Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

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stanlea
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by stanlea »

Cool ! I'll try it, for sure. FYI I had a crash with synth1 loaded in Festige yesterday while I was tweaking some parameters.
ocean
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by ocean »

Brilliant!
StephDAVOS
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

This is great news but sorry, it doesn't work for me. I suspect this has to do with the OSC UI Timeout value. I maxed it out to 10 seconds but it wouldn't be enough. On slower PCs like mine, one'd need to give it about 30 seconds. Correct me if I'm wrong. I hope it helps.
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by danboid »

Exponential OMGz indeed! :)

I don't really read the KXstudio forum coz I don't run the F distro (not the F word!) so I've only just read about Carlas unique approach to running WinVSTs and it does sound very cool indeed - I'm going to have to try this soon.

I'm glad to see Synth1 is one of your main test plugins as it is one of the most famous and popular (free) VSTi's (ever((!)))

Excellent work F!
Joermungand
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by Joermungand »

Hi guys, this is my first post here.

The fact that the VST's that Carla loads cannot be used in ladish sessions is not entirely accurate. I am actually using one in a project. All it takes is loading it with carla-bridge-win32 directly (Application>Run custom… menu option). OK, it does not show up on the canvas, but its ports will be available to applications that can access Jack-session ports. Ardour does, for one. The one thing you can't do, however, is load presets automatically; it has to be done manually from the plugin interface. In my case, it works like a charm – better than it ever did with dssi-vst or Festige. Hope this helps.
Joermungand
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by Joermungand »

falkTX wrote: I know about that, and I could probably make the single-instance only appear with little effort, but the main problem is - how will it save (and then load) session files?
I guess saving can be done via ladish SIGUSR1 signal, but we would still have to pass an extra argument to the app to set where the project file should be placed (which in fact, I like the idea...). If I can do this, then I can also add the available plugins to Claudia-Launcher and allow to use any of them directly (like it is done in Klaudia for ghostess). hmmm....
(the plugin's GUI would probably need some widgets to control the current preset, midi-automation, etc...)

I'll see what can be done after I give Claudia some needed fixing.
Sorry, I didn't mean to rush anything. I was just so glad it worked – and so well, no xrun on loading, no xrun on running, and it's quite a greedy plugin, too. Thanks a bunch!

I guess I might be fortunate, but the plugin in qustion (Superior drummer 2, a commercial one) does have all that – preset management, midi automation, midi-learning, what not. It behaved well under Cadence (no ladish), including activation code.

I'll take a look at the code. I'm no master programmer, but I can get creative if need be.

And, once again, no pressure intended. I just wanted to say it worked. All in all – KXStudio & tools – it's a tremendous piece of work you've offered – and I just hope I will one day be able to give something in return…
StephDAVOS
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

I just tried the new version and I have to say, I didn't notice much of an improvement. It's good to read you're working on carla because I like this app more and more.

Beside, I found a warkaround for the problems I have with loading VSTs : First, I use cadence-session-start -s a lot. Catia then behaves in a way I can predict. Then, I add DSSI version of the VST plugin I want to add. Then, I can finally load the VST version of it within the 10 seconds timeout. It seems like some caching happens that makes loading plugins fast enough in this scenario. Just though you should know.

Finally, some plugins that load fine in fsthost and even FesTige just won't load in Catia. I'm telling about the most popular guitar overdrive pedal simulation from the Windows world : TSE 808. I know you don't provide support for Windows plugins but again, I thought you should know.

Thanks again for the great work. Keep it on !
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

I spent more time on this and here's what I found :

Plugins don't always open on fsthost. It generally takes 3 attempts. They always open in FesTige though it can take forever. I suspect it tries 'till it works'. Carla seems to give up 'before it works'.

Right now, I can't use Carla unless I have all my plugins open in FesTige first. Maybe Carla should learn patience from FesTige. What do you think ?
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

Alright, I somehow came up with a "solution" I can live with till it's all fixed. This is some sort of initscript that preloads plugins so Carla can open them too and kills them aferwards.

Sketchy thing but this lets me explore Carla a but further and I am now surprised how it can actually save states for plugins FesTige couldn't (fsthost could) but fails on others which were never a problem for FesTige.

Even worst, after state is modified on that plugin instance (and project saved), then this plugin won't load properly in Carla project anymore (little blue light keeps off and GUI won't display no more). This is weird.

Funny thing (for me), after I remove the chunk section in project xml file, it all returns to normal. Actually, I even get to set my desired plugin parameters in this file. Wow, that's more that I expected ! :)

Well I'm pretty please I can now use Carla for my own needs. I don't know if this is likely to help anybody else but I hope it all get fixed soon. Good news, imho, is it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Let me know if I can help. I can't code C anymore but I can test stuff. Thanks !
Last edited by StephDAVOS on Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
StephDAVOS
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

falkTX wrote:easy there, this is an experimental feature.... relying on it is bad business... :lol:
Well it's not like there are any alternatives that I know about.
falkTX wrote:the "pre-load" can be easily done by running 'wineboot' before the plugin.
I'll give this a try.
falkTX wrote:session save and load on plugin-bridges is the most experimental thing ever.
Since we can't send the whole chunk to the plugin and back (some chunks are *really* big), Carla saves it a temp file and sends the filepath instead. But Wine runs Windows apps, which deal with temp access in a totally different way than linux.
Seems challenging indeed. Wish I could help.
falkTX wrote:Basically, it's a work-in-progress. What we have now is the sneak preview.
Really, this made my week (been on holiday this week). Can't wait for more Carla fixing !

Thanks !
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

I installed KXStudio 64 on my fast mac mini today. It was a bit of a nightmare but I can report don't need to preload plugins anymore. Feels great though I regret I've been wasting my time with this old laptop.
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

StephDAVOS wrote:
falkTX wrote:the "pre-load" can be easily done by running 'wineboot' before the plugin.
I'll give this a try.
Works fine indeed. Thanks !
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by StephDAVOS »

falkTX wrote:Great news!
Thanks to a very stupid plugin that crashed right when initialized, I've added a few fixes for such bad behaved plugins (in this case, synth-edit based Windows VST, which are very common).
Sounds great !
falkTX wrote:Be on the watch for the next round of updates :wink:
Can't wait ! Especially now that I found this great Green Gate plugin that just won't run right in Carla..
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by Capoeira »

will we have some PCKGBUILD for Arch again, or have you deleted you Arch instal?
scalawag
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Re: Loading Windows VSTs within Carla

Post by scalawag »

Hi.
I've just updated all packages, and BaxterEQ from VOS don't show the GUI. It loads ok into Carla but it doesn´t show the GUI.
I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 32bit with Gnome Classic and KXStudio repositories.
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