Essential Linux plugins? (Mainly looking for SFZ & SoundFont players).

[Death]

As some of you might know, I've been making music on Linux for years but have been doing this with Windows software via Wine. I've decided it's time to try making music in Linux native software again to see if I can get a setup I'm happy with. I'm working on a new music project where I'll be doing different things to normal so figured it'd be a good time to try this.

I'm clued up enough about Linux DAWs and will be using Qtractor & MusE to see which one I end up liking best. But I don't know many good Linux plugins. The main things I'm after right now are some SFZ & SoundFont players that can run as plugins. I found sfizz for SFZ files which seems to work but doesn't yet have any controls, even basic stuff like amplitude envelopes. As for SoundFonts, I don't know what to use. I tried a few different ones I found in the Manjaro repos but I couldn't get any of them to show up in Qtractor. I'm also gonna need some other stuff so I'm hoping you can suggest some essential plugins. I have the Calf plugin pack installed so I'm guessing that's going to cover some of these.

Open source software is preferred but not a strict requirement. And by the way, I'm really into analogue emulating plugins so anything that colours the sound is welcome! Feel free to also suggest things I haven't listed as I'm going to build a list of good plugins for future reference. So here's what I'm looking for at the moment:

* SFZ player (Unless sfizz is the best one).
* SoundFont player.
* EQs: 'Regular', Linear, Dynamic.
* Tape machine.
* Saturation, distortion & soft clippers.
* Compressor (Downwards compression is the main thing but I'm also interested in ones that can do upwards compression & expansion).
* Multiband compressor.
* Limiter (I tried the Calf limiter a while back and wasn't very impressed with it. I need to give it another shot though).
* Delay.
* Reverbs (Room, shimmer, classic etc).
* Guitar FX (Guitarix?).
* Transient processor.
* Stereo shaper.
* Spectrum analyser.
* LUFS loudness measuring.
* Anything interesting that can do cool stuff with noise gates, time stretching, warping/manipulating audio files, weird effects etc.
* Synths (I know about Helm, Vital, Zynaddsubfx, TAL & already use u-he stuff).

So that's the main ones off the top of my head. I know it's a lot of stuff but I figured you guys here would give me better info based on your experience rather than random web searches.

Looking forward to your suggestions

Thanks!

[Michael Willis]

For a lot of these, try LSP Plugins.

Also try Auburn Sounds, it has some fun stuff.

* SFZ player (Unless sfizz is the best one).

Try Liquid SFZ.

* Reverbs (Room, shimmer, classic etc).

Dragonfly Reverb

[WforWoollyMammoth]

I recommend just starting to create music using the Calf plugins and then substituting some of the plugins in your DAW projects with other stuff if needed later. If you'll install everything from the repos and try everything suggested on forums, you'll be just going through different plugins until it's 2022 and not getting anything recorded. There are tons and tons of freebies in the LADSPA and LV2 formats that you can pull from the repos and most of them are just something people quickly created in the early days of Linux audio just to make something available on Linux.

Calf is good for basic stuff. Add Dragonfly Reverb as the first measure though, as Calf reverb isn't that great. For reverberation purposes, you might also want to use an IR loader (LSP has a few, but there's also Klangfalter - I don't recommend the oldie called "IR" as it has problems keeping its saved states on projects).

A lot of the free stuff that people use on Win/ macOS is also available on Linux - for example, Audio Damage Rough Rider compressor, u-he Protoverb, many of the TAL plugins (including the chorus that's been used on countless records), the GVST and mda packs... and then there's of course the Airwindows stuff. Airwindows is probably the best for the "colouring" purposes that you're looking for (my favourites: tape emulation - ToTape, delay - TapeDelay, console emulation - BussColors, distortion - Slew / Capacitor, reverb - NonlinearSpace, MV etc.). As you may know, Airwindows plugins are favourites among the Gearslutz and KVR crowds.

Honestly, I don't think there are "hidden gems" in the Linux world that wouldn't be available also on Win / macOS. If you've liked some freebie on Win / macOS, just use the same on Linux if there's a port. Do a KVR search for the vst format and snatch the ones you're already familiar with - you might have to use the LV2 format for soundfonts though (personally, I just use Carla for .sf2).

There's plenty of good commercial software available these days on Linux. If I had to recommend one commercial plugin over others, it'd have to be u-he Presswerk, which should cover 99% of your compression and limiting needs. I honestly think it's the closest thing to "an essential" plugin on Linux as it gets.

I don't recommend using Windows plugins via WINE when multitracking on DAWs though - too many crashes, syncing problems etc. WINE is okay for mastering purposes (and other "non- time critical" purposes when not hitting hard on your CPU).

[elcalen]

For spectrum analyser I've lately been using LSP's. For other metering, including LUFS, there's some good stuff in x42's Meter Collection (these are LV2 only, though). I recently noticed MDA has a decent stereo shaper, though I haven't experimented with it extensively yet. Chowdsp has a free tape machine emulation (I had to build it myself, though). And yeah, LSP covers a lot of general EQ, dynamics etc bases.

As far as weird effects go, Glitch 2 by Illformed is one of my absolute favourites (commercial though).

[Death]

Thanks for the suggestions! I've added them all to my list and will gradually work through them

LV2 is no issue at the moment because I'm using Qtractor. I'm not sure if MusE can use them though..? There's also a chance I'll end up using Waveform.

I'm going to have to lookup using Carla for Soundfonts. Can it be used as a plugin inside a DAW or do I have to do some funky routing stuff with Jack? By the way, there's two versions of Carla in the Manjaro repos (Not including all the AUR versions): 'Carla (carla)' & 'Carla Control (carla)'. Do I need both of those?

I do want to avoid using Windows plugins via Wine as I'm already doing that with FL Studio. This experiment is about using all Linux native software to see what's possible for me. So yeh, I'll be avoiding that as much as possible!

I'm looking at those x42 plugins and it says they come preinstalled with Mixbus v3 onwards. I actually have a Mixbus v3 license. If I install Mixbus v3, will those plugins be separately installed so I could just back them up, uninstall Mixbus and then still have those plugins? Or are they somehow part of Mixbus and not a separate install? Any idea if they use some kind of activation method that would require Mixbus to stay installed or anything like that?

Cheers

[elcalen]

I'm looking at those x42 plugins and it says they come preinstalled with Mixbus v3 onwards. I actually have a Mixbus v3 license. If I install Mixbus v3, will those plugins be separately installed so I could just back them up, uninstall Mixbus and then still have those plugins? Or are they somehow part of Mixbus and not a separate install? Any idea if they use some kind of activation method that would require Mixbus to stay installed or anything like that?

The x42 plugins also come with many Linux distros. I know Debian at least has them, and they're also in the KXStudio repo.

[Death]

Ah yeh. I didn't even think to look for those x42 plugins there as they're commercial. I've installed them though so I'm just waiting for Harisson to get back to me with a license file now..

By the way, I'm having some issues with Dragonfly reverb plugins. First of all, what are the formats I've downloaded? I can see there are lv2 folders and loose vst files. What're those other loose files next to the vst ones? The other issue is that only the vst versions are showing up in Qtractor even though I've scanned for new plugins. Any ideas why?

I could also do with some advice on using Carla as a soundfont player as a plugin inside a DAW. I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing as there's about 20 different Carla entries showing up in Qtractor :/ Failing that, I'm open to other suggestions for soundfont players.

Cheers.

[elcalen]

Ah yeh. I didn't even think to look for those x42 plugins there as they're commercial.

x42 sells the binaries, yes, but they're still open source. A bunch of open source projects do this, including the likes of Ardour.

By the way, I'm having some issues with Dragonfly reverb plugins. First of all, what are the formats I've downloaded? I can see there are lv2 folders and loose vst files. What're those other loose files next to the vst ones? The other issue is that only the vst versions are showing up in Qtractor even though I've scanned for new plugins. Any ideas why?

The other files are probably stand-alone versions. I've only used the vst versions of Dragonfly, so can't really help with the other stuff... Make sure you copy the lv2 folders into the right directory and make sure Qtractor is looking in that directory, I guess?

[Death]

Yeh I'm sure I've done everything right. Qtractor just can't see them for some reason. It can see other lv2 plugins though

[sunrat]

Which folders did you put them in? I installed the dragonfly-reverb package from KX repos and they are in /usr/lib/vst and /usr/lib/lv2 where Qtractor detects both versions. I have found some lv2 plugins are not detected if placed in ~/.lv2 although I have been led to believe they should be, but vst plugins in ~/.vst or ~/.vst3 are usually detected.

[Death]

They're in the .lv2 folder in home where my other lv2 plugins are. Maybe that's why it won't detect them. It detects the others though so that's weird. I'll try moving them. Thanks for the tip.

I think I'm probably putting this experiment on hold for a while anyway. I've spent the entire weekend messing about with Linux music software and have been hitting my head against the wall the entire time. I'm pretty disappointed with the outcome. I didn't even get to try out most of the plugins I downloaded because I didn't actually make any music Just trying to check the sf2 & sfz files I downloaded caused enough pain. I just find there's a lack of polish & quality of life features in a lot of Linux music software. I know why that is and I don't mean to complain but it's just not where I'd like it to be yet. Back to FLS in Wine for now.. I just want to make some music..

Thanks everyone for the all the tips on plugins! I have installed a lot of them and built a list detailing them. So, next time I try making music on Linux software, I'll have a bit less work to put in when I start out

[elcalen]

That's more than fair.

I personally seem to be in an opposite situation, though. I've been using a number of Wine plugins for a long while (and mostly they work quite well), but recently I came to the conclusion that I've now actually gotten to a point where I have enough good native plugins to pretty much ditch Wine stuff entirely. Reaper adding LV2 support was part of that (I can now use the x42 metering plugins, for instance—good metering plugins was something I previously found lacking on the native front). Another's been slowly acquiring a small number of decent commercial plugins. (I don't have much money to spend on plugins, but I keep an eye out for sales. A couple months ago I bought U-he Presswerk, which covers a lot of my compression needs, and quite recently I bought FreakQ305 and Aural Verb from Audio Assault, which I haven't really used yet, but seem like they might very well find a place in my mixing.) Those combined with the release of some great new free synths like Vital and Odin 2, and I'm actually struggling to think of a reason to use almost any of the Windows plugins I used before... Now to be fair, it's not like my Windows plugin collection was huge to begin with, and I hadn't spent huge amounts of money on them...

Soundfonts aren't something I've used extensively, so I can't really say much about that. Sfizz seems like it works at least half decently. I don't have enough experience with other SFZ players to say if they are much better or not...

[Death]

Plugins are actually the least of my worries. There's a few cool, creative Image-Line plugins I use in FL Studio which I'd miss but I know can live without them and probably find some kind of replacements. I love u-he stuff and they're my go to company, Linux or not. My main issue with Linux is the DAWs. They're just so lacking compared to what I'm used to. I hate to say that because I know how hard people are working on them, most of them not making any money. But at the end of the day, they just don't do what I want them to. That coupled with my bad experiences with SFZ players and DAWs constantly crashing while messing about with them just ware me out. I pretty much got nothing out of that weekend. It's not like I'm a noob either. I've been using Linux consistantly for a few years and making music for much longer.

I might give Reaper another shot. I was sort of getting on with LMMS too as it's similar to what I'm used to. It wouldn't see any of my installed plugins though and I couldn't understand how to have my sample library show up in its built in file browser. Struggling with simple things like that are what always put me off in the end. I think I'm just gonna continue making music in FLS and just casually mess around with Linux stuff on the side, not dedicating much time to it. I'm still looking forward to seeing what happens with Zrythm as it looks promising.

[sunrat]

It seems curious to me you wish to avoid using Wine for plugins yet use it for FL Studio. Whatever works for you is OK though. I'm still grappling with the basics of MIDI based music with Qtractor.
Zrythm looks promising so plan to check it out soon. Several people on this forum use Bitwig Studio and apparently love it so I'm going to try the demo of that too. It's commercial software like FL Studio but has a native Linux version unlike FL Studio.
For your question about Harrison plugins, most of them require purchasing a separate licence from the Mixbus licence as they only appear in demo mode until then. The XT ones in Linux are LV2 so I think they can be used outside Mixbus if you have the licence. They are not cheap but they have regular sales up to ~80% off. I've purchased most of them on sale and they are excellent with a few such as the character plugins and Tom gate being quite unique and now indispensable for me.
There are a handful of Windows plugins I like which have no peer in Linux but run fine with LinVST or Carla eg. TDR Nova and Valhalla Supermassive.
I also love the new FirComp which was mentioned in another topic here; it has versions for Linux, Mac, and Win. It will be getting lots of use!

[Death]

Because it was meant to be an experiment to see if I could replace all of my Windows music software with Linux music software. If/when that succeeds, I was then going to see if I could be happy making music with only open source software. I've replaced all of the other software I use for Linux native stuff (aside from games) so music software is really the last thing to go.

Zrythm looks very promising to me but it looks like it's going to need quite a bit more time in development before it's ready. I've been checking in on it for quite a while though. I can't wait to see what it becomes..

I tried Bitwig as I used to use Ableton Live but I just didn't like it enough to pay 100s every single year to keep an updated version. I don't mind paying for a new major version every few years or something but I don't like subscription models. The only way I'd pay for a subscription is if it was a hell of a lot cheaper. I only had to buy FLS once and I've got updates for life now. I don't expect every company to do that but just saying, it's tough for me to pay that much for Bitwig when I don't like it as much.. No lv2 support either..

TDR plugins are really nice aren't they. I love that EQ they have. It sounds so good..