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Old 03-22-2023, 10:42 AM   #1
fetidus
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Default Up to date list of the best native plugins for Linux DAWs

Hi guys -- very excited about Reaper for Linux. Been using Reaper for many years, and I'm also a big fan of Linux for other reasons, but I've never been able to make the complete leap to Linux for pro audio work, and I always have to revert back to Windows or MacOS for one reason or another.

Long story, and it's been a while since my last attempt, but I've read a lot of promising things recently, and I feel like now is a great time to finally make the transition to Linux audio! I know some of you have been at it for a long time, so I want to tap into your wisdom and experience!

I'm impressed with both Reaper and Bitwig on Linux (among others, and I've tested most of the Linux DAWs over the years as well), and I'll most likely stick with some flavor of Ubuntu, since that seems to be a common recommendation among developers. I might go with with Ubuntu Studio and I might even test some other Ubuntu-related distros like Linux Mint or Pop!_OS.

I've looked at lists like http://linux-sound.org/linux-vst-plugins.html and http://linuxsynths.com/ but I wanted to get some direct, up-to-date feedback on the best, most reliable plugins you use.

So starting with native plugins (I'll save Yabridge, etc., for another list), what are the most stable native third-party plugins that you use? Include any paid/free/open source ones you love -- just the best native plugins in your personal experience.

In your response, if you could please also list the Linux DAW(s) you use (I assume one of them is Reaper of course!), and also your preferred distro, that would be very helpful too!

Many thanks for your thoughts! I appreciate it and look forward to the journey! Very excited to jump back into Linux audio, feeling very confident this time will be for keeps!
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Old 03-22-2023, 11:42 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by fetidus View Post
...what are the most stable native third-party plugins that you use? Include any paid/free/open source ones you love -- just the best native plugins in your personal experience.
Instrument plugins:

Surge XT (free and open-source)
Dexed (free and open-source)
Vital/Vitalium (free and open-source)
Cardinal (free and open-source)
AVLDrums (free and open-source)
U-he Zebra (commercial)
U-he ACE (commercial)
U-he Diva (commercial)
TALDrum (commercial)

Effect plugins:

REAPER's own numerous built-in VST and JS plugins plus ReaPack extras
Dragonfly Reverbs (free and open-source)
Zita Reverb (free and open-source) + chmaha's variants.

Quote:
In your response, if you could please also list the Linux DAW(s) you use (I assume one of them is Reaper of course!), and also your preferred distro
DAW: REAPER (exclusively)
Linux Distro: Manjaro

Last edited by Xasman; 03-22-2023 at 12:27 PM. Reason: Edited for clarity/colour
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Old 03-22-2023, 12:03 PM   #3
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@Xasman - Thank you! Great list! Love U-he of course, but I have not tried several of the other ones, looking forward to it, especially the TAL plugins!

BTW, I was so happy to see Surge XT go open source - I loved it many years ago and was a paying customer. So great that it lives on, what a wonderful synth. That's the kind of thing that makes me very happy about the open source community.
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Old 03-22-2023, 12:04 PM   #4
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We haven’t done one of these in a while, and there have been a lot of new releases since the last time we did this, so thank you! I’ll post my list, which is largely redundant of the list above, but it expands on it. I hope this is helpful. I should add a couple of disclaimers. First, this list is by no means exhaustive—there is much more out there. Second, this list (and the info therein) is dated. Much of it is correct, but some of it isn’t anymore. It will serve as a good starting point, but do your own research. Third, this is just a “select-all/copy” of my page of notes. A lit of it is my own opinion and notes, and may not relate to the topic-YMMV.

Linux Pro Audio Essentials

This is a list of (what is in my opinion) the best Pro Audio tools available natively for Linux. The preference is given to those tools with the following attributes: The binaries need to be available for most distros from reliable sources such as the default distro repository or the developer’s site like GitHub. The best apps are well supported, have a HIDPI scaling, are in general problem-free, and look and sound great.

Legend:

H= HiDPI Support
G= Binaries on Github, Gitlab, Sourceforge, etc
W= <Web Address> Binaries on Website
J = Standalone or JACK app
$= Pay for Binary (Open Source)
$$=Commercial
D= DEB binaries only
!!= <This is a special note>

Plugin Locations:

The usual directories for LV2 are:

/usr/lib/lv2
/usr/lib64/lv2
/usr/local/lib/lv2
/usr/local/lib64/lv2
~/.lv2

The usual directories for VST are:

/usr/lib/vst
/usr/lib64/vst
/usr/local/lib/vst
/usr/local/lib64/vst
~/.vst

Open Source

Apps:
Ardour: H, G, $, W= ardour.org
Kwave: H
Guitarix2: H, J
Polyphone: H
LoopAuditioneer: H
Hydrogen: H, J
Giada: H, J
Mixxx, J:
Audacity:
Zrhythm: $

Plugins:
LinuxSampler (Also needs Qsampler & Gigedit): H
Odin2: H, G
Surge-XT: H, G
Airwindows (gui-less): W= airwindows.com
Linux Studio Plugins: H, G
Yoshimi: H
AVL Drums: H, W= x42-plugins.com
Cardinal: H, G
GxPlugins.lv2 (Guitarix2): H, G
X42-Plugins: H, W= x42-plugins.com
MDA-lv2 Plugins (gui-less): G (David Robillard on Gitlab)
DrumGizmo:
Sfizz:
Dexed: H, G
FluidSynthPlug, Fluida.lv2, or FluidSynthVST
Monique - Bass and Lead synth: H
Helm: H, D
Dragonfly Reverbs: H (v. 3.2.7+), G
DSP56K Emulator (Requires ROM):
LibreArp
Elephant DSP Room Reverb (binaries on Github)
Mverb ( github.com/figbug/mverb )
LV2 port of the C* Audio Plugins Suite (caps-lv2)
Ninjas2
ADLPlug
Fire (Distortion plugin)
Geonkick
Guitarix.vst
PaulXStretch

Freeware Software


Apps:
OcenAudio: H

Plugins:
Xhip synth: H, W= xhip.net
Nil’s K1v (Kawai K1 Emulation: H, D, W= nilsschneider.de
Sitala: H, D
Tal-NoizeMaker: H, W= tal-software.com
Vital - Basic Edition (No Patches)
Tyrell N6
Xhip effects
Hypercyclic
Decent Sampler
Speedrum Lite
Apricot
Fluctus
Tal-Filter
Tal-Reverb-4
Tal-Chorus-LX
Tal-Vocoder
Zebralette
Podolski
Triple Cheese
Beatzille
Protoverb

Commercial Software

Diva H, $$
Zebra Legacy H, $$
Hive H, $$
Repro $$
Bazille $$
ACE $$
Tal-Sampler H, $$
Tal-Drum H, $$
Tal-J-8 H, $$
Tal-U-No-LX H, $$
Tal-Bassline $$
Tal-Mod $$
Tal-Dub-X $$
Tal-DAC $$
Bliss Sampler H, $$
Discovery $$
Discovery Pro $$
Vertigo $$
OPL $$
Speedrum H, $$
Quanta H, $$
Integrate, $$
Hy-Poly $$
Synthesizer V $$
Venomode Phrasebox $$ - VST2/VST3 Phrase Arp
Twangstrom $$
Colour Copy $$
Presswerk $$
Satin $$
Filterscape $$
MFM2 $$
Uhbik $$
Pianoteq




The Primary Synthesis Types

Subtractive
FM
Wavetable
Sample-Based
Other Types: Additive, Spectral, Phase Distortion, Granular, Vector, Physical Modeling, etc., etc.

Note: I’m grouping “Sampling” in here, although Sample-Based Synthesis and Sampling are actually different.

Classic Synth models/emulations in Linux

TBD

Last edited by audiojunkie; 03-22-2023 at 12:10 PM.
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Old 03-22-2023, 12:20 PM   #5
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@audiojunkie - Thank you, that's fantastic! Very helpful! Are there any plugins in that group that you feel stand out for you, or are the best of the best? The ones that are on your must-install list? Or are they all that level for you? Also, what DAW(s) do you use and what's your preferred distro? Looking forward to trying these out!
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Old 03-22-2023, 12:51 PM   #6
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Quote:
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BTW, I was so happy to see Surge XT go open source - I loved it many years ago and was a paying customer. So great that it lives on, what a wonderful synth. That's the kind of thing that makes me very happy about the open source community.
Same here, I bought Surge when it was commercial many years ago and it's just fantastic to see it evolve in the way it has!

BTW. Just to clarify - I do have many more plugins than those I listed above, including many on Audiojunkie's list (i.e. probably far too many!). It's just that those on my list are the ones I tend to reach for first because they're often the best fit (and the most stable) for my needs.
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Old 03-22-2023, 01:09 PM   #7
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BTW. Just to clarify - I do have many more plugins than those I listed above, including many on Audiojunkie's list (i.e. probably far too many!). It's just that those on my list are the ones I tend to reach for first because they're often the best fit (and the most stable) for my needs.
Thank you! Yes, I assumed you had posted a curated "top" list. I'm hoping @audiojunkie will see my reply to him and identify his stand out top plugins too. Although maybe his whole list is the "stand out" list!

I'm definitely trying to focus on the best, most reliable native plugins folks use.

Just like with Windows and MacOS, over the years, I expect to see the same pattern of some plugins rising to the top and being those "go to" plugins that I trust every day. That's the hardest part of transitioning away from Windows/MacOs since I am also leaving behind a lot of my previous "go to" plugins. And I have to get used to that, which is okay since I'm gaining all the things I want from Linux, plus it's very clear there are some outstanding alternatives!

And I haven't touched on bridges yet -- that will be another list! So some of my old faves may come back to be regulars too. But at first, I want to focus and get the solid base down with native plugins. So this is very helpful, I really appreciate the comments!
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Old 03-22-2023, 01:40 PM   #8
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P.S. Just as a personal note about why I'm focusing on native plugins at first -- I am so grateful that developers have invested their time in developing audio plugins for Linux. Well, not just audio plugins, but the DAWs themselves too! It's not a big market, and any developers that put energy into it are looking way, way down the road, or are doing it out of their own personal passion, and they aren't thinking of big short-term financial gains. I know this first hand from talking with some Linux audio developers. They are passionate people.

So when there's an amazing native audio plugin on Linux, I want to give that a shot first, and it's amazing what the open source community has been doing. And of course if it's a great native commercial plugin, I want to support that developer and pay for their hard work too! Any of the developers who spend time on Linux plugins (or Linux DAWs!) -- commercial or open source, etc. -- deserve some serious kudos!

I'm also grateful for the efforts that developers have spent on various plugin bridges. That's something I'll be spending time on as well later.
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Old 03-22-2023, 02:45 PM   #9
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I would like to add all the Tukan plugins, there's a wealth of effects there.

Audio Assault are commercial plugins and all have a Linux version.

Plus Tonelib GFX (guitar suite) and Ugritone drums, all comercial too.
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Old 03-22-2023, 02:59 PM   #10
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@Mcgiver69 -- thank you! Cool, haven't heard of those before, looking forward to checking them out!
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Old 03-22-2023, 04:57 PM   #11
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I made a few plug-ins for Linux here:

https://www.acmt.co.uk

VST2, VST3, CLAP, JACK applications etc etc.
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Old 03-22-2023, 06:17 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fetidus View Post
@audiojunkie - Thank you, that's fantastic! Very helpful! Are there any plugins in that group that you feel stand out for you, or are the best of the best? The ones that are on your must-install list? Or are they all that level for you? Also, what DAW(s) do you use and what's your preferred distro? Looking forward to trying these out!
That is my best-of list. My list of apps I want to try is much, much larger.
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Old 03-23-2023, 01:19 AM   #13
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I made a few plug-ins for Linux here:

https://www.acmt.co.uk

VST2, VST3, CLAP, JACK applications etc etc.
These are probably the best / my favourite mixing plugins of all time. I use them all the time, pretty much on every channel, pretty much in every project.

Airwindows plugs also get a lot of use. Takes a bit of sussing out because there are so many different, specific plugs Chris develops but many are brilliant.

A few of the GVST plugs get good use (native Linux versions are tucked away on Graham's page somewhere).

Stock Reaplugs and JS plugs are great.

I tend to play real instruments so software instruments don't get much use by me, but when I do I use Renoise Redux, Ugritone, some U-he synths, maybe Surge XT or Zynaddsubfx, just the usual suspects really. Redux is my favourite synth / sampler though.

For drums I like to use Samples From Mars or Drum Drops within Redux, or Ugritone or other samples within Reasamplomatic.

Guitarix (standalone or LV2 components) get a lot of use although I usually put Audio Assault IRs into Reaverb at the end of the chain. JS amp cab modeler also used a lot. Quite like Audio Assault and a few of the Airwindows amp sims but to be honest, 95% of the time I just use Guitarix.

DAWs - Reaper, Renoise, dabble in Ardour sometimes but that's just heart over head really because Reaper functions better for my needs.

I don't touch any Windows stuff ever. Everything I use is native Linux and that's a political choice and I couldn't be happier and I don't miss anything from Microsoft/Windows.

OS is Linux Mint with low latency kernel / Audio packages via Ubuntu Studio Installer.
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Old 03-23-2023, 06:04 AM   #14
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Thank you, guys! It's great to see I will have no problems finding high-quality native plugins during my transition. The Linux audio world has come along much more than I expected since the last time I tested it. Makes me very optimistic for the future.

@mike@overtonedsp - ACMT plugins look great! I expect I'll have to become a customer, impressive work.

@audiojunkie - Thank you, that's awesome. Looking forward to checking them all out!

@danflash - Thank you! Will check all of them out, and good to see you like ACMT so much. They look like the kind of tools I'd use every day.
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Old 03-23-2023, 06:47 AM   #15
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No one's mentioned the LSP plugin suite yet? Lots of great stuff there, open source and available as vst, lv2 and clap. Just released a new update, with some nice little UI tweaks to EQs, spectrum analyzer etc. (https://lsp-plug.in/ for info, https://github.com/sadko4u/lsp-plugins for download)

A couple other little things that come to mind that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Luftikus is a nice vintage style EQ, based on the Mäag EQ. Great for adding some high end 'air'. (Maybe easiest to grab from https://kx.studio/Repositories:Plugins , which by the way hosts a bunch of plugins, although not always the latest versions of actively developed stuff...)

Squeezer (https://github.com/mzuther/Squeezer) and FirComp (https://jonvaudio.com/fircomp/) are a couple pretty nice free compressors that a lot of folks might not know of. I haven't actually used either of them much, but they seem to work without obvious issues. Squeezer seems quite versatile while still having a straightforward interface, while FirComp excels at having little distortion even at very fast settings.

The problem with threads like these is stuff gets lost over many posts. A forum thread isn't really the ideal format for this kind of list...
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Old 03-23-2023, 07:28 AM   #16
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Maybe worth shouting out the linuxmusicians.com forum. There's often announcements of new native software and updates over there. I also keep an eye on KVR's new plugins page; you can filter it to just show linux software (https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/the...-plugins/linux).
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Old 03-23-2023, 07:32 AM   #17
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@elcalen - Thank you! Will check all those out!

Quote:
Originally Posted by elcalen View Post
The problem with threads like these is stuff gets lost over many posts. A forum thread isn't really the ideal format for this kind of list...
Agree completely, you are right, threads like this can get very messy and lose any focus. A thread like this is great for ongoing research and exchange of opinions, but not so good as an easy reference point...

So I'm thinking for my own personal sanity, I'll just create a simple external html page that consolidates this growing info over time into a basic HTML table and link back to this thread. Yes, I know, yet another list. But honestly, I'm already making one from my own notes, so I might as well just post it on a site so everyone can see it if they are interested. People can take it for what it's worth. Just another list.

Most of the lists I've seen are super long, or outdated, or have every last plugin on the planet, etc.., instead of just the best, most reliable ones that are known to work with Reaper, for example. And obviously the "best" is subjective, so I don't pretend that the list will be perfect for everyone. But personally, I need a good list like this, hence why I posted the thread. And I've already been blown away by some amazing plugins that you guys have mentioned.

Anyway, I'll probably post something in the next few days, maybe even later today if I can find the time, but nothing fancy, no ads, no cookies, no weird hosting, no social media, no forum, just a clean old-fashioned html page of the top native plugins. And I'll keep it updated over time as this is a long-term transition for me to Linux pro audio, and I am so excited and optimistic about it.
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Old 03-23-2023, 10:06 AM   #18
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Distro - arch
Daw - reaper

Plugins currently used for works only -

reaper's stocks

jsfx - 1175 / rbj1073 / rbj4eq / dirtsqueeze / eventhorizon / RCInflator / np1136 / bassmanager / tilteq / moog24db / majortom / distortion / flanger / phaser

https://github.com/brummer10 -
MetalTone.lv2
PowerAmpImpulses.lv2
Poweramps.lv2
PreAmpImpulses.lv2
PreAmps.lv2
Guitarix.vst3

ChowPhaser

ZynDistortion / ZynDynamicFilter / ZynPhaser / ZynAlienWah

DragonflyPlateReverb

https://github.com/x42 -
fil4.lv2
tuna.lv2
dpl.lv2


Instruments

avldrums.lv2
OB-Xd.lv2
Surge XT
sfizz
Vital
ZynAddSubFX
Reasamplomatic
geonkick
Dexed

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Old 03-23-2023, 11:25 AM   #19
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DEXED

YES! Very nice DX7. Very powerful. At first I thought it was useless because there's no way I'd ever be able to dial in the knobs to get any useful DX7 sounds.

Then I found:
http://bobbyblues.recup.ch/yamaha_dx7/dx7_patches.html

(All the Web patch)

Within that is a folder called "Bridge Music Studio" full of patches that can be loaded into "Cartridges" within Dexed.

And that!! is very useful. Within their folder are all the factory patches from several DX7 keyboards. So... useful. Of course all the old electric piano sounds, tines, basses, more. Very cool.

Thanks for the recommendation. I wish there was an easy way to upload an MP3 sample here but it's as good as I could hope for in a DX7 EP.

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Old 03-23-2023, 12:58 PM   #20
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@gotjawal Thank you! Agreed, those JSFX plugins are surprisingly good, thanks for reminding me. Will check out the other ones too.

@777funk Huge fan of the DX7, looking forward to testing DEXED!
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Old 03-23-2023, 09:01 PM   #21
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A few of plugs I haven't seen listed:

Yoshimi - a fork of ZynAddSubFX. Well supported, regular updates...

Bliss sampler. Commercial. https://www.discodsp.com/bliss/
I use it a lot, especially for electric bass and some Fender Rhodes patches.

Aether - a Great algo reverb! https://github.com/Dougal-s/Aether

Did anyone mention Saike's plugins? Amazing JSFX plugs. Unusual GUIs, unusual fx, definitely worth exploring.
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=220277

He listed himself, but I'll give another shout out: ACMT https://www.acmt.co.uk/
Same dev as Overtone DSP https://www.overtonedsp.co.uk/
I use the PTC-2A EQ *all the time*

ReEQ - a great JSFX parametricEQ.
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=213501

GeraintLuf has a nice JSFX vocoder (and a few other FX). Never thought I'd use one, but now that I have, that one is my go-to. He has a great sounding limiter, too.
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=186554

The awesome FIRComp2! Commercial, but the Linux build is free!
https://jonvaudio.com/fircomp2/

Auburn Sound's Lens. A multi-band compander
https://www.auburnsounds.com/products/Lens.html


I could go on and on... There are a lot of great Linux-native tools these days!
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Old 03-24-2023, 07:41 AM   #22
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@PMan - Thank you, great stuff for me to explore and test! And I am definitely a fan of discoDSP, I was really happy to find out they had Linux versions. And I appreciate that you mentioned ACMT -- yet another confirmation which makes it more likely I'll be spending some good $$ with them. Gotta support these awesome developers that have invested serious effort in Linux!
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Old 03-24-2023, 07:55 AM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mike@overtonedsp View Post
I made a few plug-ins for Linux here:

https://www.acmt.co.uk

VST2, VST3, CLAP, JACK applications etc etc.
I want to state for the record that although I haven't yet gotten around to buying Mike's plugins, he has nothing but the highest respect from myself and the community, and his reputation and support is legendary. The ONLY reason his stuff is not yet on my list is because it's still on my list of plugins to try. I'm quite sure all of Mike's plugins would be on my essentials list right now otherwise. And, as you can see above, he, rather than tooting his horn about the great quality of plugins he provides, he humbly and simply says, "I made a few plug-ins for Linux here:" I personally think that this speaks loads for the kind of person Mike is. Although I haven't yet tried his plugins, he definitely deserves to be high on this list..... AND, he's here in the community with us!
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Old 03-24-2023, 08:42 AM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audiojunkie View Post
I want to state for the record that although I haven't yet gotten around to buying Mike's plugins, he has nothing but the highest respect from myself and the community, and his reputation and support is legendary. The ONLY reason his stuff is not yet on my list is because it's still on my list of plugins to try. I'm quite sure all of Mike's plugins would be on my essentials list right now otherwise. And, as you can see above, he, rather than tooting his horn about the great quality of plugins he provides, he humbly and simply says, "I made a few plug-ins for Linux here:" I personally think that this speaks loads for the kind of person Mike is. Although I haven't yet tried his plugins, he definitely deserves to be high on this list..... AND, he's here in the community with us!
Since the original poster asked for,

"Up to date list of the best native plugins for Linux DAWs"

I'll name only the native Linux plugins that I use in every project. Besides the native Linux REAPER ReaEQ and ReaComp . . .

Every project of mine will have Mike's Overtone DSP RVB500 Plate Reverb, which is one of the best plate reverbs around IMO. In Windows I used SoundToys Little Plate, which I can run in WINE, but I wanted native Linux plugins, so I bought almost every plugin Mike makes when I first started using Linux. Anyway, I've worked in many studios that had real plate reverbs, and am very familiar with their sound on drums when soloed, and just like Little Plate, Mike's RVB500 Plate Reverb hits it on the nose and is used on the drums in every project.

All of my projects will also have U-He's Presswerk, which is incredible for tone shaping.

Just yesterday I tracked a bass line to a project I'm working on, and it was taking up too much space in the mix, so I put Presswerk on it, set it for parallel compression/expansion with HP filter on the expansion side. The end result was when the bass was below the threshold, it was full range, but when it crossed the threshold, the HP filtered and expanded side increased in volume while the full range side gets compressed and reduced in volume, so the bass gets less fat the louder it plays.

Edit: Add one more that ends up in every project. The X42 Digital Peak Limiter, which is excellent for setting a brick wall to just shave off the occasional peak from transients.
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Old 03-25-2023, 06:00 AM   #25
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These are Jsfx plugins but there are some really nice effects here

https://mrelwood5.wixsite.com/plugins

I recommend the bass amp, the compressors and EQs.

This compressor is another one I recommend, this one is a gem
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/3256/

Do yourself a favour and install Reapack specially use this repository:
https://github.com/Sonic-Anomaly/Son...ster/index.xml

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Old 03-25-2023, 10:42 AM   #26
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AudioThing is a relative newcomer to Linux.

They have a collection of plugins that are like nothing else. I love Wires and Fog Convolver.
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Old 03-25-2023, 01:14 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcoyle View Post
AudioThing is a relative newcomer to Linux.

They have a collection of plugins that are like nothing else. I love Wires and Fog Convolver.
I just tried Fog Convolver, and will prolly buy it in the near future. The default plate it starts with is really nice.
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Old 03-25-2023, 02:20 PM   #28
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From user dldoodler
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=222369
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=222429
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=222420
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=222397

Haven't seen him here for sometime. He was working on a drumsampler thing. Hope everything ok. Great stuff.
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Old 03-26-2023, 03:53 AM   #29
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Hey guys, wanted to thank you all again for your thoughts on this topic -- I've been deep in the rabbit hole of Linux pro audio the last few days and it's been wild. Can't believe what's out there now, and I've got new ideas of how to do this transition.

The last time I tried to make the transition to Linux for my audio work, it fell short of what I needed for my use-cases. So I gave up. In fact, I've tried several times over many years, because I wanted Linux to work out for pro audio, and because I'm so comfortable in Linux as a daily driver for so many other tasks. But it just couldn't come close to what I needed. However, now, it's not only matured enough to cover a very large percentage of what I do out of the box, it also has some surprising gems that have been really fun to discover. AND, most importantly, I've started to put together a feasible roadmap of how I can make this transition really work overall, even with some tough edges cases.

So I started compiling my list of what I'm planning on using, and stuff I've already tested, but it's not ready yet to post publicly. I'm still in the rabbit hole, so once I can get out of the rabbit hole and do a couple of real-life complex projects with some of the tools/plugins I'm testing, I'll do a write-up and post it as a hopefully helpful resource to other people who might be curious or in my same situation. It's not going to be a "definitive guide," but it might be interesting. And at least it will document my toolset so I can easily recreate it for myself! It will take some time to get there though.

In addition to that, I'm going to be testing out Tracktion Pro 12 and Renoise on Linux, in addition a lot more testing of my current two preferred Linux DAWs, which are Reaper and Bitwig. I might test the latest Harrison Mixbus32C too if I can find the time. I'd like to compare first hand the differences between it and the latest Ardour release. I have yet to see a clear methodical comparison out there, so I want to fire them up side-by-side when I get a chance.

I'll also be testing out various bridges, and some key Windows/MacOS plugins that I will sorely miss, such as all the Fabfilter plugins, etc. I know plenty of folks have gotten Fabfilter and many other great Windows/MacOS plugins working fine with Yabridge. I don't want to rely on bridges though, and eventually I'll make the 100% transition to native plugins, but various bridges will help facilitate the transition to Linux more quickly, as I come up with replacements. I've bought hundreds of plugins over the years, so it's going to be difficult to replace the most important ones overnight. I know there are certain limitations/issues with some of the bridges too, and so I don't want to use them too much just for stability sake.

Plus I ran into a great open source tool yesterday that will also aid in my platform transition -- https://audiogridder.com/ -- not sure if you've tried it yet. But it immediately took me back to my VSL days, and honestly, that might just fill the gap for any last critical plugins I need on Linux -- especially the ones that have more complex DRM/copy protection schemes that don't work well with things like Yabridge. AudioGridder looks like a tool I would want to incorporate into my studio ANYWAY, independent of my transition to Linux, as it allows me to create a network of plugin servers out of various Windows, MacOS, and Linux machines I have, as needed. Pretty great stuff, with old/new workflows, lots of ways to do this transition to Linux! I just have to deeply test the potential latency and automation issues I've been reading out, so that will take some time. I'll do a phase cancellation test of rendered audio run through Audio Gridder vs. native platform renders, etc. So it will be a while before I can get confidence in Audio Gridder, but it looks like a magic bullet if it works well.

I think ultimately, the combination of Reaper + Bitwig + native plugins + Yabridge + Audio Gridder + limited critical Windows/MacOS plugins will be one heck of a great combination, and cover every scenario for me, and also open up new workflows. So that's exciting.

And as I've mentioned in other posts over many years here in this forum, I believe one of the greatest features of Reaper of all time is Subprojects. I've used the feature extensively on massive projects with hundreds of tracks, complex sound design, multiple-nested projects, and multiple-cue film projects. It's one of the key reasons why I use Reaper on certain projects over other DAWs.

Subprojects are simply one of the most genius, simple, logical, common-sense features of any DAW for my workflows. And now I think this will really help with my Linux transition too! Taking into consideration plugin dependencies and related issues, subprojects will be the secret ingredient that will make this transition to Linux possible. By nesting down subprojects and folding them into larger consolidated projects where needed, it will allow even existing Windows/MacOS projects with complex plugin dependencies to be migrated MUCH more easily over time to Linux, since it eases the immediate need for some dependencies to be resolved. And THAT can only be done in Reaper. Over time, suitable replacements can found, OR, the rendered subproject audio can simply be used as-is, OR, in an emergency, those subprojects can be opened up and processed back on Windows/MacOS in a worst-case scenario. The flexibility of options is what will make this work. Hats off to Justin and Co. for yet another unexpected benefit of the brilliant subprojects feature.

So Reaper is really at the center of my ability to make this transition happen.

Anyway, I'm going on long enough! Sorry for the wall of text. Just actually wanted to say thank you, and after my rabbit hole insanity the last few days, I'm more optimistic than ever about pro audio on Linux. Cheers!
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Old 03-26-2023, 04:24 AM   #30
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The ReaStream plugin in the Reaper plugin folder supports streaming from host to host of audio and/or MIDI over a LAN segment. Maybe an alternativ to AudioGridder.
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Old 03-26-2023, 04:36 AM   #31
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Thank you! I haven't used ReaStream, I'll definitely test it. From what I've read so far, it's not going to be a replacement for all of what AudioGridder can do, especially with plugin management, GUI capturing, settings recall, granular control over server settings in a self-contained server process (as opposed to running in a host), etc., but certainly another tool in the arsenal. PLUS, it looks like it's part of the ReaPlugs VST FX Suite so it can be used in different hosts, very cool. Could be a great quick and easy tool in certain use cases FOR SURE. So thank you! I'll be very curious to see how (and if) it handles latency in general, latency compensation, automation, etc... worthy addition to the collection of tools!
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Old 03-26-2023, 01:23 PM   #32
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Another little gem a Neve 1073 EQ in JS format
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=272407

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