[linux-audio-user] VST plugins and linux

[Kevin Bowen]

Thanks for all the info. Is there another vst->ladspa wrapper project other
than vstserver that anyone knows of? I could've sworn I found a reference to
another one when googling on the topic, but I've lost the link.

I had trouble getting vstserver to compile on my RH8 system... now that I've
been pointed to RPM's, I'll try those... I'm curious though what you mean
when you say
that vstserver requires some code from the VST SDK... do you mean this code
is *in* vstserver (it's my understanding that this wouldn't be allowed by
steinberg's license)... or do you need it in a library somewhere in order to
get vstserver to compile? Perhaps this would explain the issues I had with
it (although there was no mention of any such dependency in the install
readme).

And opening up a whole 'nother can o worms - how about directX plugins? I
saw them mentioned in the readme for vstserver as a possible future
feature... but there are several existing directX->VST wrappers available
(which I've used successfully on windows)... has anyone tried running a
wrapper inside a wrapper to get directX->VST->LADSPA? With wine able to make
use of system dll's from an existing win installation, this doesn't sound
entirely unreasonable. I currently have wine setup only in a fully
autonomous mode (i.e. no existing win install)... perhaps slapping on a
win98 install for wine to work with might make it work. If others have tried
it already and it's a no-go, I won't waste my time/drive space.

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-audio-user-admin at music.columbia.edu
[mailto:linux-audio-user-admin at music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Dave
Phillips
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 6:31 AM
To: linux-audio-user at music.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] VST plugins and linux


Greetings:

  While Taybin is of course correct WRT *native* VST support under Linux
I must add that Kjetil's vstserver works like a charm. I've been using
it with Pd (via the k_vst~ external) and with the ladspavst host. It
really does work well, especially with Pd. I've only tested it with
various freeware VST plugins but Kjetil's also used it with some
commercial plugins.

  vstserver may not be for the faint-hearted: it requires a working
installation of a recent WINE, and some code from the VST SDK, but it
isn't really difficult to get going. I use a fairly new version of WINE
I built on my home machine, the process was relatively painless (the
WINE people have made real progress with their installation routines and
utilities).

  I'd never played around with VST plugins before trying Kjetil's
software. I've seen/heard some features I'd like to see in LADSPA
plugins (particularly toggles for randomized parameters) but overall I
must say that I'm still knocked out by some of the LADSPA effects. VST
also supports MIDI, which I believe is a problem for LADSPA (Taybin?).

  AFAIK vstserver doesn't support VST instruments, only the effects
plugins at present. Perhaps Kjetil can tell us whether instrument
support is forthcoming ?

Best regards,

== Dave Phillips

	The Book Of Linux Music & Sound at http://www.nostarch.com/lms.htm
	The Linux Soundapps Site at http://linux-sound.org


Taybin Rutkin wrote:
>
> 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
> --
> http://www.piratesvsninjas.com