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

On Tue, Jan 14, 2003 at 09:30:58 -0500, Dave Phillips wrote: Can you explain what you mean by "toggles for randomized parameters". Yes. XAP is supposed to address this (at an abstract level), I believe that explicit MIDI support ala VSTi is a serious mistake. - Steve

On Tue, Jan 14, 2003 at 10:45:31AM -0500, Dave Phillips wrote: Yes, thats useful. Infact I have one plugin I want to write that requires this. It would be tricky in LADSPA though, because plugins aren't allowed to write to thier control inputs. I guess it could be a host feature... the host knows the allowed range and meaningful values and weighting for the control port so it should be able to randomise them. Not ideal, but it would work. To give better control there could be a RANDOMISABLE control hint that tells the host that its useful to randomise this port. Any host authors out there who would want to implement this? Mainly because MIDI is very primitive and supporting MIDI at a low level ties you to it to some extent. XAP has a highlevel control interface that MIDI can be converted into trivially, but can handle other things. LADSPA has no concept of instruments, so MIDI support is bound to be limited, with only a single plugin. It is possible to build MIDI synths with LADSPA + AMS, SSM or pd, if you like getting your hands dirty. I guess it's not what most users want though. - Steve

Hi, Steve Harris hat gesagt: // Steve Harris wrote: Yep, I believe this as well and it remembers me of something, Pd-inventor Miller S. Puckette once said: "We must undo the MIDI revolution." ciao -- Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__

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(a)music.columbia.edu [mailto:linux-audio-user-admin@music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Dave Phillips Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 6:31 AM To: linux-audio-user(a)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: