No Budget Orchestra Plugins: Official release

[j_e_f_f_g]

The NBO plugins are now officially released, including source.

The No Budget Orchestra plugins are the sections of an entire, classical orchestra in LV2 format. They do not need to be loaded into any kind of sfz player such as LinuxSampler. They have their own, highly optimized, very low resource player built-in, that uses compressed waveforms and shared libraries to make the orchestra usable even on machines with very limited RAM.

The initial graphical installer of the previous test version is gone. The new installer needs to be run from a terminal window, using sudo (or an administration account). This eliminates the problems some folks had with the previous version. (Also, the bug that Mike reported about the "All users" install not working has been fixed.) The new installer now offers the choice of installing its existing binaries (which are compiled on an old Core2 64-bit cpu, with a standard version of Debian, to ensure that they run on just about every computer within the past 15 years), or compiling the plugin source code to create new binaries optimized for your computer. With the latter choice, you can't get a more efficient orchestra plugin than this. If your distro uses Debian's apt, Fedora's dnf, or Arch's pacman, the installer will attempt to completely automate the process of compiling and installing your optimized plugins.

There is also an uninstall utility to remove all the files the installer installs. (Folks who installed the test version, should first run uninstall_orchestra.sh to clean out all old files, including any botched installation). Read "install_nbo.htm" for details about the installer.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/nbo-plugins/files/

[tseaver]

Yay! I'm looking forward to taking them for a spin. It will be sometime after February 28th, as I made myself a promise not to add or update software on my studio machine until after FAWM (February Album Writing Month, https://fawm.org/) is complete.

[j_e_f_f_g]

after FAWM (February Album Writing Month)

You had me worried. I thought you were referring to the organization "Feminists Against White Men". They have a bounty on me.

[alex stone]

The NBO plugins are now officially released, including source.

The No Budget Orchestra plugins are the sections of an entire, classical orchestra in LV2 format. They do not need to be loaded into any kind of sfz player such as LinuxSampler. They have their own, highly optimized, very low resource player built-in, that uses compressed waveforms and shared libraries to make the orchestra usable even on machines with very limited RAM.

The initial graphical installer of the previous test version is gone. The new installer needs to be run from a terminal window, using sudo (or an administration account). This eliminates the problems some folks had with the previous version. (Also, the bug that Mike reported about the "All users" install not working has been fixed.) The new installer now offers the choice of installing its existing binaries (which are compiled on an old Core2 64-bit cpu, with a standard version of Debian, to ensure that they run on just about every computer within the past 15 years), or compiling the plugin source code to create new binaries optimized for your computer. With the latter choice, you can't get a more efficient orchestra plugin than this. If your distro uses Debian's apt, Fedora's dnf, or Arch's pacman, the installer will attempt to completely automate the process of compiling and installing your optimized plugins.

There is also an uninstall utility to remove all the files the installer installs. (Folks who installed the test version, should first run uninstall_orchestra.sh to clean out all old files, including any botched installation). Read "install_nbo.htm" for details about the installer.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/nbo-plugins/files/

Attempt-1

Ok, just tried taking these for a spin. They are recognized in qtractor and reaper, but no sound. Reaper tells me the plugin could not be loaded, but the plugin is preserved. Qtractor loaded, but no UI, and no sound. I'll keep trying, but that's it so far. I have installed the LV2 plugins to /usr/local/lib/lv2, and they show up. I have D/L the 48KHz versions.

I have used the "available plugins" option when installing.

Attempt-2

(build custom lv2 plugins)

Made sure all dependencies listed in the install doc are present and accounted for. (Note: there is no kernel-devel package in debian. The equivalent is linux-headers-<matching the kernel version number>, which i have)

I've tried to build optimized plugins, and get the following error:

/home/alex/Downloads/NoBudgetOrch/48KHz/Installer/copy_helpers.sh: line 21: 5gcc: command not found
Error compiling BUTT library

UPDATE: The 5gcc error is simply a typo. Remove the 5 and the build is successful.

The optimized plugins built successfully, and so far, the LV2 plugin UI shows up in qtractor, and controls/settings are editable.

(NOTE: The build code scrolled by with errors related to cairo, but the build was successful. Should these be just warnings?)

So I got there in the end. I'll try the rest of the instruments tomorrow.

And thanks Jeff, for sharing these.

Alex.

[j_e_f_f_g]

there is no kernel-devel package in debian.

Hmmm. If you're using an apt-based distro, then the installer should have detected that "apt" was present on your system, and installed "build-essential" (along with the other dependencies) for you.

get the following error:
5gcc: command not found
Error compiling BUTT library

Doh! That was a bug. I've fixed that now.

So I got there in the end.

So, you have successfully working plugins? (But not with the pre-compiled binaries?)

[alex stone]

there is no kernel-devel package in debian.

Hmmm. If you're using an apt-based distro, then the installer should have detected that "apt" was present on your system, and installed "build-essential" (along with the other dependencies) for you.

get the following error:
5gcc: command not found
Error compiling BUTT library

Doh! That was a bug. I've fixed that now.

So I got there in the end.

So, you have successfully working plugins? (But not with the pre-compiled binaries?)

Correct. My distro is AVL-MXDE, so debian based.

[j_e_f_f_g]

I just uploaded a new plugins.zip which hopefully will properly detect your apt-based distro.

[alex stone]

Ok, tried the new plugins zip.

Available plugins.

The build was successful, but no gui, even though I requested it in build options. (qtractor). And in reaper, same problem as before with being recognized, but not loaded correctly.

Customized plugins.

The build was successful, with the previously mentioned cairo warnings/errors while building.

In Qtractor, the plugin loaded ok (Bassoons) but the gui took up the entire screen, and no amount of beating it with a club changed the dimensions. Either full screen, or completely minimized.

In reaper, the plugin loaded successfully, but no gui, or more accurately, it wouldn't "draw" correctly. (blank)

I've done all this in a terminal, but neither qtractor or reaper gave me any error messages related to the plugin starting or stopping with errors, in fact i got no feedback at all.

CAUTION: I'm doing all this in AVL MXDE. The window manager is Enlightenment. That may or may not complicate things for drawing UIs, I don't know.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, and the above behaviour is consistent across attempts, for both available and customized plugins.

Sorry I can't give you more info at the moment.

Alex.

[j_e_f_f_g]

In Qtractor, the plugin loaded ok (Bassoons) but the gui took up the entire screen.

How bizarre.

Does the plugin actually play in qtractor or reaper? The GUI isn't required since everything can be configured via midi messages. In fact, I was thinking of making the gui a separate app that would connect through ALSA's Sequencer API. Graphics on linux is flakey at best, and in the case of LV2 plugins, it's a total hack to try to support the conflicting toolkits out there.

The window manager is Enlightenment.

Is that running on Wayland?

[alex stone]

The plugin plays ok, and i'm with you on this one, the UI isn't compulsory to make things work via midi. (I tested it all so you'd have at least someone other than you and the dog trying this stuff)

No, i'm not running on wayland.

EDIT: There you go. Without the gui, the plugins (customized) work just fine in Qtractor, Reaper, and Muse. CPU usage is negligible. I've got plenty of sounds to work with already, but these would be ideal for those seeking a basic orchestral set to work with, in a simple LV2 format. (And i could load them quickly for a quick tune if needed.)

EDIT2: keyswitching works. (tested in Reaper)

I assume you're going to release the same set in CLAP format?

Alex.

[j_e_f_f_g]

at least someone other than you and the dog trying this stuff

The dog "quiet quit". All he does now is sleep and eat.

Come to think of it, that's all I do now too.

i could load them quickly for a quick tune if needed.

That's the idea. I'm going to make an entire General MIDI set of plugins (comparable in quality to modern musical hardware gear from Roland, Yamaha, Korg, etc), and then a General MIDI file player that will automatically use this set. So, you'll be able to double-click on a MIDI file, and have it play back with the correct instrumentation and all the standard GM controllers implemented. You won't have to cobble together various software to play MIDI files, and still not get a good GM sound. Plus, you can distribute your music in MIDI file format, and any listener would just need to download my "No Budget Instrument Collection" to hear the song exactly as you intended it.

Furthermore, I'm working on a utility that will let you take a collection of your own waves, and write a "map file" (ie, like a simplified sfz text file), then create your own plugins using my engine. Your plugin will even include the installer and uninstaller. That way, if you use custom instruments in your compositions, you can distribute them along with your composition.

CLAP format?

Only if it's well-documented. I've had enough of working with software that isn't documented. It's not worth my time.

[tseaver]

CLAP format?

Only if it's well-documented. I've had enough of working with software that isn't documented. It's not worth my time.

I still can't help hearing the great Shel Silverstein's song every time I see that ill-chosen acronym:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4hMEdELw9Y

[alex stone]

You're off to a good start, imho. I'll test what I can, when I can.

Alex.

[Impostor]

The installer can't find the nb_common folder even though it's right there in the right place:
EDIT: Manually renamed nb_common to NoBudgetCommon, and now it works.

Code: Select all

~/Downloads/Plugs/NoBudgetOrch$ sudo ./install_o*

Code: Select all

This utility installs the No Budget Orchestra LV2 virtual instruments.
ERROR: You must download and unzip the file nb_common.zip to:
/home/user/Downloads/Plugs

Code: Select all

~/Downloads/Plugs$ ls

Code: Select all

nb_common  NoBudgetBasses  NoBudgetOrch  NoBudgetPianos  NoBudgetSolo

[Impostor]

I opted for single user installation, but apparently, since I need to run the installer with sudo, things get installed into the /root folder:

Code: Select all

I will now create the folder named /root/NoBudget and
install the files. This may take awhile.

So I manually moved /root/NoBudget to ~/Muziek/NoBudget, took ownership back, and created a symlink ~/NoBudget to this folder. I also moved the contents of /root/.lv2/ * to ~/Muziek/plugins/lv2/nobudget.lv2, and merged the manifest.ttl's, so my lv2 plugin folder remains manageable.

Let's see if that works..