julien wrote:... the availability of renoise was part of the decision process, as it showed that you were able to distribute a common binary for all Linux distributions...
Dave Phillips here. I've written a few articles about Linux audio, including a review of Renoise. A list of my work can be found at this URL:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/user/800764/track
I agree completely about Renoise. In my opinion they discovered the Right Way to present commercial Linux audio software, and their product, like Pianoteq, worked beautifully out of the box on all my systems here at Studio Dave.
Btw, those systems include two versions of Ubuntu, one of Debian, and one of OpenSUSE. All are equipped with a realtime-enabled kernel and nVidia's proprietary graphics drivers. My production boxes use M-Audio Delta 66 interface hardware, the laptop is running an Edirol UA25.
.... there is the choice of the plugin format, which is still annoying me:
- native linux VST : as far as I know , it is only supported by closed-source hosts, such as renoise or energy-xt , because of the licensing problems of the vst sdk with gpl products. However this is for us the simplest format to support.
You missed the open-source JOST project, actually one of the best hosts for native Linux VSTs:
http://www.anticore.org/jucetice/?page_id=4
It's a great environment, also JUCE-based. Btw, I think going with the JUCE framework was an excellent decision by both the Renoise team and the Pianoteq crew.
- DSSI plugin : probably the most supported plugin format right now, but it is said everywhere that it is now deprecated and should be replaced by LV2.
I think you have confused DSSI with LADSPA. LADSPA is by far the more supported format, but it is definitely not for consideration by Pianoteq. It has no integral support for GUIs, but more importantly it is not a format for instruments. See LV2 for that evolution.
- LV2 : still not supported by many hosts, and not VST2-friendly as there is a strict separation between gui and dsp code that is enforced with the "ports" stuff as a communication channel. Would require a *lot* a work to adapt Juce for that.
Please allow me to encourage that work then. LV2 is the future of native Linux plugins. See the CALF plugin set by Krystof Foltzman for a good demonstration of LV2's potential:
http://calf.sourceforge.net/
Check the screenshots. I've been using these plugins with Ardour, I recommend them highly.
I would really like that we support only one plugin format on Linux, as testing and fixing bugs in each plugin flavor can be very time consuming and we have already a lot to do with vst, rtas, au on windows, macos, .. There are already so many combinations..
We're just trying to keep up with the Big Boys on the block.
I suggest deciding between native VST and LV2. You may want to contact JOST developer Lucio Asnaghi about his work converting VSTs to native Linux .so versions, he's been pretty successful with some ports.
HTH,
dp
Last edited by Dave Phillips (24-05-2009 14:24)