Ardour Linux Vst Plugins

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My goal was to run VST plug-ins on Linux, but I soon discovered there are issues related to making that happen. After brief research, I decided building Ardour with VST support appeared to be the best option. What follows are the steps I took for building Ardour on Ubuntu 8.10.

The Plugin Manager window. Plugin Display Status. Click on a Fav(orite) or Hide radio button to change a plugin's display status. Clicking on an already selected radio button will cancel it, returning the plugin to the normal display status. Plugins marked as a favorite show up in the Processor Box context menu under New Plugin Favorites. VST Plugin Support. VST plugins (native Windows VST plugins on Windows, Linux VST plugins on Linux) are no longer automatically scanned at first application startup (this avoids plugins causing crashes when using Ardour for the first time on systems with misbehaving plugins already installed). Hey there, I have recently been developing a VST plugin with JUCE and have come across an issue that I haven’t been able to find a solution to. Before the weekend I had Ardour and the plugin working fine, since then I have attempted to stabilise my audio subsystem and in the process uninstalled and reinstalled Ardour (not sure what the previous version was, sorry). Since the update Ardour.

Excellent directions are available on the Ardour site for building the application with specific options, including VST support.

Ardour linux vst plugins download

Ardour instructions are available here:

Following the directions on the Ardour site for building the application with VST support on Linux, here are the specific steps I needed to complete for Ubuntu 8.10. The package and library names listed below are for Ubuntu 8.10.

Building Ardour with VST support on Ubuntu 8.10 – The experience, packages and libraries.

All packages and libraries below were installed using the versions available through the synaptic package manager.

Packages:

  • gcc/g++ 3.x or above
  • scons 0.96 or above
  • python (2.3.4 or above)
  • gettext 0.12.1 or above
  • pkg-config 0.20 or above
  • libtool

Using synaptic package manager, I searched for each of these packages to see if they were already installed or mark for install. From the list above, I only needed to install scons, gettext and libtool.

Libraries:

  • libjack0
  • libjack-dev
  • libxml2
  • libxml2-dev
  • libxslt1.1
  • libxslt1-dev
  • libart-2.0-2
  • libart-2.0-dev
  • libsamplerate0
  • libsamplerate0-dev
  • libraptor1
  • libraptor1-dev
  • liblrdf0
  • liblrdf0-dev
  • libasound2
  • libasound2-dev

In general, I only needed to install the -dev package for each of the libraries above.

I chose to build version 2.8 of Ardour, as that is the stable release at this time, and my goal is to run vst plug-ins on Linux. The following are required for Ardour 2.x, and the specific version I needed for Ubuntu 8.10 are listed here.

  • libglib2.0-0
  • libglib2.0-dev
  • libgtk2.0-0
  • libgtk2.0-dev
  • libgnomecanvas2-0
  • libgnomecanvas2-dev
  • liblo0ldbl
  • liblo0-dev
  • libboost-dev
  • libfftw3-3
  • libfftw3-dev
  • libaubio2
  • libaubio-dev

Following directions for building with VST support, wine packages are also needed

  • wine
  • wine-dev

The Ardour Source code is available on the download page at Ardour:

Once the source code was downloaded, I created an “ardourvst” directory in my home directory, and extracted the source code file in that location.

There are many options, listed in the Ardour tutorial. I chose to select Freesound support along with VST by running the following command line in the main directory of the Ardour source code.

scons VST=1 FREESOUND=1

The build ran for more than 30 minutes, once complete, the last line of output was:

  • scons: done building targets.

Next, I ran the install with root access using the command:

sudo scons install

The result again was:

  • scons: done building targets.

This version of Ardour can be run with the command:

ardourvst

Since I have not set any vst related environment variables, Ardour will search for vst plug-ins in the /usr/lib/vst or /usr/local/lib/vst directories which will need to be created or linked to if they don’t already exist.

I prefer to create a link from my home folder so I can load VST plug-ins to my home folder. You can do this by running the following command and replacing the first path with your preferred path.

sudo ln -s /home/yourpath/vst /usr/lib/

Or alternatively you can just create the directory

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/vst

I next closed Ardour, downloaded a VST plug-in, dBlue Glitch, and extracted the file to my VST directory where Ardour will look for it.

Free timestretch vst. Launching Ardour again, the plug-in was available as shown below. So far so good, the VST plug-in is working!

My next post will cover the use of dBlue in Ardour.

Comments or suggestions are welcome.

Plugins can be used to enhance or transform the sound of individualTracks.

They can be applied directly to a single track, or to a group of Tracks using a Send. Later inthis tutorial, we will discuss some Plugins specific to the Mixingprocess, such as Compressors, Limiters, ParametricEqualizers, Reverbs and others.

Processor Box

In Ardour terminology, a Processor is anything which gets pluggedinto a Mixer Strip, and treats the signal in some way. Ardour providesseveral built-in processors such as the Fader or Panners. Processors canalso be plugins used for effects or as instruments, as well as sends orinserts which affect signal routing. The arrangement of processors isarbitrary, and there is no limit to how many there can be.

The main space shown in the screenshot above is the Processor Box.The blue box Fader is in fact a Processor that comes by defaultinside the Processor Box. It represents the Fader that you use tocontrol the Track’s volume. All Processors are shown as coloredrectangles, with a small “LED” beside them that lights up when theprocessor is enabled. The colour of the processor depends on itslocation in the sequence; processors that are pre-fader are colored inred, and post-fader processors are colored green.

Adding a Plugin to a Track or a Bus

Plugins can be added by right-clicking in the Processor Box of the Trackor Bus. A menu of options is presented. From the menu, new processorscan be inserted.

The Plugin Manager is a convenient way to browse and choose plugins:

From the Plugin Manager, you can search them by Name, Type, or othersearch parameters available from the drop-down menu. For example, wewill add the reverb plugin called “Freeverb”:

Once selected, click “Add” and the plugin will show up in the bottomlist of “Plugins to be connected”. Then click “Insert Plugin(s)” andthey will show up in the Processor Box.

Ardour Linux Vst Plugins Download

Linux

Editing Plugin Parameters

Double-click a Plugin to edit its parameters. In this example, we doubleclick the “Freeverb” green box and get this window:

Here you can control reverb parameters such as Room Size, Damping,amount of Wet and Dry signal, and Width. The effect will apply to allsounds contained in the Track.

Bypassing Plugins

To bypass the Plugin, press the Bypass button in the Plugin settingswindow, or simply click the “LED” of the plugin in the Processor Box.This turns the Plugin off and allows the signal to pass by itunaffected. This is useful when you want to compare how a track soundswith and without the plugin.

Bypassed Plugins are shown greyed out and with the “LED” turned off.

Right-Clicking the Plugins will give a menu with several options,including Delete.

And for some of them, we’ll also show you some of the awesome soundbanks created by our artists for them, to get you inspired.Finally, all of these synths are available both as VST & AU plugins for Windows & Mac OS X systems.Are you ready? Let’s dive into our list of the top 14 best VST synths available for dance music production!If you are interested, you can also check out our.SpireArguably one of the most-used VST synths in recent years. Free vst synth for edm music.

Pre-Fader vs Post-Fader

You have a choice whether you would like to add your Plugin before orafter the Fader rectangle in the Processor Box. Pre-Fader Pluginsare inserted in the signal path before the Fader, so that the Fadercontrols the level of the signal coming out of the Plugin. Post-FaderPlugins are inserted after the Fader: the Fader controls the level ofthe signal going into the Plugin. For some Plugins, Pre- or Post-faderplacement does not matter. For others, the difference is subtle. Forothers still, inserting them in the right place is absolutely essential (for more details, see for example this thread at the Ardour discussion forum).

Plugin Formats

For those interested in learning more about plugin formats, here’s a quick overview:

LADSPA Plugins are the “native” Plugin format for Ardour. They wereinitially developed for Linux, but since have been ported to OS X aswell.

LV2 is a simple but extensible successor of LADSPA, which can beused to display sound characteristics in a graphical manner. LV2 Pluginscan be used on OS X and Linux.

AU Plugins are the “native” Plugin format for OS X. They will onlywork in Ardour if you have made a donation when you downloaded theprogram. See the Installing OS X chapter for details. AU Pluginswill not work on Linux at all.

VST Plugins is a Plugin format common to Microsoft Windows. SomeVST Plugins can be used on Linux, however they may not functioncorrectly, or even cause Ardour to crash. Using these Plugins requiresmanually Compiling the Ardour application, a task which is outsidethe scope of this manual.

Using Vst Plugins

More information about using plugins with Ardour can be found here:http://manual.ardour.org/working-with-plugins/

Free Vst Plugins Download

Continuing

In this chapter, we learned how to add a Plugin to a single Track. Thisis useful if that Track needs a specific Plugin, but if you have aPlugin which is used for many Tracks at the same time, you shouldcontinue to the next chapter about Using Sends. You can alsocontinue to the various, Plugin-specific chapters such as Dynamicsand Equalizing.

New Free Vst Plugins

Next: USING SENDS