No GUI for Calf Plugins in Qtractor

[Linuxmusician01]

let me mansplain:

1. qt5 builds are not supported anymore, but still possible: they will use drobilla's libSUIL for the matter and that's probably why ubuntu 20.04 (focal) builds would have been doing the Calf Gtk2 UI thing...

however, bear with me:

1. as said, qt5 is dead, long live qt6, for which qtractor needs special build instructions to support gtk2+lv2 guis.
2. those instructions don't work and never will, on appimages nor flatpaks...
3. gtk2 is also going the dodo way, if it isn't already, on most distros...

and then,

1. qtractor (and muse as well, i believe) have indulged on gtk(mm)2 lv2 ui support, quite because of the Calf toolkit trouble, but...
2. you'll have to build it (compile) yourself or get the hand of it from yours truly repos.

you've been advised
cheers

Thank you for the explanation. I've been working up the courage to finally say goodbye to the Calf (Gtk2-LV) plugins.

[bluebell]

1. gtk2 is also going the dodo way, if it isn't already, on most distros...

CALF plugins are in Debian stable, testing and unstable. That means that gtk2 is included.

The future looks bright

[RyanH]

let me mansplain:

1. qt5 builds are not supported anymore, but still possible: they will use drobilla's libSUIL for the matter and that's probably why ubuntu 20.04 (focal) builds would have been doing the Calf Gtk2 UI thing...

however, bear with me:

1. as said, qt5 is dead, long live qt6, for which qtractor needs special build instructions to support gtk2+lv2 guis.
2. those instructions don't work and never will, on appimages nor flatpaks...
3. gtk2 is also going the dodo way, if it isn't already, on most distros...

and then,

1. qtractor (and muse as well, i believe) have indulged on gtk(mm)2 lv2 ui support, quite because of the Calf toolkit trouble, but...
2. you'll have to build it (compile) yourself or get the hand of it from yours truly repos.

you've been advised
cheers

Haha, thanks for the mansplanation! I appreciate all the help you give us.

[rounakagag]

in my experience, on Ubuntu, when you compile Qtractor, make sure in install the dependencies libgtk2.0-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev specifically.
In my experience, that always solves the Calf Plugins GUI not loading in Qtractor issue.
The apt build-dep qtractor / apt-get build-dep doesn't pull the optional dependencies that are actually needed for a lot of stuff on qtractor,
just run the install command provided by Qtractor wiki (maybe exclude the libjack stuff if using pipewire, i'm not really sure about that)

From the wiki
"In order to compile Qtractor you are required to have at least all the packages listed under section 2.2.1 installed. Everything listed under section 2.2.2 is optional but recommended to get the most out of Qtractor.

Note that some Linux distributions (such as Arch) include the development files in their packages whereas other distributions split packages up into binary and dev components. For example, the ALSA library under Debian and Ubuntu is contained in the package libasound2 but its development files are contained within libasound2-dev.

If you are compiling Qtractor under a Debian or Ubuntu-based distro you can install all the required build dependencies with one command by running:

sudo apt-get build-dep qtractor

If it doesn’t work try:

sudo apt install qt6-base-dev qt6-base-dev-tools qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-l10n-tools qt6-svg-dev libqt6svg6-dev libjack-dev libjack-jackd2-dev libasound2-dev libsndfile-dev libvorbis-dev libmad0-dev libz-dev libsamplerate-dev librubberband-dev libfftw3-dev libaubio-dev ladspa-sdk dssi-dev liblo-dev lv2-dev liblilv-dev libsratom-dev libsord-dev libserd-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev"

https://www.qtractor.org/doc/Manual%20- ... actor.html

[senlinos]

So are there any other Fluidsynth plugin?
1.5.4.AppImage can't display UI and can't see the list of Calf Plugins.
(I am a beginner and don't know much.)

[rounakagag]

So are there any other Fluidsynth plugin?
1.5.4.AppImage can't display UI and can't see the list of Calf Plugins.
(I am a beginner and don't know much.)

My personal suggestion is not to use AppImage.
What distro are you using?
If Ubuntu, then get Qtractor from official developer's RNCBC PPA. (https://launchpad.net/~rncbc) Depending on your Ubuntu version, add the correct PPA. Then install Qtractor.

Then try to load Calf plugins directly in Qtractor first and see if GUI loads. If that doesn't work,

Just use Carla Rack plugin inside Qtractor as a middle host to load Calf plugins such as Calf Fluidsynth. That way Calf GUIs will probably load.

Let me know how it goes.

[senlinos]

If use AppImage first and use PPA to install Qtractor before,
need to delete the previous configuration file (Qtractor File & Folder in ~/.config, ~/.cache, ~/.local),
otherwise you still can't display the list of Calf Plugins.

PPA's Qtractor can display the GUI of Calf Plugins.

[rounakagag]

If use AppImage first and use PPA to install Qtractor before,
need to delete the previous configuration file (Qtractor File & Folder in ~/.config, ~/.cache, ~/.local),
otherwise you still can't display the list of Calf Plugins.

PPA's Qtractor can display the GUI of Calf Plugins.

Did you check Qtractor's View (Menu Bar) -> Options -> Plugins tab, where you can manually add the paths your lv2 and other format plugins are in. usually calf plugins will be in /usr/lib64/lv2 (/usr/lib64/lv2/calf.lv2/)

[senlinos]

I know that setting, but AppImage has been deleted.
I think if there is no interference, the installed version of Qtractor can find the plugins smoothly.

[RyanH]

So are there any other Fluidsynth plugin?
1.5.4.AppImage can't display UI and can't see the list of Calf Plugins.
(I am a beginner and don't know much.)

Ubuntu Studio comes with the ACE Fluidsynth plugin. It's not as straightforward as Calf Fluidsynth in Qtractor, but I just tested it and it works. I'm not sure where you would get it outside of Ubuntu Studio, but it must be available.

You could also try using Carla as a plugin with the Calf plugin inside of it, as @rounakagag suggested, and there's also the option to use QSynth outside of Qtractor, routing your midi notes out to it and then routing the sounds back in to an audio track in Qtractor.