[linux-audio-user] VST Plugins Revisited (Again)

[Dave Phillips]

Brad Fuller wrote:

> ... I've experimented with Csound but not CM. I do use pd, if that's 
> any consolation to you 8-)

I feel better already. ;)

> pd offers me a large piece of features that reaktor does not and vice 
> versa. I'm also currently writing a plugin for portaudio-to-smalltalk 
> (squeak: http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak). This is not an audio 
> plugin, but a squeak plugin. Smalltalk offers MANY more opportunities 
> in programming than ANY other language -- for me anyway.

Very cool, I'll have to check out Squeak again soon.

Smalltalk is nice, but of course Lisp rules. ;-))

> Ya see, I would love to be able to use all of these apps on Linux so I 
> wouldn't have to keep switching computers! It's as simple as that.

Yes, therein lies the crux. A lot more users are coming into Linux who 
are not the average "Windows power user" (could that be an oxymoron?). 
They do know about computer operating systems, they may or may not be 
interested in OS politics, and what they really want is stability and 
the ability to use familiar software. Alas, the impetus for the 
commercial vendors to port their wares to Linux is not likely to come 
from the FOSS community. Quite seriously I suggest that anyone wanting 
Win/Mac software to run on Linux should contact the developers of that 
software. I would definitely *not* wait for WINE to accommodate Acid or 
Reason or any other larger gun, that domain is just not really on their 
radar.

> If you really look at it, support for FOSS is as good as commercial - 
> for different reasons. While, for the most part, FOSS authors love 
> their work and like to support users,  feature updates and bugs fixes 
> are random. I'm not complaining.. just the way it is. All power to them!
> I often see authors say that they'll fix the bugs when they can, or 
> feel like it, or not at all. A lot of potentially cool software has 
> been started and never gets out of pre-alpha. That's ok with me, 
> again.. no worries from me. I just want to state that FOSS support is 
> just as bad as commercial support.... uh... or just as good.

Heheh, yeh, you got that right.

It's an aging lament. We all know that there's a need for increased 
attention to usability and documentation issues. We just need more 
participants. Wikis are nice, as are independent documentation projects, 
but there's a lot of ground to cover. I also think Christoph Eckert's 
AVIs are a terrific idea, ditto for JP Mercury's video tutorials for his 
Freewheeling. Hydrogen comes with some excellent demos, as do some other 
apps, and I'd love to see more developers put some effort in those 
directions.

> In any case, it's going to be fun to watch as things progress.

Absolutely. Thanks for your comments and point of view ! :)

Best,

dp