ASIO/VST3 goes 'Open Source'?

[The Elf]

It seems that Steinberg have made their ASIO and VST3 technology 'Open Source'.

I don't pretend to understand the details, but surely this is a good thing?

[Martin Walker]

Perhaps I'm just too much of a pessimist, but given that Steinberg have always been the ones to abandon protocols when they want to move things forward (VST2 support in Cubase for instance), going Open Source does make me wonder if they are going to abandon further development on ASIO and VST3 and hope that other third parties will take over.

[James Perrett]

It would be unusual for Steinberg to be philanthropic so just maybe this has been forced on them by certain large customers or certain legislation. I wonder if the EU were considering an investigation into their virtual monopoly control of high performance driver standards?

Alternatively, it may have something to do with the changes in the Windows audio and midi ecosystem that Steinberg's parent, Yamaha, are heavily involved in. Microsoft are starting to embrace open source when it comes to development tools - my lad is usually averse to using anything from large corporations but he seems to be happy using Microsoft's tools.

[OneWorld]

I wonder if there might be the appearance of LINUX VSTs?

[Pete Kaine]

I wonder if the EU were considering an investigation into their virtual monopoly control of high performance driver standards?

Not that I think anyone outside of our industry would care about that but anyone is free to take a crack at it and more than a handful have tried... as they say, the best thing about standards, is that there's plenty to choose from

Joking aside, it's not entirely open source, just they've moved to a dual licence.

https://ocl-steinberg-live.steinberg.ne ... -%20EN.pdf

They've pushed this as being able to give a wider scope of licence support to non-profits, OBS notably being mentioned. Having banged my head against that routing many times over the years... it's about time.

[The Elf]

(Good to see you here, Pete)

[garrettendi]

I wonder if there might be the appearance of LINUX VSTs?

There are already Linux VSTs and VST3s. The latter has the .vst3 extension and the former has the .so extension.

At least I think that's the case, I'm not on my laptop right now.

[OneWorld]

I wonder if there might be the appearance of LINUX VSTs?

There are already Linux VSTs and VST3s. The latter has the .vst3 extension and the former has the .so extension.

At least I think that's the case, I'm not on my laptop right now.

This is a bit leftfield, so, would Halion, Groove Agent, Retrologue etc work on LINUX?

[garrettendi]

I wonder if there might be the appearance of LINUX VSTs?

There are already Linux VSTs and VST3s. The latter has the .vst3 extension and the former has the .so extension.

At least I think that's the case, I'm not on my laptop right now.

This is a bit leftfield, so, would Halion, Groove Agent, Retrologue etc work on LINUX?

If they have Linux VSTs available for them, then it should be as simple as dropping the relevant files into the .vst and .vst3 folders in the home directory.

If they are Windows VSTs, then they should work using wine and yabridge. I've managed to get most of the Windows VSTs I can't live without working that way. Only one has been a total failure, which I now use on a Windows cloud PC and copy files over.

I still haven't done anything major on the laptop yet though, so for all I know it might explode when I get serious...!

[OneWorld]

I wonder if there might be the appearance of LINUX VSTs?

There are already Linux VSTs and VST3s. The latter has the .vst3 extension and the former has the .so extension.

At least I think that's the case, I'm not on my laptop right now.

This is a bit leftfield, so, would Halion, Groove Agent, Retrologue etc work on LINUX?

If they have Linux VSTs available for them, then it should be as simple as dropping the relevant files into the .vst and .vst3 folders in the home directory.

If they are Windows VSTs, then they should work using wine and yabridge. I've managed to get most of the Windows VSTs I can't live without working that way. Only one has been a total failure, which I now use on a Windows cloud PC and copy files over.

I still haven't done anything major on the laptop yet though, so for all I know it might explode when I get serious...!

I can't imagine they have ported them to LINUX, but wondered if the VST standard now being open, then developers might make the said VSTs work in LINUX, but as I write, all manner of considerations have to be factored in, too much to contemplate

[garrettendi]

I can't imagine they have ported them to LINUX, but wondered if the VST standard now being open, then developers might make the said VSTs work in LINUX, but as I write, all manner of considerations have to be factored in, too much to contemplate

That is true, although the VST is a standard already for Linux, so they've had the time, just not the inclination. Likely because people that use Linux are few, and those who use it for music production even fewer.

However, the VST standard being open might encourage more open source developers to port their stuff to VST... I'm looking at you, Rackarrack...

[Eddy Deegan]

My impression was that CLAP is starting to get some traction with the larger vendors and as it's completely free to use Steinberg are making VST3 easier to choose for developers in an effort to keep more of them on side.

I've seen various anecdotes on programming-related websites from developers who have tried working with both CLAP and VST and much prefer CLAP. Out of curiousity I took a quick glance at both codebases in their current state and felt CLAP looked much friendlier to work with.

[garrettendi]

My impression was that CLAP is starting to get some traction with the larger vendors and as it's completely free to use Steinberg are making VST3 easier to choose for developers in an effort to keep more of them on side.

I've seen various anecdotes on programming-related websites from developers who have tried working with both CLAP and VST and much prefer CLAP. Out of curiousity I took a quick glance at both codebases in their current state and felt CLAP looked much friendlier to work with.

Yes, I've seen some CLAP plugins around... I think u-he were an early adopter? Not being an audio developer, I don't see the benefit to me as a consumer of choosing CLAP over VST if both are offered. Is there any difference in end result?

[Martin Walker]

Yes, I've seen some CLAP plugins around... I think u-he were an early adopter? Not being an audio developer, I don't see the benefit to me as a consumer of choosing CLAP over VST if both are offered. Is there any difference in end result?

Far from being an early adopter, "CLAP 1.0 is the result of a multi-year project initiated by u-he and Bitwig, with design and implementation contributions by a group of commercial and open source audio developers from across our industry." (From CLAP's initial press release on June 2022).

I've not personally kept up with all the CLAP developments over the last three years, but in this first press release the following advantages were clamed over the VST3 format:

Better Performance From Modern CPUs, with enhanced multi-thread management

Better and Faster Organization, with faster plugin scans

Better Modulation, with per-note automation for both monophonic and polyphonic synths

Also, as Eddie has found even on a cursory glance, everything in CLAP aims to be easy to find and easy to implement

[junkmale]

That is true, although the VST is a standard already for Linux, so they've had the time, just not the inclination. Likely because people that use Linux are few, and those who use it for music production even fewer.

I am seriously contemplating a move to Linux as I'm getting more peeved by the day by Microsoft -
a) killing off Win10 when they said it would be the last desktop o/s we'd need
b) buggering about with my installation/configuration without asking me!!

@the SoS mods - please could we have a new forum category for dedicated Linux discussions?

although Garretendi above suggests Linux users are few, I think there are perhaps more than that comment suggests, I suspect I may not be alone in considering a move to Linux

[zenguitar]

@the SoS mods - please could we have a new forum category for dedicated Linux discussions?

Like this one we've had for a couple of decades or more perhaps? The forum index does identify it as for Linux

https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21

Andy

[junkmale]

@the SoS mods - please could we have a new forum category for dedicated Linux discussions?

Like this one we've had for a couple of decades or more perhaps? The forum index does identify it as for Linux

https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21

Andy

thanks Andy, hadn't spotted that!