[Title Changed] What are your essential Linux tools and plugins?

[audiojunkie]

I want to see if there is anything that I may be not aware of and missing. These are my essential "Open Source" native Linux tools and plugins (not listed in any particular order):

* Ardour
* LinuxSampler (with Qsampler and Gigedit)
* Odin 2
* Surge-XT
* Airwave plugins (GUI-less)
* Linux Studio Plugins
* Yoshimi
* AVL Drums
* Vital/Vitalium
* Cardinal
* Guitarix
* Guitarix plugins (LV2)
* MDA EPiano (GUI-less)
* MDA Plugins (GUI-less)
* Polyphone
* Kwave
* Hydrogen
* DrumGizmo
* Sfizz
* Dexed
* Helm
* OXBD

What would you add or remove, and why?

[Xasman]

I would add (off the top of my head):

* The Dragonfly reverbs (Hall, Room, Plate and Early Reflections)
* MDA JX10 synth (GUI-less)
* MDA DX10 synth (GUI-less)
* SetBfree ToneWheel Organ

I would probably remove Hydrogen (for myself), since it's standalone-only and not a plug-in.

[Mikobuntu]

* ZynAddSubFX .... tho you kind of have it covered with Yoshimi
* B.Music LV2 plugins
* Calf plugins

[Glennbo]

I record mostly audio with real drums, bass, guitars and vocals, plus I've bought U-he Presswerk, and just about every plugin that Overtone DSP sells, which makes my essential list of free plugins pretty short.

X42 Stereo Limiter
LSP Impulse Reverb
LinuxSampler
Guitarix LV2 Plugins
Sfizz

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Xasman

I would add (off the top of my head):

* The Dragonfly reverbs (Hall, Room, Plate and Early Reflections)
* MDA JX10 synth (GUI-less)
* MDA DX10 synth (GUI-less)
* SetBfree ToneWheel Organ

I would probably remove Hydrogen (for myself), since it's standalone-only and not a plug-in.

I wish the Dragonfly reverbs scaled up for high resolution screens. It's to hard to edit a postage stamp sized gui. But I hear that the sound is great!

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Mikobuntu

* ZynAddSubFX .... tho you kind of have it covered with Yoshimi
* B.Music LV2 plugins
* Calf plugins

ZynAddSubFX is definitely worth adding. My only reason for not including it personally was that it doesn't scale up for high resolution screens. Yoshimi does. That's my only reason I didn't personally add it.

Are the Calf plugins any good? They seem to be highly controversial. They look really nice, but I suspect they wouldn't scale up for high resolution screens, since they were made with GTK2.

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

I record mostly audio with real drums, bass, guitars and vocals, plus I've bought U-he Presswerk, and just about every plugin that Overtone DSP sells, which makes my essential list of free plugins pretty short.

X42 Stereo Limiter
LSP Impulse Reverb
LinuxSampler
Guitarix LV2 Plugins
Sfizz

The newest version of the LSP products have made them absolute essentials for me. Prior to the most recent versions, they didn't scale up and were too tiny to use. But now, they are absolutely beautiful--and there are so many to choose from!

Do the X42 plugins scale up yet? It's been a while since I've checked.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

Are the Calf plugins any good? They seem to be highly controversial. They look really nice, but I suspect they wouldn't scale up for high resolution screens, since they were made with GTK2.

Ardour specifically recommends against using them because they are buggy, and REAPER doesn't render a GUI for them, but you can make them produce a GUI if you use Carla as a host for them.

[audiojunkie]

I just thought of another one that may rate as an essential: Monique.

IIRC, it scales up too.

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Ardour specifically recommends against using them because they are buggy, and REAPER doesn't render a GUI for them, but you can make them produce a GUI if you use Carla as a host for them.

Ah, well..... It doesn't sound worth it to me. I hate having to go with hacks to get things working.

Another one might be AM Synth.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

The newest version of the LSP products have made them absolute essentials for me. Prior to the most recent versions, they didn't scale up and were too tiny to use. But now, they are absolutely beautiful--and there are so many to choose from!

The LSP Impulse Reverb knows how to do True Stereo with a quad impulse right out of the box. I've used it as my goto final stereo master reverb for years.

Do the X42 plugins scale up yet? It's been a while since I've checked.

Dunno the answer to that, but the X42 Stereo Limiter is IMO superior to other limiters. For one, it actually limits and does NO expansion if you lower the threshold, unlike some other "limiters".

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

The LSP Impulse Reverb knows how to do True Stereo with a quad impulse right out of the box. I've used it as my goto final stereo master reverb for years.



Dunno the answer to that, but the X42 Stereo Limiter is IMO superior to other limiters. For one, it actually limits and does NO expansion if you lower the threshold, unlike some other "limiters".

Aether Reverb (LV2) is really impressive as well!

[audiojunkie]

There are several that I've been interested in trying, but haven't had a chance yet. They 'may' be essentials, but I really don't know...

* Hypercyclic

* MixMaxTrix

* Martin Zuther's Squeezer

[Xasman]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

I wish the Dragonfly reverbs scaled up for high resolution screens. It's to hard to edit a postage stamp sized gui. But I hear that the sound is great!

It might be an idea to contact Michael Willis, the developer of Dragonfly, direct about it - he seems like a cool guy to me.

[Mcgiver69]

People always forget these:

- XChip plugins
- Dexed

These are very good and not mentioned enough.

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Mcgiver69

People always forget these:

- XChip plugins
- Dexed

These are very good and not mentioned enough.

Do you mean Xhip? I love Xhip's stuff, but it's closed source. I was saving that one for my next list: Essential Native Freeware audio software and plugins.

But, yes! Xhip synthesizer as well as the plugins are fantastic essentials.

[Mcgiver69]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

Do you mean Xhip? I love Xhip's stuff, but it's closed source. I was saving that one for my next list: Essential Native Freeware audio software and plugins.

But, yes! Xhip synthesizer as well as the plugins are fantastic essentials.

Yeah typing mistake. I use their limiter and compressor most of the time.

[DuX]

I use most of Togu Audio Line plugins, but TAL-Sampler, TAL-Drum and TAL-Mod the most. TAL-Filter II is incredible, too. You can use it with any synth. TAL-Reverb 4 is also OK.

u-he Diva, ACE, Zebra HZ, Zebra 2 [and ZebraCM, Zebrify <--- extremely good FX!], Uhbik effects [veery nice], Podolski, TyrellN6. All u-he stuff sounds incredible, even freeware.

Cardinal Modular VST plugin. VCV modular fork. Mamma mia! That thing can do just about anything.

Dexed. An incredible source of absolutely normal to absolutely crazy FM sounds. I've always loved FM a lot. You can do some pretty crazy stuff with FM. I wish I had a PM synth, too. [Casio VZ-1]

ZynSubFX 3.0.5 from KXStudio repo. This synth is so special sounding, especially for pads. Instant J.M.Jarre or Vangelis. Also experimental sounds, just awesome.

Audio Damage plugins [love Continua and Quanta], Surge XT, Dragonfly Reverbs, ElephantDSP Room Reverb [try that one, it is sooo nice].

MDA, GVST, Martin Zuther, LSP plugins. Usually Fircomp compressor for ITB compression, otherwise outboard DBX, Drawmer or TC Electronic. I do rely on hardware when it comes to compression, limiting or distortion. I have a good amount of Boss pedals, too.

I think this is the most of what I use as I have just wrote it off the top of my head and I had some wine. But I'm not using WINE.

Linux love and cheers everybody!

p.s. Lately I'm discovering I don't need Yabridge and any Windows plugins that I used to use, so I use only native Linux VST and LV2 plugins. I mean look at this list. What more does one need to make music? I also use hardware samplers and synths... so yeah, I don't miss anything.

[michael diemer]

LSP Reverb has been a Godsend for me. It's maybe the only native plugin I use, since I do orchestral music, and don't do much in the way of EQ and compression, which can easily make things worse. Reverb is always essential, however, and that tool is a gem, when combined with good impulses.

[fabio77]

I have a Moddart Pianoteq, and some TAL-Plugins that I never used (Chorus, Filter2, NoiseMaker, Reberb4, Vocoder). The Odin2 and swizz you have already mentioned.

And did someone mention the ElephantDSP RoomReverb? I like it.

Last but not least all the Rea- and JS-Plugins

[Xasman]

Wasn't this thread for listing only open source plugins?

Anyway, here are some more. I wouldn't call all of these essential to me (especially since I only recently discovered some of them - the latest VeeOne Instrument collection was very recently released), and I typically don't use very many synths but the following all seem worthy of mention for the purposes of this thread:

* Vex
* VeeOne Instruments: synthv1, samplv1, drumkv1, padthv1
* ADLplug (ADLMIDI)
* OPLplug (OPLMIDI)

[PMan]

Well, neither open source or free, but DiscoDSP Bliss sampler, and Discovery Pro synth.
https://www.discodsp.com/news/

Bliss, Sfizz & LinuxSampler really cover my traditional sampler needs. I just can't bring myself to buy non-native plugs, not even Kontakt.

Discovery Pro has some quirks as far as how the modulation is routed, but that thing sounds great! I use it for basses, rhodes-ish keys, synths, and weird FX.

Also ($$ closed source), Bom Shanka AArdvarkPhaser! I love that thing! You can choose to modulate the phase shift manually. I don't use it often, but when I need it... I have not found any other Linux native phasers that do this (although Airwindows xnotch comes close). I like to control it from the envelope of the sound. Like an envelope follower, but *very* different.

As far as FOSS/freeware, I use the dRowAudio Flanger on crash cymbals. Really low settings give a subtle sheen and movement... The dRow collection is in the KX Studios repo:
https://kx.studio/Repositories:Plugins

Lately I've been checking out the bk plugins (download links near the bottom of the first post):
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=369138

I'm impressed with the reverb in that collection.

Lots of great plugins listed in this thread!

[fabio77]

Originally Posted by Xasman

Wasn't this thread for listing only open source plugins?

Oh, I only read native

[audiojunkie]

No worries! I figure this thread can be a beneficial resource for everyone Let’s open things all the way up:

Name your essential apps, be they open source, closed source, native Linux or Windows on WINE. The only thing I ask is to state if a particular essential app is a Windows app (which uses WINE).

I figure we’ve covered the “open source” native essentials, and I’m interested in what else everyone uses. Maybe I’ll find some cool new apps. I don’t currently use WINE yet, so your favorites there will be interesting.

Here of some non-open source essentials:

Xhip (and the Xhip effects)
Nil’s K1V
Sitala
TAL-Noizmaker
Decent sampler
DSP56K Emulator (Open source emulator that uses the actual virus ROM to give you a true Virus synth)

[fabio77]

Oh, then

All Windows-Apps under wine:

Effects:
fabfilter pro q3
smart:eq
smart:comp
smart:limit
smart:reverb
ValhallaSupermassive (Reverb)
Crystalline (Reverb)
Youlean (Loudness-Meter)
TDR Nova (EQ)
TDR Koletnikov (Comp)
TDR Molotok (Comp)
Vox Span (Analyzer)
Vox TubeAmp
Klanghelm DC1A3
Klanghelm IVGI2
Klanghelm MJUCjr

Instruments:
Addictive Keys
Ample Bass
Ample Guitar
MT-PowerDrumkit
Free Kontakt(NI)
SINE Player
sforzando (Sampler)
Numa Player
DecentSampler

Native Linux:

Effects:
ElephantDSP (RoomReverb)
TAL Reverb
TAL Chorus
TAL Filter (Panning etc.)
TAL Vocoder

Instruments:
Pianoteq 7
sfizz (Sampler)
Odin2 (Synth)
TAL NoiseMaker (Synth)

I already deleted the Decent Sampler because sfizz is better for me.

[marwatt]

Originally Posted by fabio77

Oh, then

All Windows-Apps under wine:

Effects:
fabfilter pro q3
...

any issue with that? Thank you

[fabio77]

Originally Posted by marwatt

any issue with that? Thank you

No issue. But I used it only on one project yet.

I'm on Ubuntu 20.04.

[DuX]

I forgot to mention DSP56K - Virus Emulator. That one is one of my staples. I looove it so much! I actually dedicated a computer [older Lenovo lappy] just to run that bcs it uses quite a bit of CPU. It goes over ReaStream into my main computer. Reaper all the way, eh? I consider Reaper a kind of audio system bcs you can do everything with it.

So I'm not using WINE, but I stream a Windows laptop with some Windows plugins I like into my main Linux one. That's a really great option since you can find older laptops or computers [10yo] for peanuts and they still work great!

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by DuX

I forgot to mention DSP56K - Virus Emulator. That one is one of my staples. I looove it so much! I actually dedicated a computer [older Lenovo lappy] just to run that bcs it uses quite a bit of CPU. It goes over ReaStream into my main computer. Reaper all the way, eh? I consider Reaper a kind of audio system bcs you can do everything with it.

So I'm not using WINE, but I stream a Windows laptop with some Windows plugins I like into my main Linux one. That's a really great option since you can find older laptops or computers [10yo] for peanuts and they still work great!

Great ideas! Distributed computing always helps with resource usages

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

I wish the Dragonfly reverbs scaled up for high resolution screens. It's to hard to edit a postage stamp sized gui. But I hear that the sound is great!

Incidentally, I was able to reach the developer, and he's already working on high resolution support for the Dragonfly Reverb series!

[Xasman]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

Incidentally, I was able to reach the developer, and he's already working on high resolution support for the Dragonfly Reverb series!

Ah, I'm glad to hear that. I love the Dragonfly reverbs!

[Tenaba]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

The newest version of the LSP products have made them absolute essentials for me. Prior to the most recent versions, they didn't scale up and were too tiny to use. But now, they are absolutely beautiful--and there are so many to choose from!

Do the X42 plugins scale up yet? It's been a while since I've checked.

For the graphical x42 plugins, you can right click to open a GUI scaling menu. It scales from 100% to 200%.

Most of the plugins I used were already mentioned in this thread. But I'd also suggest tamgamp (made by the LSP plugins creator) as another guitar ampsim.

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Tenaba

For the graphical x42 plugins, you can right click to open a GUI scaling menu. It scales from 100% to 200%.

Most of the plugins I used were already mentioned in this thread. But I'd also suggest tamgamp (made by the LSP plugins creator) as another guitar ampsim.

Interesting! Just right-click anywhere on the interface and it brings up the options? I'll have to try that out.

Incidentally, Xhip synth has a similar undocumented trick. Right-click on the Xhip name, and you can change scale and colors.

[Tenaba]

Originally Posted by audiojunkie

Interesting! Just right-click anywhere on the interface and it brings up the options? I'll have to try that out.

Incidentally, Xhip synth has a similar undocumented trick. Right-click on the Xhip name, and you can change scale and colors.

That's right, you should be able to right click in most areas with a few exceptions. Right clicking over a control resets it to it's default value. Double-right-clicking over it toggles between the default and whatever it was set to before. Also in the EQ plugin, right clicking over the colored circle representing one EQ band temporarily mutes everything except for that band.

There's probably a few more that I haven't found. But theres a lot of cool parts to the x42 plugins.

The Xhip trick sounds nice too! I'd like to try it out, but I recently started using Vitalium, and I like it enough that I want to use it for basically everything.

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by Tenaba

That's right, you should be able to right click in most areas with a few exceptions. Right clicking over a control resets it to it's default value. Double-right-clicking over it toggles between the default and whatever it was set to before. Also in the EQ plugin, right clicking over the colored circle representing one EQ band temporarily mutes everything except for that band.

There's probably a few more that I haven't found. But theres a lot of cool parts to the x42 plugins.

The Xhip trick sounds nice too! I'd like to try it out, but I recently started using Vitalium, and I like it enough that I want to use it for basically everything.

I’d sure like to find working copies of Vitalium, Cardinal, and Drumgizmo for Fedora.

[PMan]

so AJ (audiojunkie), Which Airwindows plugins do you use? I have my favorites, but there are so many plugs to choose from, what are your (or others, for that matter) favorites?

ps, I hope AJ is an ok handle for you. It's so much easier to type

[audiojunkie]

Originally Posted by PMan

so AJ (audiojunkie), Which Airwindows plugins do you use? I have my favorites, but there are so many plugs to choose from, what are your (or others, for that matter) favorites?

ps, I hope AJ is an ok handle for you. It's so much easier to type

AJ is fine. I've been mostly playing with basics: the reverbs and delays, chorus, phaser, etc., but there is some much that I haven't even had a chance to explore yet. It's a treasure trove that goes deep with resources for me to constantly discover and use.

One tool that I recently discovered that might come in handy is the Airwindows Cheat Sheet:

https://airwindowscheatsheet.aboni.dev/

[PMan]

I'll have to bookmark that cheat sheet!

One Airwindows surprise I found, is using Distance2 on a sampled conga track makes it sound like is it's live in a room! It almost sounds like a room reverb. Really nice effect. I was just trying to knock off some digital high end, and all of a sudden, it sounds like the congas are in the back of the room (not like in back of me, but in the back of the soundstage, behind the rest of the band). That's the only way I can describe it. It can introduce a DC offset, so I always follow it with the Airwindows DC Blocker.

Another nice Airwindows surprise for me is Notch. Modulate the frequency parameter, and it sounds like a phase shifter.

I use Baxandal a lot, too. Usually on the master buss. It's a smooth, clean EQ.

...And PaulWide. It's a mad genius dither plugin that ensures that the dithering process preserves the full width of the stereo image. It's the last thing on the master buss.

[Venn]

I use a mix of open & closed-source plugins when recording podcasts. I don't believe I have anything unusual on the list.

-LSP Expander
-Volume Adjustment
-ACM-3SA
-ACM500A
-BitShiftGain
-ACM70
-AVA De-Esser
-LSP Limiter
-LSP Delay Compensation (sync for network audio)
-ReaInsert (outboard gear)
-ReaLearn (control surfaces)

[Time Waster]

VCV Rack Pro or Cardinal (or both). With either of these I can do almost anything I want. It's more work that using dedicated plugins, but also more fun.