[ardour-users] shall we wait for VST or go with libfst?

[hanaghan at starband.net]

> On 6/9/05, Hector Centeno <h.centeno at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>> Geoff,
>>
>> This is happening with the GRM Tools plugins. I haven't tried with
>> other plugins because these are the only ones I'm interested in using,
>> but I'll give it a shot. The errors happen always after some time of
>> moving around the sliders in the plugin's GUI. If I don't touch any
>> slider it takes longer to crash (but it does and with the same kind of
>> errors). I have 1 gig of ram (PIV2.8HT, Fedora Core 3 with Planet
>> CCRMA kernel but I'm not using a smp one) and before using Linux I was
>> using Windows XP in the same computer and with audio applications
>> (including these VSTs) without any problem. I tried using the VSTs
>> from within ardour and they work fine for some time and then the GUI
>> locks and I start getting a gray box when I reopen the plugin (but the
>> effect is still running and processing audio).
>>
>> thanks!
>>
>> hector
>
> Hector, Geoff & Russ,
>    I have said this before - we need a specific set of 'known-good'
> VSTs that all new users should try as part of the install process
> BEFORE they start trying the ones they really want to use. I suspect
> that Hector is now just running into the '10% work, 90% don't' sort of
> problem. (Fill in your own guess at what those percentages should be.)
>
>    I can offer up that the SIR Reverb is known good. NI's Battery as a
> VST is known good. The VST synth Crystal is known good. I don't
> remember right now which others I'm comfortable with. I can say that
> very many of the ones I've tried don't work but I hesitate to write any
> names here since someone researching this subject in the future might
> put too much weight on a few lines I could toss off. If we want to do
> some checking then maybe that's best done off list and we come back with
> a list of really known good for test purposes.
>
>    I know that the site about 'VSTs under Linux' site has comments
> from individuals about what does and doesn't work, but there's not
> control on that. Someone can write anything whether it works really well
> or just barely works.
>
>    What VSts do we want people to try first before they get too
> confused or demoralized?
>
The 3 I find I use the most lately and work reliably with Wine 05052004 on
my box are:

Ambience Reverb:  Solid and very flexible with awesome reverbs
Nyquist:          Odd but effective 5 band parametric eq
Monsta Chorus:    Not the most flexible chorus but sounds nice on all     
   guitars tracks.

I also use Hyper Canvas Midi GM2 Synth. BUT...It crashes or rather it
loses it's connection to Jack after a time. Never seems to do it in the
same intervals.

The first 3 a good core apps though and give me no problems. Usually run
in KDE or Fluxbox with Jack_fst.
R~