Old 05-03-2021, 10:33 AM   #1
pax-eterna
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Default SOLVED:Yabridge or LinVST?

Been reading lots about Yabridge and I was wondering how easy it would be to swap Lvst for it?

And, indeed, is there any benefit?

If I set up VST's with Lvst would installing Yabridge "break" these, or is it simply a case of re-setting them to use Yabridge instead?

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Old 05-03-2021, 10:52 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by pax-eterna View Post
Been reading lots about Yabridge and I was wondering how easy it would be to swap Lvst for it?

And, indeed, is there any benefit?

If I set up VST's with Lvst would installing Yabridge "break" these, or is it simply a case of re-setting them to use Yabridge instead?
I had the same reservations. What I did was to clone my Windows VST folder which adds up to a little over half a gig, so I'd have a copy of the LinVST converted files.

Then I put Yabridge in the .local/share folder, set the paths to my Windows VSTs, and ran the sync/convert function.

That left me with a total Yabridge converted and total LinVST converted folder, so I then renamed each of them to have the names, VSTPluginsYabridge and VSTPluginsLinVST.

At that point I tried copying each of those to the correct name, VSTPlugins and was able to swap back and forth between LinVST and Yabridge, just by copying whichever folder to the correct named folder.

Note: If you do this, each time you switch from one to the other, REAPER will do a full scan and all the Windows plugins will show up as new again.

As for the benefit question. Don't fix it if ain't broke. I had a couple plugins that had never converted with LinVST, was bored and so I tried the swap.
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Old 05-03-2021, 11:06 AM   #3
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Thanks Glennbo - yeah I might give that a try - at least with the folder (Linvst)copied, there is not much to lose really.

I'll do all the conversions first in LinVST, then I'll install Yabridge and see what's what.
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Old 05-03-2021, 12:06 PM   #4
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Thanks Glennbo - yeah I might give that a try - at least with the folder (Linvst)copied, there is not much to lose really.

I'll do all the conversions first in LinVST, then I'll install Yabridge and see what's what.
It could also be switched back and forth between the two bridges by just running their convert functions. Whichever one was run last will have created the .so files, and will call that bridge.

IOW, if you last ran Yabridge's convert function, then all the Windows plugins will call Yabridge to do their bridging. If it was LinVST's convert function that was run last, then the .so files created by it will call LinVST for bridging.

A question you posed earlier was what happens if you switch from one to the other. The answer is that they both create .so files with the same names as the .dll files they are bridging, so opening a REAPER project that was started with one bridge, will still open normally if you switch to the other bridge.
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Old 05-03-2021, 12:13 PM   #5
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It could also be switched back and forth between the two bridges by just running their convert functions. Whichever one was run last will have created the .so files, and will call that bridge.

IOW, if you last ran Yabridge's convert function, then all the Windows plugins will call Yabridge to do their bridging. If it was LinVST's convert function that was run last, then the .so files created by it will call LinVST for bridging.

A question you posed earlier was what happens if you switch from one to the other. The answer is that they both create .so files with the same names as the .dll files they are bridging, so opening a REAPER project that was started with one bridge, will still open normally if you switch to the other bridge.
Nice! that's pretty cool really....and good for me, NO thinking
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Old 05-03-2021, 01:26 PM   #6
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I may be a bit biased (), but I started work on yabridge a year ago in an attempt to make the Wine plugin bridging experience even better. I've spent thousands of hours over the last year and a bit to make this happen, and I'm very pleased with the results. The main goal of the project has been to get the bridging experience as close to using native plugins as possible, both in terms of feature support (yabridge supports every VST 2.4 feature in use and all VST 3.7.2 features) and the whole experience of using and interacting with the plugins. Yabridge's modern concurrent architecture should allow for the best possible plugin compatibility without skipping or translating any plugin function calls. Currently yabridge is also the only way to use Windows VST3 plugins on Linux with full functionality as if they were VST3 plugins. I released a major update today which drastically reduces the overhead of bridging VST2 plugins, alongside a lengthy list of other fixes and improvements (thanks a lot to everyone here who has helped me test things over the past week!).

If you end up giving yabridge a try and you run into something, then please let me know about it! I'm always looking to improve things even further.
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Old 05-03-2021, 01:37 PM   #7
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Cool! sounds good Robert? I am certainly going to try it out
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Old 05-04-2021, 03:25 PM   #8
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Things change so fast, that I made backups of my windows plugins folders
that don't have any .so files in them. It's faster to rename (and later delete if desired) the plugin folders and copy over fresh ones, than to go thru a lot of folders one by one. I could probably do a wildcard-recursive-rm command line, but it's like *playing with *fire.
Looking forward to trying the new YaBridge!
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Old 05-04-2021, 04:31 PM   #9
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That's a good tip, thanks!
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Old 05-05-2021, 10:37 AM   #10
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.....If you end up giving yabridge a try and you run into something, then please let me know about it! I'm always looking to improve things even further.
Ok, downloaded the 18.04 tar extracted to the recommended folder all the files are there, .so and others....

So in simple terms for a noob, how do I get it to wrap my VST2 and or 3 in Reaper?

Can I just run reaper and then search and load the VST?

Definitely need some help here
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Old 05-05-2021, 10:59 AM   #11
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I don't know what you mean by 18.04 tar.

Anyway, just follow these instructions. It's easy.

https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabri...up-recommended
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:01 AM   #12
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Ok, downloaded the 18.04 tar extracted to the recommended folder all the files are there, .so and others....

So in simple terms for a noob, how do I get it to wrap my VST2 and or 3 in Reaper?

Can I just run reaper and then search and load the VST?

Definitely need some help here
First of all, is your OS at version 18.04? Reason I ask is that version is strictly for folks who have not yet gone to 20.04 with their OS.

Second, you need to tell Yabridge where your Windows plugins live with a command like this,

~/.local/share/yabridge/yabridgectl add "/home/glennbo/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/VSTPlugins/"

You'll need to do the command above for each your VST2 and VST3 folders.


Once you have told Yabridge where your plugins live, you need to run the sync function with this command, which will generate the .so files.

~/.local/share/yabridge/yabridgectl sync
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:04 AM   #13
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yep, already looked at that and no not so easy - might be for experienced linux users James...but i am having trouble getting my head around it all...

For example I went to the yabridge directory in terminal then ran the ./ command and all I go t was text advising to use the --help? From what I read at that link (previously, as in I've already been looking there) it was as simple as doing that as the yabrbridgectl is supposed to be esy to use to set it all up?

See, I am not getting this at all
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:06 AM   #14
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First of all, is your OS at version 18.04? Reason I ask is that version is strictly for folks who have not yet gone to 20.04 with their OS.

Second, you need to tell Yabridge where your Windows plugins live with a command like this,

~/.local/share/yabridge/yabridgectl add "/home/glennbo/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/VSTPlugins/"

You'll need to do the command above for each your VST2 and VST3 folders.


Once you have told Yabridge where your plugins live, you need to run the sync function with this command, which will generate the .so files.

~/.local/share/yabridge/yabridgectl sync
Thanks Glenn - I'll have a go at that...It's really only two...In took your earlier advice and outside these two must-haves I am going to use either reapers provided VST's or strictly Linux native ones!

PS: Yes definitely 18.04
PPS: haha, just one - I forgot Pianoteq is native lv2

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Old 05-05-2021, 11:23 AM   #15
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ok, when adding the VST folder I get this:

~/.local/share/yabridge$ ./yabridgectl add /home/denzoid/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3
error: Found argument 'Files/Common' which wasn't expected, or isn't valid in this context

If you tried to supply `Files/Common` as a PATTERN use `-- Files/Common`

USAGE:
yabridgectl add <path>

For more information try --help
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:29 AM   #16
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Thanks Glenn - I'll have a go at that...It's really only two...In took your earlier advice and outside these two must-haves I am going to use either reapers provided VST's or strictly Linux native ones!

PS: Yes definitely 18.04
PPS: haha, just one - I forgot Pianoteq is native lv2
I'll use native Linux plugins every time I can. It's going to be more efficient, running fewer processes, Etc.

There are just not enough high quality virtual instrument plugins for native Linux yet, so bridging Windows plugins is still needed to get over that hill.
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:33 AM   #17
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I'll use native Linux plugins every time I can. It's going to be more efficient, running fewer processes, Etc.

There are just not enough high quality virtual instrument plugins for native Linux yet, so bridging Windows plugins is still needed to get over that hill.
Yeah which is why Sampletank 4 is a must! But I am happy to run with other more synthy lv2s in linux as well as the processors and effects...if I find them lacking I can always install the windows ones.
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:34 AM   #18
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yep, already looked at that and no not so easy - might be for experienced linux users James...
Well I'm not so experienced. But a general understanding of how to run commands in Terminal is something you'll need to learn or you'll get easily confused. If you've never used any kind of Terminal, DOS prompt, etc. before, then I guess this seems difficult.

All you're doing is running 2 commands in Terminal. You need to have launched Terminal from the right directory, where Yabridge is. Either that or you need to provide an absolute path to Yabridge as part of the command (so that Terminal knows you mean to execute Yabridge's executable file which is in the specific directory you're telling it).

As for your error about "common files": if your path has spaces in it, and that's part of a command you're entering in Termainal, then Terminal won't understand what those spaces mean by default. It assumes after you leave a space, you're telling Terminal "and then do this" with some option to a command (it won't assume anything after the space has anything to do with a directory name). However, you can deal with that by using back slashes in your path info that you type in Terminal as part of that command:

/home/denzoid/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Common\ Files/VST3

Or you can just use quotation marks:

"/home/denzoid/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3"

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Old 05-05-2021, 11:35 AM   #19
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and further to the above ERROR post, I am using exactly the same command line that Robbert suggests - which is where the VST 3 is...so I am at a total loss here, no idea
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:36 AM   #20
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Well I'm not so experienced. But a general understanding of how to run commands in Terminal is something you'll need to learn or you'll get easily confused. If you've never used any kind of Terminal, DOS prompt, etc. before, then I guess this seems difficult.

All you're doing is running 2 commands in Terminal. You need to have launched Terminal from the right directory, where Yabridge is. Either that or you need to provide an absolute path to Yabridge as part of the command (so that Terminal knows you mean to execute Yabridge's executable file which is in the specific directory you're telling it).
Thanks James, yeah I have the terminal basics down...I did forget the ./ though before the yabridgectl .....still come up with that ERROR I noted above....

EDIT: Ran it using the backslashes in the command line you posted and it did something haha!

So I ran the yabridgectl sync command and got this:
etting up VST2 and VST3 plugins using:
- /home/denzoid/.local/share/yabridge/libyabridge-vst2.so
- /home/denzoid/.local/share/yabridge/libyabridge-vst3.so

Finished setting up 1 plugins using copies (0 new), skipped 0 non-plugin .dll files

So I am guessing it's good to go? Anything specifically I need to do in Reaper?

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Old 05-05-2021, 11:45 AM   #21
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Just tell Reaper the path to those .so files, as you would with any Linux VST path that you have to enter in Reaper. Chances are it's not part of Reaper's VST plugin path preferences already.

Also it's worth setting up VST2 plugin groups if you plan to run lots of Windows VST2 plugins. It'll save CPU and make the loading more responsive. That involves creating a .toml file as per the example mentioned in the Yabridge documentation, and putting it in the directory with the Windows VST2 plugins. I just made a blank text file named yabridge.toml and put the following text inside it:

group = "all"

That's probably the best thing you can do. The way Reaper runs, this option is probably all you need to do. You can separate plugins into different groups for the sake of Yabridge/Wine, but it shouldn't make a difference in Reaper anyway.

Once that toml file is there, Yabridge recognizes it as soon as it loads again (no need to run "sync" again for the sake of anything you do with that file).

Speaking of running sync: you'll need to do that any time you add more Windows VST plugins to your directories, and/or remove them. There's a "prune" option to remove leftover .so files from the VST2 and VST3 directories. The command would then be:

yabridgectl sync --prune

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Old 05-05-2021, 11:47 AM   #22
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Thanks James, just ran Reaper and it picked it up automatically

Question, is it correct that when creating a new VST instrument track, it shows as FX in the little box? And further when I open it it has this rather large side bar on the left? That is empty btw.
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Old 05-05-2021, 11:51 AM   #23
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I don't know what you mean. When I load a Windows VST plugin in Reaper for Linux (courtesy of yabridge and wine), it looks and works as though it's a normal Linux VST plugin. This includes VSTi.
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Old 05-05-2021, 12:08 PM   #24
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I don't know what you mean. When I load a Windows VST plugin in Reaper for Linux (courtesy of yabridge and wine), it looks and works as though it's a normal Linux VST plugin.
Screenshot attached.
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File Type: png Screenshot from 2021-05-06 04.58.42.png (40.7 KB, 92 views)
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Old 05-05-2021, 12:49 PM   #25
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I don't understand what's wrong. It loaded the instrument and shows as a VSTi, right? (The text is very small and hard to read.)

I wouldn't know what that plugin's GUI is supposed to look like, anyway.
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Old 05-05-2021, 12:54 PM   #26
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Screenshot attached.
You are seeing the FX container for all the FX on that track. If you added an EQ after SampleTank, it would have a text line on the left, and whichever one was last clicked would show it's interface in the right window.

To float the plugin you can double click the text on the left and it will pop it out of the container. You can also set REAPER to show FX in the mixer where you can just click the plugin, and it pops up floating.

You can see the plugins I have on this track, which has Guitar Rig, ReaEQ, ReaVerb, Presswerk, and X42 Limiter. I clicked the top one "Guitar Rig" and it popped up like this.

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Old 05-05-2021, 01:00 PM   #27
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I don't understand what's wrong. It loaded the instrument and shows as a VSTi, right? (The text is very small and hard to read.)

I wouldn't know what that plugin's GUI is supposed to look like, anyway.
James it's the side bar on the left? never seen it in windows/sonar it (the vst) runs fine....I'll try and closely study Glennbo's pic.

PS: sorry about the size, The attachment ,manager wouldn't allow any bigger than 64kB??
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Old 05-05-2021, 01:01 PM   #28
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You are seeing the FX container for all the FX on that track. If you added an EQ after SampleTank, it would have a text line on the left, and whichever one was last clicked would show it's interface in the right window.

To float the plugin you can double click the text on the left and it will pop it out of the container. You can also set REAPER to show FX in the mixer where you can just click the plugin, and it pops up floating.

You can see the plugins I have on this track, which has Guitar Rig, ReaEQ, ReaVerb, Presswerk, and X42 Limiter. I clicked the top one "Guitar Rig" and it popped up like this.
Ahhh, the penny has dropped - thanks yep I get that!
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Old 05-05-2021, 01:01 PM   #29
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I think I'll mark this thread as solved.
And many thanks to Robbert for creating Yabridge in the first place - good job! It's great to be able to easily use VST3 files

Thanks guys!!
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Old 05-05-2021, 01:17 PM   #30
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I think I'll mark this thread as solved.
And many thanks to Robbert for creating Yabridge in the first place - good job! It's great to be able to easily use VST3 files

Thanks guys!!
Glad to hear you got it working! Now you just need to rerun `yabridgectl sync` when you install a new plugin or after you update yabridge. And thanks a lot @JamesPeters and @Glennbo for helping out with this, I was busy playing Valheim so I didn't notice the post in time.
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Old 05-05-2021, 01:22 PM   #31
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Ahhh, the penny has dropped - thanks yep I get that!
So...you were just confused at the appearance of Reaper's FX browser window? Have you never used Reaper before? You registered here in 2018 and I see you have posts about using effects in Reaper from around that time.
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Old 05-05-2021, 01:34 PM   #32
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nah never really used them much tbh in the past...first registered when Sonar was going kaput IIRC and was looking at converting to, so "dabbled" a little bit, but then Bandlab took em over and I stayed with Sonar.

That view (as in VST view) I did not really recall seeing when I ran a couple of VSTs early on...and tbh didn't pay a lot of attention anyway as I was more just "tyre-kicking"

That VSTi's are listed as FX was something I did NOT notice ever until just now haha!

PS: and tbh, 2018 is way WAY too many sleeps ago!!!
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Old 05-05-2021, 02:31 PM   #33
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A VSTi is an effect, so why not list it as such. You'll notice it still says "VSTi:" though. And you'll find them categorized in Reaper's FX browser as VSTi specifically (or VST3i).

Unlike other DAWs it isn't important to distinguish it that much from other effects. You can have a VSTi and other effects on the same track, including VST and JS effects which control MIDI (as well as processing audio).

One example of a plugin chain you can do in Reaper:

1) A JS plugin that re-maps the velocity of incoming MIDI data (from the track or your controller), to make velocity different strength.

2) VST drum instrument.

3) A compressor for the audio output of the VST drum instrument.
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Old 05-05-2021, 04:15 PM   #34
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Cool, thanks
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