VST3 support in Linux?

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Linuxmusician01
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VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

This has been discussed in some form already. But it's not yet clear to me. As far as I know developing of VST2 plugins has been made impossible by Steinberg itself (example of a discussion). The only VST plugin that one can develop nowadays appears to be version 3. No more "compiling" of VST code (or whatever it's called) to version 2 as well as 3 (unless one makes VST's in Juce I guess). However, no Linux applications support VST3 yet.

Reaper for Linux, for example, doesn't even support Windows VST's: it needs Carla for that. Carla, on the other hand, does not support VST3 (the latest Windows version does, even-though its experimental). Problem for Linux-Carla appears to be that Windows-Carla uses some Windows-only stuff for said VST3 support.

Will there be VST3 support in the foreseeable future? Because one's favorite VST in the near future can only be a version 3 one.
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by lilith »

Renoise VST3 support is planned for the next version. Windows VST support is not the task of Justin / Reaper. It's Linux and devs / companies should port their stuff to Linux like e.g. U-He or Overtone DSP.
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Kott »

Linuxmusician01 wrote: Reaper for Linux, for example, doesn't even support Windows VST's
And it should not.

You can compile VST2 code if you have Steinberg license, but this license is not available to new developers anymore.
Linuxmusician01 wrote: Will there be VST3 support in the foreseeable future?
If you mean opensource-hosts, then answer is "very possible".
Linuxmusician01 wrote: However, no Linux applications support VST3 yet.
Bitwig and Reaper supports VST3. And VST3 plugins available on Linux.
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Kott wrote:
Linuxmusician01 wrote: Reaper for Linux, for example, doesn't even support Windows VST's
And it should not.

[...]
Linuxmusician01 wrote: However, no Linux applications support VST3 yet.
Bitwig and Reaper supports VST3. And VST3 plugins available on Linux.
By Reaper supporting VST3 you mean the Windows version, I think.
lilith wrote: Renoise VST3 support is planned for the next version. Windows VST support is not the task of Justin / Reaper. It's Linux and devs / companies should port their stuff to Linux like e.g. U-He or Overtone DSP.
Do you mean the Linux version of Renoise?

I didn't want to start a format war/discussion. (I had the same sort of discussion 'bout Libre Office and the .docx format. The Libre devs can get pretty firm in their stance that one should not use their Office suite so make .docx documents. Even though it's the most used format in the world and LO's native format is unusable if you have to exchange your work w/ others. Turned out to be a sort of a chicken/egg discussion in the end.)

I just don't like using applications via Wine very much. You'd be right if you were to say that VST's need Wine so if one is using a Linux DAW w/ Windows VST's one might as well use that DAW's Windows version. But I'm reluctant to run big applications via Wine on Linux. I think - and I might be wrong! - that a VST is more simple to run via Wine than, say, Reaper or Ableton Live.

Do y'all think that the VST3 format is "simple" enough for somebody to quickly develop something like LinVST? If I understood @falkTX correctly in another topic then support for VST3 in Carla is not very straightforward, and we do not have to expect is anytime soon, if at all...
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Kott »

By Reaper supporting VST3 you mean the Windows version, I think.
Native Reaper in Linux support VST3, you can check this with U-he, Surge or recent Auburn plugins
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Nachei »

Kott wrote:Native Reaper in Linux support VST3, you can check this with U-he, Surge or recent Auburn plugins
Could you please elaborate on how you do that? I use Native Reaper, and recently tried to use Izotope RX 7 Decrackler. I didn't know about the version 2-3 divide, so I tried to run it through LinVST as usual, and it gave an error.

Carla doesn't "get" VST3 either.

So, what's that different way of using VST3s that makes them work in Native Reaper? Or maybe you meant "Native Reaper in Linux supports SOME VST3s"?
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by tavasti »

Nachei wrote:
Kott wrote:Native Reaper in Linux support VST3, you can check this with U-he, Surge or recent Auburn plugins
Could you please elaborate on how you do that? I use Native Reaper, and recently tried to use Izotope RX 7 Decrackler. I didn't know about the version 2-3 divide, so I tried to run it through LinVST as usual, and it gave an error.

Carla doesn't "get" VST3 either.

So, what's that different way of using VST3s that makes them work in Native Reaper? Or maybe you meant "Native Reaper in Linux supports SOME VST3s"?
Was that VST3 you tried windows VST? Reaper supports Linux VST.

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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by skei »

i haven't tried to create a vst3 host yet (will do a little later), but i have made around 30 vst3 plugins for linux now.. and from the code required on the plugin side, i can't imagine a host developer having much trouble implementing vst3 hosting..

a lot of people freak out when they see the vst3 sdk for the first time, thinking they have to wade through and understand all of it to make a plugin (or host).. not true.. you only need the lowest level api, not the full sdk (which is 70-80.000 lines of code!)..

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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Nachei wrote:
Kott wrote:Native Reaper in Linux support VST3, you can check this with U-he, Surge or recent Auburn plugins
Could you please elaborate on how you do that? I use Native Reaper, and recently tried to use Izotope RX 7 Decrackler. I didn't know about the version 2-3 divide, so I tried to run it through LinVST as usual, and it gave an error.

Carla doesn't "get" VST3 either.

So, what's that different way of using VST3s that makes them work in Native Reaper? Or maybe you meant "Native Reaper in Linux supports SOME VST3s"?
Maybe he means Linux VST3? If I'm not mistaken then next to Windows VST (.dll) there's also Linux VST (.so). Linux Reaper cannot open Windows VST's. See for instance this link on how one has to open Windows VST's in Linux Reaper. Note on that method and Carla: in Reaper add the path to the directory carla.vst (e.g. /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/) in "Options > Preferences > Pug-ins > VST".
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Kott »

Native Linux Reaper supports native Linux VST3s of course. How can it support Windows dlls, via wine? AFAIK only LMMS [only one DAW, not Carla.] can do such things, I mean load Windows VST2 dlls using compiled-in wine bridge.
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Kott wrote:Native Linux Reaper supports native Linux VST3s of course. How can it support Windows dlls, via wine? AFAIK only LMMS [only one DAW, not Carla.] can do such things, I mean load Windows VST2 dlls using compiled-in wine bridge.
The way that you state it makes perfect sense to me now. However, I keep forgetting that there is such a thing as Linux VST. I've never really found a Linux VST on, for instance, vst4free.com etc. I know of no company that compiles it's VST to Linux VST (there must be one or two, though). When I think of VST, I think of Windows. My bad, I know. When I think of Linux plugins for a DAW I think of LV2 and LADSPA. My bad, I know. I don't think that I even have one single Linux VST on my PC.
Last edited by Linuxmusician01 on Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Kott »

Linuxmusician01 wrote:
Kott wrote:Native Linux Reaper supports native Linux VST3s of course. How can it support Windows dlls, via wine? AFAIK only LMMS [only one DAW, not Carla.] can do such things, I mean load Windows VST2 dlls using compiled-in wine bridge.
The way that you state it makes perfect sense to me now. However, I keep forgetting that there is such a thing as Linux VST. I've never really found a Linux VST on, for instance, vst4free.com etc. I know of no company that compiles it's VST to Linux VST (there must be one or two, though). If I think of VST, I think of Windows. My bad, I know. When I think of Linux plugins for a DAW I think of LV2 and LADSPA. My bad, I know. I don't think that I even have one single Linux VST on my PC.
http://linux-sound.org/linux-vst-plugins.html

There is not a one or two (more than LV2/DSSI, I think) of commercial Linux VST Synths, and number of them are good for me: Loomer, Tracktion, U-he, Xhip
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

@Kott: thanks for the link and the info! :)
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by d.healey »

Linuxmusician01 wrote:I know of no company that compiles it's VST to Linux VST (there must be one or two, though).
Since my main (only) OS is Linux Mint I compile all my VST/VSTi plugins for GNU/Linux. Currently I've only been making VST2 plugins which I use in Ardour but I could compile VST3 too.
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Re: VST3 support in Linux?

Post by Nachei »

OK, got it, my mistake was that I didn't know there existed native VSTs for Linux too. I just assumed "VST means Windows, and the way to run it on Linux is through LinVST" (which I've done successfully often with VST 2; LinVST converts .dll to .so, and you're ready to go).

The Izotope plugin I tried was for Windows, but it didn't specifically said anywhere if it was vst 2 or 3. I just got the error message and did my own research.

Anyways, thank you for the clarification, and for that resource of Linux VST plugins...
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