Support For Lv2 Plugins On Linux

Christophski · December 11, 2011, 10:12am

Support for LV2 plugins on linux would be great as people are making great strides with awesome plugins using this format.

For example:
the linuxdsp plugins: http://www.linuxdsp.co.uk/
a great IR plugin: http://factorial.hu/plugins/lv2/ir
Calf plugins: http://calf.sourceforge.net/?id=1
Invada plugins: http://www.invadarecords.com/Downloads.php?ID=00000264

visinin · December 11, 2011, 12:59pm

+1 danke

taktik · December 11, 2011, 1:19pm

LV2 indeed seems to be more and more common on Linux. So far we (well, I) feared a bit that it soon gets replaced by some other new plugin format on Linux, so we’ve hold the support back. We also already do support 3 plugin formats for Linux (VST, LADSPA and DSSI) and maintaining each of them is quite an effort.

Further, the API also relies on a bunch of technologies which we else don’t need and use (http://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/ and stuff).

So, yes, definitely would be great to have some when, but this definitely is nothing we can do in/for a beta.

visinin · December 11, 2011, 1:22pm

taktik: have you looked at the official helper libraries for it?

http://drobilla.net/software/lilv/
http://drobilla.net/software/serd/
http://drobilla.net/software/sord/

all open-source but non-GPL (ISC/BSD instead).

Christophski · December 11, 2011, 7:13pm

LV2 is really the cornerstone linux plugin format. Nobody uses DSSI as far as I can tell and most good LADSPA plugins are available as improved LV2 plugins. Support for linux VST was a great idea, we just need more people to actually compile their plugins for use with it. And there really are some great upcoming LV2 plugins like ABgate, 95% of the plugins I use in Ardour are LV2 so it would be great to be able to replicate my workflow in renoise too.

kunitoki · December 12, 2011, 8:11am

Serd and Sord requires a bunch of other libraries which has not BSD like licenses. Apart from this, last time i checked the LV2 specs, to support
external interfaces, parameter automations, patch/bank saving and all the common features of a plugin api, we should plug in a lot of extensions
for LV2 which requires a lot of time in discovery, study (most of them are not well documented), test by trial and error with different libraries…

We can consider this, but not for 2.8.

Christophski · December 12, 2011, 10:07am

Maybe try contacting the guy from linuxdsp? He helped Ardour implement Linux VST and I’m sure he would be more than glad to help you implement LV2, especially as it would mean people could use his plugins with your program.

sebbs · February 6, 2012, 2:56am

+1

rvega · March 27, 2012, 1:06pm

+1 This is the one thing holding me from buying renoise.
Great app, BTW!

atte · March 27, 2012, 9:49pm

+1 for Lv2 support…

sebbs · April 1, 2012, 11:11pm

Here is a list of LV2 plugins that I cannot use within renoise:

IR is the one i would love to use: http://factorial.hu/plugins/lv2/ir
Now that I have bought renoise, I hope we linux users can get support for this someday soon.

rvega · May 20, 2012, 6:52pm

I found a way to use LV2 plugins with renoise (And bought a license ).

In few words: I create a “Studio” with gladish, load plugins and setup their midi mappings in claudia. In Renoise, I use “external midi” instruments, “Instr MIDI control” and “line input” for synths and “send”, “line input” and “instr MIDI control” for effects.

I can write a full howto is someone is interested.

29a · May 23, 2012, 6:52pm

what version of carla are you using (stable/old)? arch?
mine currently hangs up on searching for plugins.

rvega · May 23, 2012, 8:04pm

Yeah, I had the same issue but it was fixed recently by FalkTX: Carla - LinuxMusicians
I have whatever version is on KXStudio’s repo.

29a · May 23, 2012, 8:32pm

kxstudio on ubuntu? What arch you are using, sometimes builds could work in i686 bout not in amd64

I managed to get carla working (i dont know what an idiot put working state on indicator, i was sure that when i clicked “add new plugin” searching was in progres, and by accident i figured out that i need to click “refresh”…)

All plugins seems to be working very well, but it looks that there is a problem with “saving” in carla, when i choose to save carla project it saves without any extension, and after restart, when i try to load out previous settings i cannot find file. I dont know what is carla default extension. When i tried to save ladish studio, it only saved patches through sinks.
If only i could get festige working same way…

I hope when carla and cadance will get stable version other distribution will put it repos .

sebbs · May 23, 2012, 10:34pm

im using: ii carla 1:0.2.0~alpha2+git2012010 JACK Audio Utilities (Host)
its not the same thing though… because you cannot move things in the dsp chain like you would be able to if you had lv2 integration.
the end result is very different.

29a · May 24, 2012, 8:02am

i agree that its not the same, but after you have whole song set up you usualy dont move things in chain . So for now workround is good, but im looking forward for native support for lv2 (also for jack midi).

rvega · May 24, 2012, 3:08pm

@29a: +1 This is a workaround with limitations and not a replacement for “proper” lv2 support.
BTW: I mentioned claudia and not carla.

Jenoki · May 25, 2012, 11:14pm

Quote from nilg` on #renoise IRC channel:

29a · May 26, 2012, 9:51am

heh, i should make the same statement , but its to late