MuTools

Lump · Post by **Lump** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 12:43 pm

I have tested the latest release from mutools, the VST host music studio sequencing software MU.LAB. The latest beta works great with wineasio 0.7.3

Tested on openSUSE 11 (jad 2.0) and Ubuntustudio 8.0.4; This app work very smooth and without any graphical problem and only a very few xruns, it is a userfriendly VST host, with some good advanced concepts (racks, modular), full VST plugin integration.

I like this well designed app, it seemed to be a promising alternative to Reaper and EnergyXT2 as "wine-platinum" host for Linux.

Note: You need to have WineAsio installed for the realtime audio. A kernel-rt for better audio latency is recommended.

Sceenshot in the official WineAsio support forum:
http://forum.jacklab.net/viewtopic.php? ... &sk=t&sd=a

regards,

Michael Bohle / from JackLab

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 1:52 pm

Cheers for the positive report!

Curious whether the current MU.LAB 2.0 Test version runs as smooth.

Downloadable from:

OSX: http://www.mutools.com/mulab/test20/mul ... -c-osx.zip
WIN: http://www.mutools.com/mulab/test20/mul ... -c-win.zip

(temporary links)

Although there is no official MU.LAB for Linux version (yet?), feel free to suggest which 'little' tweaks could furtherly improve this wrapped MU.LAB for Linux. Like a kind of unformal support where possible.

Lump · Post by **Lump** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:52 pm

mutools wrote: Although there is no official MU.LAB for Linux version (yet?), feel free to suggest which 'little' tweaks could furtherly improve this wrapped MU.LAB for Linux. Like a kind of unformal support where possible.

One of the good things about a VST host drived by WINE/WineASIO is that we can use nearly 90% of the existing Windows VST plugins. WineAsio is not a wrapper, it is more a simple translator telling Windows applications that they have a working ASIO driver, needed for realtime audio support. But they are JACK clients

The ways how to use Windows VST software are documented and supported by JackLab for openSUSE ( http://en.opensuse.org/JackLab/3_Steps_ ... eginners_2 )

Also http://64studio.com have a good WineAsio VST support.

For Ubuntu you can use the Ubuntustudio metapackage for to have a kernel-rt and some audio apps for creative users. http://ubuntustudio.com for more info.

At least you need to have a running JACK system and WINE (->1.0).
Install wineasio with your package manager. If you can't find this in your package manager, try this "universal" binary archives:

(WineASIO 32bit) http://forum.jacklab.net/download/file.php?id=16

(WineASIO64 64bit) http://forum.jacklab.net/download/file.php?id=12

Register the wineasio driver in the Wine registry (with any terminal emulation):

Code: Select all

regsvr32 wineasio.dll

32bit version:
If you need more then two WineASIO I/O, make a file named .wineasiocfg in your home dir and insert this:

Code: Select all

ASIO_INPUTS=10
ASIO_OUTPUTS=10

See the readme.txt of the WineASIO binary.

64bit version:
You must start the 'jackbridge' with 8 fixed I/O for connecting with wineasio clients. See the readme.txt of the WineASIO64 binary.

Midi I/Os can be enabled with winecfg, a graphical interface for some WINE configurations. The ALSA Raw midi support is mostly enabled by default. If not, all you need to do is to click the checkbox ALSA in the 'Sound' tab. Leave all other soundclients unchecked, confirm.

Copy the content of the MU.LAB archive to your home: .wine/drive_c/program files

Start JACK (with qjackctl)

Right click on MULAB.exe -> open with wine (checkbox 'always open with this app' then you can open *.exe with a double click). In the "Connections" windows of qjackctl you can see now the WineASIO JACK clients, the I/O's of MU.LAB

The preferences dialog of MU.LAB make the right suggestion for the wineasio driver, choose your midi I/O, confirm, choose the vst dir,...

Have fun

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:04 pm

Ok for you if this info is copied to the mutools website?

Thanks anyway for the interesting info!

Lump · Post by **Lump** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:03 pm

mutools wrote:Ok for you if this info is copied to the mutools website?

Thanks anyway for the interesting info!

For sure you can use this info. Tomorrow I will make one more tests and look for some links to tutorials about WineASIO and VST and add them to the upper text. In between google will help a lot

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:09 am

Ok, cheers!

Lump · Post by **Lump** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:19 pm

mutools wrote:Cheers for the positive report!

Curious whether the current MU.LAB 2.0 Test version runs as smooth.

Downloadable from:
WIN: http://www.mutools.com/mulab/test20/mul ... -c-win.zip

Oh now I see, that I downloaded for my OSX the test-c from the mutools website and only an older version (from the screenshot) of MU.LAB for Windows that I used for my Linux test.

The WineASIO maintainer Peter L Jones point me to that.

The test-c runs not so nice in a wineASIO environment, on my openSUSE 11 I have often crashes of the JACK soundserver when I recording instrument vst plugins. This is eventually a problem of the 2.6.25-rt kernel audio priority, I'm sure with Ubuntustudio kernel 2.6.24-rt it will be much better.

I miss the "restart realtime engine" in the menue.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:50 pm

Lump wrote:The test-c runs not so nice in a wineASIO environment, on my openSUSE 11 I have often crashes of the JACK soundserver when I recording instrument vst plugins.

Do you mean when recording vst parameters?

I miss the "restart realtime engine" in the menue.

Still in the Help menu, but now under "Help Functions"

Lump · Post by **Lump** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 4:10 pm

mutools wrote:
Lump wrote:The test-c runs not so nice in a wineASIO environment, on my openSUSE 11 I have often crashes of the JACK soundserver when I recording instrument vst plugins.
Do you mean when recording vst parameters?

When I record simple Midi Note on / off events, (sequencing notes without any midi cc etc) the jackd get a float of hundreds xruns in the backend and then jackd suicide - but this is for sure a problem of the kernel-rt 2.6.25.

I just tested the test-c on Ubuntustudio and it runs very good again, with BFD 1.5, Asynth, MDA ePiano, Triangle, Drum and Bass Rig, Organized Trio, two instances of muverb, two mux and a classic limiter in the master. I'm nearly on the limit of the free edition and for sure, I recorded cc/vst parameter without any problem (triangle reso/freq). I'm just going to create a first composition/production with MU.LAB.

mutools wrote:
I miss the "restart realtime engine" in the menue.
Still in the Help menu, but now under "Help Functions"

OK -but open the "audio setup" doing the same job: restarting the audioengine -but here on ubuntustudio 8.0.4 I had no need to do so, only 1 (2) xruns.

Sometimes it happens that when I change a preset of a synth or remove a rack instruments, that some more xruns appears. But beside this, the workflow is very smooth.

A very good app for wine on audiolinux.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 7:20 am

It really does work great, think many doesn't know that, at least around web when you seek for some info about options.

Automation doesn't work properly

It does, just assign shortcut for "Add Automation Sub-Track"

dakkra · Post by **dakkra** » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:45 pm

Old topic, Cool thing.

Drag and drop doesn't like wine right now but considering I can playback fairly complex projects, I'm quite happy ^^

And yes I still use Windows 10, but I wanted to see how it works on Manjaro Linux

Dakkra

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Wed May 04, 2016 10:46 pm

Awesome!

sl23 · Post by **sl23** » Thu May 05, 2016 9:45 am

What are the pros and cons of using Linux? Is it alot of hassle setting up or maintaining? My system is pretty fast anyway and don't have issues with slowdown so is there any benefit switching or is it just personal preference?

I've always wondered if it was worth switching. As I use only portable applications on my system, I'm a bit wary of the switch. Does Linux have the option to use apps portably?

Cheers

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Thu May 05, 2016 6:03 pm

If you've an android phone, you're running Linux... with a lot of customisation on top. When you say "Windows", you'll mean a bundle of stuff that Microsoft put together and issue. Linux doesn't work that way. It's a tiny little bit in the middle (the kernel) on top of which distribution producers package a whole load of stuff... So, you'd have to work out which flavour of Linux is best suited (which is a subject for elsewhere). Asking "Does Linux have the option to use apps portably?" isn't entirely meaningful. Let's put it this way, it's pretty trivial to set up an application in a Docker container. There are a myriad of ways to containerise an application, though. Indeed, you could have a different WINE instance for each, if you wanted, using native jackd to route audio between them.

Summary: do you need to use Linux? Only you can answer that.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Thu May 05, 2016 7:28 pm

sl23 wrote:What are the pros and cons of using Linux? Is it alot of hassle setting up or maintaining? My system is pretty fast anyway and don't have issues with slowdown so is there any benefit switching or is it just personal preference?

I've always wondered if it was worth switching. As I use only portable applications on my system, I'm a bit wary of the switch. Does Linux have the option to use apps portably?

Cheers

Personal preference really, can't find many pro's for it really as far music making goes, whatever get's job done is my philosophy and Linux definitely is not it, really tried to embrace the whole thing, but don't know really.

But if you gave me PC without OS, would be hard pressed not to give it another go, seeing prices of new Windows and the fail that new 10 is...

Good thing is that MuLab works even on older versions, so yeah, getting some XP/Vista cheap is good option for low budget music making with dozen of freebies that can be found around and majority of hardware is supported too, with Linux you are left with handful of options again...

MuTools

KVR Audio

MU.LAB works great with WineAsio on Audio Linux