Linux VST3

• Jul 1, 2023 - 05:31

While reading the handbook chapter on the Mixer, one might get the impression that all of this works on every supported OS.
But it does not (and probably never will)
I have a 4.1 beta for Linux compiled with VST re-enabled.
=> deleted. see below
Most Linux VST's do not show a gui, but some do work: e.g. 3Vstudio Orchestools and Decentsampler (amongst others)
Also work: (almost all) Windows VST3 with yabridge (provided they can be made working with wine in the first place), e.g. Spitfire BBC discover/core, Spitfire Labs, Miroslav Philharmonic 2, Sampletank, Kontakt, ...
The Linux version of Kushview elements rack-plugin vst3 also works. This one can load Linux VST2, VST3 and LV2 plugins. It's working reasonably well (for the most part).

Comments

• Jul 2, 2023 - 17:10

As said, most Linux VST's installed on my system do not work, which is normal since Linux VST support isn't implemented. (on my system, for instruments only Orchestools and Decentsampler - and also the Kushview elements, which can load most linux VST2/3 and LV2 - but there also are problems with this)
See for Linux audio plugins https://linuxmusic.rocks/ or/and https://linuxdaw.org/ you can try if you want.
Windows VST3 under wine with yabridge seem to be working fine (but i normally don't use those, exception made for some orchestral libraries)
This is completely experimental of course.

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• Jul 12, 2023 - 13:15

For the desperate Linux users, a Linux VST3 enabled appimage 4.1.0 can be downloaded here:
deleted- see below
(not official, provided "as is", only minimal tested: use at your own risk)

After starting it once - vst's will be scanned - have a look at
~/.local/share/MuseScore/MuseScore4/known_audio_plugins.json

All plugins should have
"hasNativeEditorSupport": true,
or they will not work.
On my system, every plugin had initially this parameter set to "false", since v4.1. (it was more or less ok before a couple of weeks.)
I would suggest to test the vst's, and if they don't show a gui, just edit same file and set the vst to
"enabled": false,
so it does not show up anymore in the list.

As said, lots of native Linux VST3 do work - e.g. 3Vstudio Orchestools, Apisonic Speedrum, Aeolus, Decentsampler, DiscoDSP Highlife sampler - and a lot of fx. Some do not however.
Most Windows VST3 (wine + yabridge) work flawlessly.
And there is always Kushview elements - works reasonably well, and can load Linux VST2, VST3, lv2 and even ladspa.

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• Jul 16, 2023 - 18:42

New build here:
see below
known_audio_plugins.json now has always "hasNativeEditorSupport": true,

List of Native Linux VST3's (probably all build with Juce) tested and working - WITH GUI:
Orchestools from https://musictop69.wixsite.com/orchestools
Speedrum (Lite, Beat(from Beat magazine)) and Transperc from https://www.apisoniclabs.com/
Aeolus (pipe organ synth) from https://archie3d.github.io/aeolus_plugin/
Decentsampler from https://www.decentsamples.com/product/decent-sampler-plugin/
HY-plugins (the free Linux versions) from https://hy-plugins.com/
Kushview Element from https://kushview.net/element/
Tracktion MOC Waverazor https://www.tracktion.com/products/waverazor
Bitklavier https://bitklavier.com/ . Linux vst3 version here: https://software.opensuse.org//download.html?project=home%3Akill_it%3AJ…
Everything from Socalabs (except piano: crashes MS) https://socalabs.com/
Odin-2 synth from https://thewavewarden.com/pages/odin-2
Tracktion Retromod LoFreq Classic from https://www.tracktion.com/products/retromod
DiscoDSP Highlife from https://www.discodsp.com/highlife/
Panagement 2 from https://www.auburnsounds.com/products/Panagement.html
Filterjam from https://www.audiothing.net/effects/filterjam/
Free ASAP plugins from ircam https://forum.ircam.fr/projects/detail/asap/
Firecomp2 (free for Linux) from https://jonvaudio.com/fircomp2/
Librewave Sordina from https://librewave.com/product/sordina-mute-emulator/
Tonelib Noice Reducer from https://tonelib.net/tl-noisereducer.html
Venomode Maximal 3 CM (I have the Computer Music Magazine version) from https://venomode.com/maximal
Everything from While Elephant Audio https://www.whiteelephantaudio.com/plugins
Fire by Wings Music https://github.com/jerryuhoo/Fire
Chowmultitool from https://chowdsp.com/
Everything by SuperflyDsp https://superflydsp.com/

Windows VST3's that can be made working with Wine + yabridge, all work fine. (e.g. Ik Multimedia plugins - Miroslav, Spitfire Audio plugins - BBCSO, Labs, Kontakt, and so on...)

When loading Kushview Elements, all Linux VST2, VST3, LV2 and ladspa audio plugins, and Windows VST2/3 can be used.

And then there is also Audiogridder https://audiogridder.com/
AudioGridder is a plugin host that allows for offloading the DSP processing of audio plugins to remote computers running macOS or Windows. The DSP code of the loaded plugins will be executed on the server machine and the plugin UIs will be streamed over the wire.
Tested with remote Windows computer and Linux VST3 in MS. It works!
Can probably be very useful with big scores on small computers.
Also with Windows VST's that can't work with wine (e.g. because of ilok)

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• Jul 27, 2023 - 18:29

Should anyone be interested, new AppImage 4.1.1 with vst enabled here:
https://github.com/diedeno/MuseScore/releases/tag/V4.1.1-lxvst

Other native Linux vst3 tested and found OK:

CqtAnalyzer from https://www.chromadsp.com/
All recent free from https://tal-software.com/products (Tal-filter2, Tal-Chorus, Tal-Reverb-4, Tal-Noisemaker)
TurboPaco and MixMaxtrix from Artv https://www.kvraudio.com/developer/artv
All from https://www.auburnsounds.com/
BlindfoldEq from https://www.audiothing.net/effects/blindfold-eq/
Room reverb from https://www.elephantdsp.com/products/room-reverb/
SmartAmp from https://guitarml.com/#products
Eqoder from Jade Hochschule https://www.kvraudio.com/product/eqoder-by-jade-hochschule
PeakEater from T-audio https://github.com/vvvar/PeakEater
Plastiq Funeral and VU from unplugred https://vst.unplug.red/
Declicker from https://github.com/0x07dc/declicker (you must compile it yourself for Linux, but it goes without any problems)
Dexed (DX7 modeled synth) from Digital Suburban https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/ - (the binary release for Linux does not show a Gui on my system, but a local build from latest github source works fine)

And then there is also
YSFX from Jean Pierre Cimalando https://github.com/jpcima/ysfx
Allows you to use any jsfx plugin (Reaper), or script one yourself https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/js/js.php .
Tested with local build.
Binaries are available at Joep Vanlier’s fork https://github.com/JoepVanlier/ysfx/releases/tag/v0.0.2 (not tested)

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• Jul 28, 2023 - 14:51

Thanks for being on this! Frankly, the only VST's I personally would care about would be the Muse Effects plugins, and I suspect there would be others who feel the same way. These have GUI's, but extremely simple ones. To me, if this can be made to work with just those, it's absolutely worth a PR. If there are many other VST's (especially instruments) that don't work, it might make sense to only do this for Muse Effects say that's all that is supported, and it would still be a huge win.

Of course, the Muse Hub team would have to make the Muse Effects available for testing on Linux in order to know if this is feasible or not.

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• Jul 28, 2023 - 15:50

Hi Marc
AFAICS, only native Linux vst's made with Juce do work.
If the Muse plugins are made with Juce and developers are willing to compile Linux versions, then it should hopefully be easy to do.
For other frameworks the vst host must handle this (so MuseScore)

Meanwhile, e.g. https://socalabs.com/ vst3 plugins do work, and offer some simple basic 'classical' audio plugins; compressor, delay, ...

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• Sep 4, 2023 - 05:06

The Linux versions of Pianoteq are lv2 and vst2. No vst3. So not usable directly in MS. (does kind of work with Kushview elements - but you loose the first note)
I asked for a vst3 version via the forum, but no response.
The good news: the windows vst3 works just fine (wine+yabridge)
(you can download a trial version)

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• Jan 15, 2024 - 22:39

I'm a very beginner to vst. So i downloaded a linux version of ms that supports vst and downloaded the vst itself (Aeolus). Where do i have to put it that MuseScore recognizes it?
Thx in advance, Pentatonus

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• Jan 16, 2024 - 11:18

which link?
I assume
-the Appimage starts
-you downloaded the Linux version of Aeolus from https://github.com/Archie3d/aeolus_plugin/releases
( Aeolus-standalone-vst3-linux-0.2.0.zip) , and extracted the vst3 ~/.vst3 so you end up with
~/.vst3/Aeolus.vst3/Contents/x86_64-linux/Aeolus.so (note the hidden directory .vst3 )
Can you check
~/.local/share/MuseScore/MuseScore4/known_audio_plugins.json
These should be en entry in it for the Aeolus vst3 plugin.

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• Jan 16, 2024 - 12:04

> which link?
Your steinbergmedia link. I can see the content table but if i click an entry there is only a error message

>I assume
>-the Appimage starts
Yes

>-you downloaded the Linux version of Aeolus from https://github.com/Archie3d/aeolus_plugin/releases
>( Aeolus-standalone-vst3-linux-0.2.0.zip) ,
Yes

and extracted the vst3 ~/.vst3 so you end up with
>~/.vst3/Aeolus.vst3/Contents/x86_64-linux/Aeolus.so (note the hidden directory .vst3 )
No hidden .vst3 directory in my home folder
I have the .so file here:
vst_ordner.png
>Can you check
>~/.local/share/MuseScore/MuseScore4/known_audio_plugins.json
>These should be en entry in it for the Aeolus vst3 plugin.
vst_json.png

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• Jan 16, 2024 - 13:49

So is /home/linuxmint/Musik/MuseScore4.2/VST/ defined in the MS via n MS via Edit>Preferences>Folders ?
Why not using an official vst3 location?
As said, i always use I always use $HOME/.vst3/ , which works perfectly and does not need root privileges.
The entry in your known_audio_plugins.json does not seem complete. Some lines are missing. I have:
{
"enabled": true,
"meta": {
"attributes": {
"categories": "Instrument|Synth"
},
"hasNativeEditorSupport": true,
"id": "Aeolus",
"type": "VstPlugin",
"vendor": "Arthur Benilov"
},
"path": "\/home\/xxx\/.vst3\/Aeolus.vst3""
},

I deleted everything, and started again. Same entry. I don't know why yours is incomplete. I think you will not see the plugin if
"attributes": {
"categories": "Instrument|Synth"
is not there

By the way, sfizz does not work. You should be able to see it and select it, but it will not show a gui. (at least not on my system) This is the reason vst3 support is disable din the official Linux image. See above.

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• Jan 16, 2024 - 15:26

Thanks again for your great help. So i created a .vst3 folder and put the extracted Aeolus.vst3 in. I also changed the known_audio_plugins.json to that you have just posted.
Now i see a entry for Aeolus in the mixer menu (there are two entrys). But when i click one, only an empty window appears (like for sfizz)?

vst_leer.png
json2.png
vst_two_entrys.png

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• Jan 16, 2024 - 16:13

There should only be one entry in the json file. You can disable one of the two by changing "enabled" to false.
If you have multiple copies on the plugin in multiple directories, then every instance will have a new entry in the file and will show multiple times in MS. One should only have one location with the same plugin IMHO.
The path /home/xxx/.vst3 should reflect your home directory, obviously. So probably not xxx .
It happens to me sometimes that a Gui works only after a restart. After that, it always work, at least for the plugins listed above.
I have tested this only on Ubuntu 22.04TLS, with Xorg.
Perhaps you could try with some other plugin (from above) if this one does not show a Gui.

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• Aug 19, 2024 - 21:10

As explained above:

"One cannot officially release a piece of software, saying: most of the time this will not work, but if you are lucky, it could work after all."

If the issue with the linux IRunLoop, needed to make all Linux vst3 work, isn't solved, this cannot be merged.
This is being examined on how to solve it .

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• Sep 14, 2024 - 08:43

Hi,
Sorry.
https://github.com/diedeno/MuseScore/releases/tag/v4.1.1-lxvst

However, this is a complete waste of time. There is absolutely no reason at all why a Linux user would want to use a VST. There are no Linux VST's worth having. Wine is useless. Should you want to use something other than 'real instruments' (!), then the way to go is to use a DAW. If you want to use VST's, use Windows! In the unlikely event you need something that is not in the (free) Muse Sounds, use soundfonts.
So i have been told by a herd of Linux VST experts.
The same shit discussions as with jack.
For myself, I will use this build anyway. I have done more stupid things in my lifetime.

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• Sep 14, 2024 - 10:29

Hi;
Thank you anyway!!
What I realised (when I started with MuseScore 4): not even the WIN VST3 showed up in the MS Mixer Section! But after trying your lxvst, it worked!!
I am not under the hood of Linux, so maybe another reason stopped MS from loading the WIN VST3!??
Will try again with standard MS-S 4.4.1 installation within the next days!
But meanwhile I will use your compilation!!
greetings from Hungary

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• Sep 20, 2024 - 12:18

Just to inform you!!
I installed the latest standard 4.4.2 version from MuseScore.org because they said that they solved a lot of the bugs (crashes etc.) from earlier 4.4 versions but again:
None of my WIN VST3 show up in the MS Mixer Section!
So your your lxvst versions are really valuable for me on my LINUX AVL-MX
Without it I will lose a lot of SOUND!

Thank you and
Cheers
Dieter

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• Sep 14, 2024 - 16:12

You clearly haven’t been following the development discussions, then. JACK support has a pending PR that is slated for review potentially for 4.5, and one of the developers has taken the time to outline exactly what needs to be done to get VST working - looks to be quite simple, just waiting for a Linux-knowledgeable developer to volunteer to do it.

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• Sep 15, 2024 - 08:27

Hi,
Thanks a lot and don't worry : that's not a waste of time !
Why ? Because as a user, I can play a synthesizer sound. Yes ! Directly without launching Jack, then a DAW, then exporting/importing the sheet, then adjusting the Midi tracks one-another...
Comparatively, your Musescore build is so convenient to use !

BTW my synthesizer VST3 is OB-Xd and I'm using KDE on Arch Linux.

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• Oct 20, 2024 - 17:33

Hello!
Can you suggest any VST non-tonal percussion, where there are brushes? I need to depict a certain sound Crash, or Ride!
I have Linux OS, - Kubuntu!

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• Oct 20, 2024 - 18:25

There is a simple way to know: try it.
Know that ONLY native Linux vst's made with with JUCE will work (because this is the only framework that provides a workaround for the missing runloop in the linux build)
(so drumgizmo will probably not work!)
But there are a number of other drum samplers that will work.
You will have to search for suitable sounds yourself.
(Or you can use a Windows VST that will run on wine+yabridge. Again: try. Do not assume that someone will help if it does not work)

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• Oct 21, 2024 - 07:43

Perhaps this one from pianobook is usable?
https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/soft-drums/
Decentsampler works fine in the lxvst build.
(about drumzigmo: i think there isn't a Linux vst3 , but only a lv2 - witch will (never) not work.)

Decentsampler is my favorite sampler (on Linux) nowadays, because:
-no native Linux sfz player works in this build . (No Juce made player exists -anymore.) The only way if have found to use sfz instruments, is to use sforzando with wine. While it works just fine, it was a bit of struggle to install it, and the possibility always exists that it does not work anymore after an upgrade..
-there are lots of (free) decentsampler instruments on pianobook, and elsewhere
-it's easy to convert a bunch of sampler formats with convertwithmoss. https://mossgrabers.de/Software/ConvertWithMoss/ConvertWithMoss.html . After conversion, there is of course some tweaking and modification needed. No sweat, no glory. It can even convert (non encrypted) Kontakt libraries. (decentsampler can also import directly sfz)
-Windows VST's cannot be trusted to be future proof. E.g. Spitfire Labs worked just fine until the latest upgrade, but now it cannot be used anymore with wine. Newer Kontakt (players) (v7 and 8) cannot be made working with wine anymore. (latest working version 6.7)
-Commercial decentsampler instruments are starting to be available, see e.g. on decentsampler.com or Soundiron: new releases include a DS version https://soundiron.com/collections/decent-sampler . More to come.
-it is easy to create your own instruments.

Sadly, Decent Sampler is not open source. It neither always saves the instrument correctly.

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• Oct 24, 2024 - 17:46

I didn't see: how is this different from the official latest version MuseScore-Studio-4.4.2.242570931-x86_64.AppImage?
Or will this be noticeable when MuseScore-Studio interacts with VST?
Who made this version 4.4.3-lxvst?
By the way, I couldn’t find an explanation on the Internet: what is lxvst?
Actually, I'm looking for this sound - I think it was brushed over Crash, or Ride! Maybe someone knows where I can find this sound so I can use it on Linux!

Attachment Size
Percussion fragment 2.zip 32.27 KB

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• Oct 24, 2024 - 18:40

You can check the changes in github.
It is different in that it has the vst code reenabled, which was disable in the official release.
see https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/16799 , context links.
I do the few changes every time there is a release. This is an unofficial build, for my own use and shared for anybody interested. Use it or not, it's up to you. There is no support whatsoever for this.
lxvst is my own abreviation for 'linux vst'. (Lx stands for Linux, like Ux stands for Unix).
I cannot help with your quest for sounds.

Or will this be noticeable when MuseScore-Studio interacts with VST?
Yes, when you install a linux vst, a new 'VST' choice will show
lxvst.png

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• Oct 25, 2024 - 05:22

But why is the VST-code disabled in the official version?
Because most native Linux VST's will not work.
One cannot officially release a piece of software, saying: most of the time this will not work, but if you are lucky, it could work after all.
see also https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/9481
(i repeat myself)

Is it impossible to connect VST in the official version for Linux?
Yes. As stated in the handbook: "Note that Linux is not yet supported"
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/working-vst-and-vsti

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