Pros and cons for carla and linvst

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azmeuk
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Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by azmeuk »

Hi. I am prettry new to the linux audio world, so I may ask dumb questions. If so, do not hesitate to tell me :)

My goal is to use ardour to produce nice sounds for the scores I arrange with Musescore for my brass band. Most of the good brass virtual instrument are Windows VST, so I have to find a way to make those work with ardour.

For what I have seen, the two most current ways to do this is to use either linvst or carla to load windows VSTs.
What are the pros and cons about either solutions? Is one or the other more compatible? I feel I do not have enough elements to judge...

Thank you for your help
glowrak guy
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by glowrak guy »

Hi, and welcome to the forum! I use IK Multimedia Sampletank 3
in linux by way of wine-staging and the Reaper daw.
I think this is the most reliable setup for multi-timbral
sample playback in linux.

But IK have just released Sampletank 4, so V3 may need some
web-browsing to find a copy. I see Sweetwater has a demo in stock
at discount, 33 gig of sounds for $175

There are a few Reaper users using Kontakt, which takes more
work to get running than the IK instrument.
There is now a forum topic lower down the main page
for discussions of using windows things in linux.
So don't be offended if a moderator moves this.

I'd also recommend getting Harrison Mixbus daw when it's on sale
(which it often is) as well as the Computer Music Magazine
digital edition that featured Bitwig 8-Track, 4 or 5 months back.
Mixbus sales help Ardour developers, and having a few daws
will help overcome the lapses that one or the other may have,
and expose you early on to features and methods of work
that will serve you well. Bitwig, Reaper, and Ardour/Mixbus
can all get to the finish line, from very different paths
and methods.

I think Carla now has some items in settings
for using windows things that are off by default,
but easy to reverse. LinVst works as advertised,
wraps .dll files and gives them a 'twin' but with a .so extension,
and linux daws can load those plugins. Works very well.

Cheers

,
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Linuxmusician01
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

I don't use Ardour (yet). But what I understand is that it supports Linux native VST (yes, there is such a thing as Windows VST and Linux VST to make things confusing). Ardour's website is down at the moment, can't check.

Anyway, Carla and LinVST both have their caveats for the beginner. Carla supports anyting but it opens its own window for every plugin (VST) that you use. And it's an application with an intimidating interface for the beginner. You open Carla in a DAW just as if it was an Linux VST or an LV2 plugin and then in Carla you open your favorite Windows VST (may require some editting of settings etc. in Carla).

LinVST supports bridging (what you want to do is to bridge a Windows VST to Linux) of 64 bit Windows VST's. It can work w/ 32 bit Windows VST's too, but might require some additinal installing of software etc. You have to place an .so file in the same directory as your Windows VST .dll file and rename that .so to the same name as your Win dll, be it w/ the extension so. Then you can load said Windows plugin like it was a Linux native one. No further configuring needed.

Sometimes LinVST works better, sometimes Carla does (LinVST crashes on 32 bit VST's in Qtractor for instance but works fine w/ the 64 bit ones).

Good luck. :)


P.S. Carla can be installed via your package manager, LinVST needs to be compiled from source or you can use pre-compiled Debian binaries.
glowrak guy
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by glowrak guy »

I don't think Carla has an intimidating interface, whether
standalone, or as a plugin. The whole production of music
using software carries a learning curve,
so there will be some shared intimidation at that level,
regardless of which software is used.
Carla seems well suited to get started, and without
being hard on the eyes. Ableton Live, on the other hand,
would drive me absolutely crazy, popular as it is, so testing
a lot of interfaces will help you find one you prefer,
and preserve your longterm sanity.
Reaper with rado theme is my usual workspace.

LinVst as a wrapper has a threestep gui which
creates the native linux vsts with the .so extensions,
from the .dll files it discovers. The correct choice
for the first 2 steps may require
scrolling to the bottom of the (small) gui for the
needed file browsing choice.

If plugins are in nested folders, linvstconverttree will
burrow down to convert the buried .dll files.
So If you can have just one or two main plugin
locations, it will be easier to keep things updated.
You might need to delete all the .so files each time
you add more plugins to your path(s). The conversion
and re-conversion itself are instantaneous.
Cheers
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

I think the topic starter lost interest in our posts. :roll:
azmeuk
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by azmeuk »

I did not lose interest :) Thank you for your answers.
I understand that both solutions work in most cases. For what I have seen, I think I prefer the linvst solution, but I will keep in mind that carla may be able to handle some plugins that linvst cannot.

EDIT: find -> lose :/
Last edited by azmeuk on Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

azmeuk wrote:I did not find interest :) Thank you for your answers.
I understand that both solutions work in most cases. For what I have seen, I think I prefer the linvst solution, but I will keep in mind that carla may be able to handle some plugins that linvst cannot.
Succes in using LinVST! :)
glowrak guy
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by glowrak guy »

Linuxmusician01 wrote:I think the topic starter lost interest in our posts. :roll:
It's easy to get busy or distracted by daily demands. As an aside, I try to post in a way
that might also help someone just starting out, or a lurker a year or three down the road,
by mentioning things I suspect the OP knows, that some others might have questions about.
Cheers
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Re: Pros and cons for carla and linvst

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

glowrak guy wrote:[...]As an aside, I try to post in a way that might also help someone just starting out, or a lurker a year or three down the road [...]
Best advice I've gotten in a long time. Thanks. :)
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