[linux-audio-user] VST plugins and linux

[Taybin Rutkin]

The Ardour FAQ has a good entry on VST support in linux:

--begin--
2.2.  Are VST plugins supported?

There are several issues here:

1) Generic VST support

   This is possible, but is also tricky.  Steinberg does not allow
   redistribution of their header files, and the header files that
   they distribute will not work under Linux.  It would therefore be
   impossible to compile Ardour with VST support unless you got
   modified files from (say) me, and that would violate the license
   agreement Steinberg has for VST.  They have indicated that they are
   not opposed to Linux support, but that's the end of the story right
   now.
 
   If we end up distributing binary copies of Ardour, this could
   be dealt with (I compile it, and so you don't need the modified
   header files).  But that's not happening yet.

2) Specific plugins

   a) executable format issues

   Plugins are pieces of executable code.  The format used for
   the files that store this code is different under windows
   and macos than it is for linux.  Some people have managed
   to find workarounds for this --- there are reports of people
   running windows-derived buzz plugins under linux, but nobody
   has looked into trying it with vst plugins.

   Linux also runs on a lot more hardware than windows or MacOS.  
   We assume that when you say linux, you mean "linux on an intel
   compatible processor", but keep in mind that to most of us, 
   linux means more than that --- it includes the PPC, Sparc, Alpha,
   ARM, MIPS and many other chip architectures.  Of that list,
   only PPC has any VST plugin support at all.

   This problem would go away if a VST plugin was available as source
   code, but to my knowledge, only 1 is (freeverb).

   b) OS dependency issues

   Most VST plugin writers do not follow Steinberg's design advice,
   and write plugins that have operating system dependencies.  As
   a result, even if you could find a way to actually use, say, 
   a windows-format VST plugin on Linux on an Intel machine, the
   plugin would contain calls to operating system services that
   don't exist (in the same way) under Linux.

So, the basic answer is "no".  I am an active member of the VST-plugins
mailing list, and I try to encourage people who write free plugins to
make their source code available so that we can use it under Linux, as
well as reminding people to try to avoid operating system dependencies
in their plugins.  I think this mostly falls on deaf ears.
--end--

Hope that helps,
Taybin
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