Old 12-10-2018, 08:03 PM   #1
jlmoriart
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Default Getting started with Carla

EDIT: Sorry I just noticed the sticky, and so would be happy to check out Linvst or Airwave if people think they will be easier to get working. If people do recommend Carla, though, I'd appreciate the troubleshooting help!

Hi all! I'm a relative newbie to Linux (though I'm picking it up as quickly as I can with my battle-hardened google-fu), and have been using Reaper casually for a couple years with a non-commercial license. Basically, what follows are some explicit questions given my impression of the Linux-Reaper situation, but I'd also appreciate any corrections of what may be blatant misunderstandings of that situation.

SO!

Seems like there are Linux-specific and Windows-specific versions of VST plugins, and Reaper on Linux only supports the Linux-VST format. When it comes to getting Windows-VST plugins working with Reaper, the limited research I've done has pointed me towards two tools: JACK and Carla. So question 1 is: Are those the two tools that most people are using to get the most out of Reaper on Linux using plugins that aren't yet officially supported?

Those tools seem to work in this way: I should be able to load un-supported plugins into Carla as a standalone plugin host, and then use JACK to route the audio/midi to/from Reaper in real time.

I followed the instructions in these videos to try and get myself up and running:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6LuvdDEqCA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS-gqcJgkoQ

But when it came time to load the plugin into Carla (I've tried Alchemy AE and Pianoteq), it gives me the error:

> Cannot add new plugins while the engine is stopped

Question 2 is: does anyone know what this means, or how to fix it? I thought maybe it was something having to do with JACK, but making sure JACK was selected as the audio device in Reaper and was selected as the OS's audio device didn't fix the issue. I also tried making sure qJackCtl was running with no change. (I'm probably finally showing how little I actually understand about what I'm doing.)

Opening Carla from the command line gives this output as I go through the process:

Carla 1.9.12 (2.0-RC2) started, status:
Python version: 3.6.7
Qt version: 5.9.5
PyQt version: 5.10.1
Binary dir: /usr/lib/carla
Resources dir: /usr/share/carla/resources
libjack.so.0 loaded sucessfully!

RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.


RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.


RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.


RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.

No device set, using 0 inputs and 0 outputs
lo server running on 16627
lo server running on 18131
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/carla-bridge-lv2.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_interposer-jack-x11.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_interposer-safe.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_interposer-x11.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_native-plugin.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_utils.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/jackbridge-wine32.dll
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/jackbridge-wine64.dll


System Info:
Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
23.6GiB of Memory
AMD® Fx(tm)-8320 eight-core processor × 8
GeForce GTX 950/PCIe/SSE2
Gnome 3.28.2
64-bit OS
2.0 TB Hard Drive

Thanks very much for any help, please do let me know if there's any more info I should be providing.

Last edited by jlmoriart; 12-10-2018 at 08:11 PM.
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Old 12-11-2018, 12:46 AM   #2
osxmidi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jlmoriart View Post
EDIT: Sorry I just noticed the sticky, and so would be happy to check out Linvst or Airwave if people think they will be easier to get working. If people do recommend Carla, though, I'd appreciate the troubleshooting help!

Hi all! I'm a relative newbie to Linux (though I'm picking it up as quickly as I can with my battle-hardened google-fu), and have been using Reaper casually for a couple years with a non-commercial license. Basically, what follows are some explicit questions given my impression of the Linux-Reaper situation, but I'd also appreciate any corrections of what may be blatant misunderstandings of that situation.

SO!

Seems like there are Linux-specific and Windows-specific versions of VST plugins, and Reaper on Linux only supports the Linux-VST format. When it comes to getting Windows-VST plugins working with Reaper, the limited research I've done has pointed me towards two tools: JACK and Carla. So question 1 is: Are those the two tools that most people are using to get the most out of Reaper on Linux using plugins that aren't yet officially supported?

Those tools seem to work in this way: I should be able to load un-supported plugins into Carla as a standalone plugin host, and then use JACK to route the audio/midi to/from Reaper in real time.

I followed the instructions in these videos to try and get myself up and running:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6LuvdDEqCA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS-gqcJgkoQ

But when it came time to load the plugin into Carla (I've tried Alchemy AE and Pianoteq), it gives me the error:

> Cannot add new plugins while the engine is stopped

Question 2 is: does anyone know what this means, or how to fix it? I thought maybe it was something having to do with JACK, but making sure JACK was selected as the audio device in Reaper and was selected as the OS's audio device didn't fix the issue. I also tried making sure qJackCtl was running with no change. (I'm probably finally showing how little I actually understand about what I'm doing.)

Opening Carla from the command line gives this output as I go through the process:

Carla 1.9.12 (2.0-RC2) started, status:
Python version: 3.6.7
Qt version: 5.9.5
PyQt version: 5.10.1
Binary dir: /usr/lib/carla
Resources dir: /usr/share/carla/resources
libjack.so.0 loaded sucessfully!

RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.


RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.


RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.


RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,0), Device or resource busy.

No device set, using 0 inputs and 0 outputs
lo server running on 16627
lo server running on 18131
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/carla-bridge-lv2.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_interposer-jack-x11.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_interposer-safe.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_interposer-x11.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_native-plugin.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/libcarla_utils.so
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/jackbridge-wine32.dll
carla-discovery::error::Not a VST plugin - /usr/lib/vst/carla.vst/jackbridge-wine64.dll


System Info:
Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
23.6GiB of Memory
AMD® Fx(tm)-8320 eight-core processor × 8
GeForce GTX 950/PCIe/SSE2
Gnome 3.28.2
64-bit OS
2.0 TB Hard Drive

Thanks very much for any help, please do let me know if there's any more info I should be providing.
There are 3 wrapper/bridges that can use Wine to load Windows vsts (VST2) that I'm aware of.

Carla, Airwave and LinVst.

Wine can make the running of some Windows based things on Linux a possibility.
Some things are not supported by Wine but a lot of things are, so it can be hit and miss somewhat.

Airwave and LinVst are just for Windows vsts whereas Carla has other features like being able to deal with Linux lv2 plugins and wrapping them as vsts so that Reaper can then load them as a Linux vst.

Airwave and LinVst (and Carla) wrap Windows vsts (VST2 .dll filenames) into Linux vsts (.so filenames) so that Reaper can (possibly) load them.

The Windows system functions are huge and Wine tries to adapt them to Linux, which is a huge task, so not everything works 100% but a lot of Windows vsts (that are made using Windows system functions) can run and possibly more can run by using a few tricks such as overriding dlls (using real Windows dlls with Wine) and some other setup tricks which I have tried to detail in the LinVst Readme at GitHub.

There are quite a few game players that can run certain Windows games on Linux using Wine and a few tricks and it's basically the same sort of deal for running Windows VSTs using Wine.

Last edited by osxmidi; 12-11-2018 at 12:52 AM.
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Old 12-11-2018, 05:18 AM   #3
Mcgiver69
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In all honesty I would look into installing the whole Carla-Catia environment. Catia will run Jack and connect everything automatically for you including Carla.
You can configure Catia to run on startup.

I don't know what distro you are running but if I would be you I'll give KX Studio a try, it comes with Catia as default manager (not jack) and connects everything for you and Carla runs very smoothly. I used it for a year and only changed it to AVLinux because my Tracktion Waveform 8 was not running and I needed to finish some collaboration projects using it.

Give it a try I bet you won't regret it.
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Old 12-11-2018, 07:31 AM   #4
jlmoriart
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Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 13
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by osxmidi View Post
Airwave and LinVst are just for Windows vsts whereas Carla has other features like being able to deal with Linux lv2 plugins and wrapping them as vsts so that Reaper can then load them as a Linux vst.

Airwave and LinVst (and Carla) wrap Windows vsts (VST2 .dll filenames) into Linux vsts (.so filenames) so that Reaper can (possibly) load them.
Thanks for the info, I still hadn't made the connection that .so was the Linux vst file extension xD

Can those wrappers/bridges actually generate new .so file versions of windows vst plugins for loading into Reaper? Or do you open the wrappers/bridges in Reaper as a plugin, and then open the vst's inside of them?
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Old 12-11-2018, 07:54 AM   #5
jlmoriart
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Join Date: Mar 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mcgiver69 View Post
In all honesty I would look into installing the whole Carla-Catia environment. Catia will run Jack and connect everything automatically for you including Carla.
You can configure Catia to run on startup.

I don't know what distro you are running but if I would be you I'll give KX Studio a try, it comes with Catia as default manager (not jack) and connects everything for you and Carla runs very smoothly. I used it for a year and only changed it to AVLinux because my Tracktion Waveform 8 was not running and I needed to finish some collaboration projects using it.

Give it a try I bet you won't regret it.
Thanks for the advice! I actually thought I'd downloaded everything that comes from KXStudio on this page:
http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Repositories
But I guess that that doesn't get you everything?

Either way, I went ahead and installed Carla and Catia from here:
http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Repos...s:Applications

I'll see if I can't figure out how to get them set up...
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Old 12-11-2018, 11:57 AM   #6
Jack Winter
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jlmoriart View Post
Thanks for the info, I still hadn't made the connection that .so was the Linux vst file extension xD

Can those wrappers/bridges actually generate new .so file versions of windows vst plugins for loading into Reaper? Or do you open the wrappers/bridges in Reaper as a plugin, and then open the vst's inside of them?
You can load carla as a linux vst in reaper, and then let it host windows plugins, even be an entire rack (fx chain).

With LinVst you install your windows plugins with wine into a wine prefix, basically a directory tree with a registry and the installed programs (defaults to ~/.wine). Then you copy a LinVst library, an .so file that is part of LinVst and rename it to the same as the windows vst .dll, so plugin.dll would have a corresponding file called plugin.so.

When reaper sees plugin.so it will be able to load it, when that happens plugin.so will start a vst host running under wine, that loads plugin.dll and sets up the necessary communication piping.

This all comes at a performance cost, but it's already mind blowing to consider that we are loading plugins for another OS into a program...
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Old 12-11-2018, 01:17 PM   #7
s wave
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Default Well said Jack

Nice info to say and explain something so simple and clearly. Who needs JACK when we have Jack.
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