3 title: Using Windows VST Plugins on Linux
7 Thanks to the combined work of Torben Hohn, Kjetil Mattheusen, Paul
8 Davis and a few other developers, it is possible to use Windows
9 <dfn><abbr title="Virtual Studio Technology">VST</abbr>
10 plugins</dfn> (that is, plugins in VST format built and distributed
11 for the Windows platforms) on Ardour running on Linux. (Note: there
12 is no VST support of any kind on OS X).
15 <p>However, doing so has three <em>substantial</em> downsides:</p>
18 <li>It requires a special build of Ardour that is fundamentally
19 very different from normal builds</li>
20 <li>Support depends on <a href="http://winehq.org/">Wine</a>,
21 a Windows "emulator"</li>
22 <li>As usual with plugins, a crashing plugin will take Ardour down
23 with it—and crashes in Windows VST plugins are more likely when
28 The dependence on Wine makes it almost impossible for the Ardour
29 project to support this feature. Wine's functionality generally
30 improves over time, but any given release of Wine may behave worse
31 with some or all Windows VST plugins. It may even just crash Ardour
36 Step back and think about what "using Windows VSTs" really means:
37 taking bits of software written with only one idea in mind—running
38 on the Windows platform—and then trying to use them on an entirely
39 different platform. It is a bit of a miracle (largely thanks to the
40 incredible work done by the Wine project) that it works at all. But is
41 this the basis of a stable, reliable DAW for a non-Windows platform?
42 Getting Ardour on Linux to pretend that its really a Windows
43 application running on Windows?
47 We understand that there are many outstanding plugins available as
48 Windows VSTs and that in many cases, no equivalent is available for
49 Ardour's Linux-based users. If your workflow is so dependent on those
50 plugins, then remain on Windows (or potentially consider using an
51 actual Windows VST host running inside of Wine). If you can make the
52 effort, you will get a better environment by using a normal build of
53 Ardour and exploring the world of plugins built to run on Linux
54 natively. This covers LADSPA, LV2 and Linux VST formats, and even some
55 outstanding proprietary plugins such as those
56 from <a href="http://www.loomer.co.uk/">Loomer</a>.
59 <h2>A Plea To Plugin Manufacturers</h2>
62 Please consider porting your plugins so that users can enjoy them on
63 Linux too. Several other commercial plugin developers have already
64 done this. You can choose between using "Linux VST" (which is what
65 Loomer and others have done)—you will find toolkits like JUCE that
66 help to make this fairly easy—or using LV2 format which is
67 ultimately more flexible but probably more work. We have users—thousands of users—on Linux who would like to use your plugins.