




> 
>  
>
>>    3. The dssi-vst bridge is still unknown to me because of issues
>>with RH9, and I've not had time to test it on FC3. But is there any
>>general feeling that dssi-vst is a better route to take, at least for
>>the normal user ?
>>    
>>
>
>Of the three, dssi-vst is I think the easiest to get working with 
>arbitrary versions of Wine, and possibly the best supported (which is 
>not saying much, as I don't exactly get much time to devote to problems 
>on the DSSI list).
>
>  
>

it would be great if dssi-vst would work with wine20040505 .... however,
any eventual solution would be best served by dssi, i think. when it is
up and running it is very stable, and then there's the cool synths like
hexter and x-synth (which have allowed me to cease sometimes fruitless
quests to get a VST plugin working). jack_fst is just as good, if not
better, with VST plugins, but doesn't seem to be as extensible ...

>In my experience problems more often arise from winemaker build system 
>changes or Wine configuration file layout changes than from actual 
>library incompatibilities.  I don't know what your problems with RedHat 
>or Fedora were (although RH9/CCRMA was one of my development platforms 
>for dssi-vst, so I'm surprised you had problems with it) but I'll bet 
>you a fiver it's something to do with the build system or config files 
>rather than the library API.
>
>  
>

i think this is where vst-server comes apart - so much seems to have
changed in wine since its release that it is dead in the water.

>We currently use dssi-vst with Wine 200407-something as the basis of VST 
>support in Fervent Studio to Go!, and so I think it works pretty well 
>and I do have a pretty strong incentive to keep developing it, although 
>I don't necessarily always keep up with the very latest versions of 
>Wine.
>
>  
>

might give that version a try with jack_fst and ardour ...


shayne