vst

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Hi,

Just a quick question before I make a switch back to linux…

Am I going to be able to route audio from a player to some kind of vst/directx/rtas/au/mas host to process sound with wavearts panorama vst/etc. plugin and back out to alsa?

Or is this going to be a nightmare?
Thanks everyone

#2

Using VST’s in Linux is by nature a very fiddly process. You can’t expect everything to work. There are people who use VSTs and Linux very successfully but only because they don’t take anything for granted.

You need to do the following:

  1. Test each and every plugin you want to use, and test them throughly
  2. Accept that not all plugins will work
  3. Keep your system configuration very stable - or expect breakage if you uprgade wine or other critical parts of your system

One of the main problems with VSTs and Linux is the fact that the quality of free VST plugins is usually quite bad. There are very good plugins (for example MDA, simulanalog, smartelectronix) which meet realtime criteria. But there are others who fail this horribly.

If you are in a situation where you would like to run VST plugins but Linux audio software, one option is to use two boxes. One running Linux & Ardour etc. and another Windows box as an auxiliary effects processor. You can also use a Muse Research Receptor instead of the Windows box.

#3

Sampo – I’m really interested in the idea of using two boxes for processing in VST-land. How would one route the audio from jack to the windows box and then back into jack? Can this be done “real time”?

Thanks!

#4

You can link up the two computer in many different ways.

The simplest way is to run up analog signal to and from the windows PC. With this setup you can also run a midi cable to feed automation data from Ardour to the windows computer. If you use ardour to do the routing, it will automatically comensate for some of the latency caused by the setup. The rest of the latency can be compensated using swh’s artificial latency plugin.

Then you could use a digital audio over ethernet or tcp system. I haven’t tried any software which does this, but this is a very possible way to route audio to and from the windows box. You can do this between linux boxes using netjack.

The last option is perhaps the most interesting one. This is not possible yet, but I hope it will be a real option soon. It is possible to use firewire to connect two computers together. Firewire is able to pump a large amount of channels between the two computers and is better suited to this job than ethernet due to firewires design. I’ve heard rumours that the freebob project is working towards this goal.

#5

For linking boxes together I’d advice to stay in digital domain and use at least s/pdif (toslink or coaxial) or better aes/ebu (coaxial) connections (2 chann stereo) or, even better, ADAT connections (8 chann). ADAT lightpipes work fine even at distances 'bout 15m.
I’m linking two linux boxes together, one running convolution reverbs using brutefir, the other running ardour both using RME cards and connected with lightpipes, I’m planning anyway to use netjack for another box providing monitor/headphones lines.

… gosh, firewiring linux boxes together … THAT WOULD BE A BLAST! REALLY!

#6

When linking boxen together using digital wiring like ADAT or AES/EBU or SPDIF, remember to take care of synchronizing the sound interfaces.