Running commercial audio software on linux

[glokraw]

bump for Fathom Friday sale, $15 on 10-12-18,
includes both the extra soundbanks, and now includes
microtuning, to finesse the brute force a wee bit.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=482501

also

Soundspot Glitch is $5 at www.pluginboutique.com

works in reaper/wine,
It has
16 on/off gates
a smoothing slider to blend the gates
8 tempo selection buttons
sliders to zero in on the filter range
a drive amount knob
a glitch knob
a space knob selecting among 6 delay effects
input/output volume sliders.
Lots to toy with in a nice and simple gui,
and it can save and load presets.
I'm using it with Hive and Amplitube at the moment.
Hive pads and Amplitube guitar harmonics can be
greatly repurposed, to say the least.
Setting host bpm really slow
brings the faster tempo buttons into more musical
rythmic zones, I've been lucky several times already
while the tea brews, and the $5 won't be missed,
although the cheeseburger I would have bought
with it definitely will be
Still, I've got tortillas, beans, chili powders and salsa,
and can do with losing another 20 lbs this winter.
so all is well. Using Fathom with Glitch
will also be great fun, may the earth
spin slowly on the weekend!

[glokraw]

https://www.kvraudio.com/news/overtone- ... each-42860

https://www.overtonedsp.co.uk/

I've always read good comments about these cross/platform plugins.
Hope many more are on the way.
Cheers

[glokraw]

bump+ for Fathom Friday sale, now extended for all of October 2018
$15
includes both the extra soundbanks, and now includes
microtuning, to finesse the brute force a wee bit.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=482501

[glokraw]

Since the Fathom Synth worked really well with my new
$79.95 Sonuus GM2 guitar/midi adaptor, I thought I'd share my
review here, as well as in the general linux area.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/manufacturer/sonuus

For usable musical results, it requires
1. great midi instruments
2. great guitar intonation
3. great effort to play notes accurately
4. finding the place on the guitar most suited to the chosen sound(s)
5. make a custom string set, minimizing differences in gauge
6. willingness not to attempt shredding
7. willingness to edit glitches.

What are it's strengths for a guitarist to gain synth/sampler diversity?
Maximize each pluck!
1. Layering multiple instruments/presets that have varied
adsr settings. Using multiple instruments and varied release settings
creates unique ambient presentations, and can
can obviate the lack of polyphony, while greatly
extending the palate of sounds.
2. Trigger sequences, arpeggio presets, looped beats, at the same time
as backing pads
3. Layer sounds featuring unique modulations, one with delay,
one with portamento, one with phase/flange, one with
chorus/distortion etc
4. Taking advantage of familiar/unique note placements
not easily replicated on midi keyboards.

It will take time to find/create presets that work really well.
And then modify the guitar-playing as needed. Slinky/lazy players
will need to change their ways.
(tugging my beard, in contemplation )

Some synth/sampler plugins I thought would be great,
and are, when using a midi keyboard,
utterly failed the usability minimums, while some I thought
surely would be problematic, worked very well. Beyond that,
within any preset bank, or sampler soundset, some things
will be useful, and others useless.

The hardware is excellent, a tuner is integrated, a light pulses slower
as you get in tune, flashes faster the more you are out of tune.
It has an external on/off switch for chromatic playing.
There are six jumpers in the battery recess, for some
common system settings.
The battery connectors are firm, and the device goes to sleep
when not played after a time (re-insert cable to reactivate)
or when the guitar cable is removed.
It has a pass-through guitar output,
so your amp is still available as you play midi.
The needed audio-in, and 5pin midi-out are on opposite ends,
so no kinky cables. As simple to use as the youtube videos show it.

To me, this has somewhat limited 'instant gratification' appeal,
but rewards the first 4 hours investment.
And the fun grows steadily after that.
For a guitarist unfamiliar with available midi sounds,
try a lot of demos, freebies, and no-brainer sales.
I found the Fathom synth and sounds work very well,
and it has a free mono version to use, with a few hundred presets.
Zebra and other U-he synths will also be good choices,
providing a great range of sound types to layer.

My tests were done using an E-mu X2 usb midi adaptor,
in Studio 1337 realtime linux distro, using Reaper in wine
to host plugins. The output soundcard is mAudio 24/96 pci,
with nVidia pcie video card.
Cheers

[glokraw]

This week's burger money went to StageCrafts's
'Addiction' subtractive synthesizer,
$10 at Plugin Boutique at the moment. Seems to work fine
in wine/reaper, lots of sounds and effects, colourful displays,
and the creators put a lot of work into automation
(which I don't attempt using, until I can strum
and run some decent arpeggios )

And also nabbed Soundtouch Nebula, for $1
a gorgeous multi-effect plugin with great visual depictions
of each modulation, plenty of well sized controls,
and some some fun orbs to cluelessly drag around
in their rectangular playfields, until the manual gets a read.
Better than half a bag of fries...much better!
Many other Soundtouch plugins are also $1, fatso!

(tested using wine-staging 3.19, with some common
wine over-rides, reaper 5.961, Mint 18 linux)

[glokraw]

After watching an hour of videos revealing
Native Instruments Reaktor based
'Polyplex' drum sampler, I thought it well worth the $35 sale price.

Here's a refresher of steps to install Native Instruments products
in linux, that arive as .iso files, uncovered by Reaper users
osxmidi, and Jack Winter, who share such excellent info
in the Reaper-linux forum, among other places.

Let's say you want to use Native Access in linux
to try and install a Native Instruments product like Phasis.iso

Launch Native Access like this:

wine /home/you/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files/Native Instruments/Native Access/Native Access.exe"

(note the quotes used to 'capture' paths that include spaces!
and that it's all on one command-line) )

As Native Access re-downloads Phasis, it stops before completion
with some error. The download itself is fine so look for
the product's .iso file in

/home/you/.wine/drive_c/Users/you/Downloads/Phasis.iso

As root or sudo, make a folder in which to mount the iso image,
I chose /media/cdrom

issue this command to mount the .iso file:

sudo mount -t udf /home/you/.wine/drive_c/Users/you/Downloads/Phasis.iso -o unhide /media/cdrom

(the above is all on one command line, not two separate commands,
as will be the example below))

Now browse to that folder, /media/cdrom and find the installer.exe,
and run the installer with command:

wine path-to-name-of.exe

For an installer with spaces in it's title, look at this example,
again, noting the path contains spaces requires surrounding " quotes " :

sudo mount -t udf /home/you/.wine/drive_c/Users/you/Downloads/"Reaktor Spark R2.2.iso" -o unhide /media/cdrom

use commands

cd /media/cdrom followed by

ls

to list the contents, which will include the installer.exe Then command:

wine "Reaktor Spark R2.2.exe"

Soon your product is installed, and it's time for registration.
Back to Native Access, where you can use the 'Add a Serial Number'
dialog for each product you own, a simple cut/paste, with success verified
in a few moments of internet speed.

edit: what if your installer title looks like this? :

wine /media/cdrom/Razor%201.7.0%20Setup%20PC.exe

You'll want to edit out the instances of %20 (some weird placeholder? )

and replace each one with a space, and then quote the path containg spaces:

wine /media/cdrom/"Razor 1.7.0 Setup PC.exe"

also, between installs, or when finished, use this command to
clear out un-needed files:

sudo umount /media/cdrom

(and that's not unmount, but umount, no typo, just nix shorthan )

end-edit

When you try to install Native Access itself, what if you discover
the proverbial chicken and egg are slow-dancing, rather than
installing your software? You might have to copy
over the related Native Access folders from a windows partition,
you might need to install some wine 'over-rides', you might need
the latest version of wine-staging, rather than an older distro-version.

What about Kontakt? I only have some Reaktor instruments/effects,
Polyplex, Razor, Prism, Spark, Skanner, and NI's generous free versions
of Replika, Phasis, and the free player editions.

Some people report using Kontakt, so there is a free player version
to try. I think it runs for 15 minutes with unsupported libraries,
while the rest of the NI demos are 30 minute sessions as the demo
limitation.

For sample manglers/crafters, the affordable Form has a demo
to test that works, and there are some good support videos to minimize any
deer-in-the-headlights issues, always try before you buy
Happy shopping!

[glokraw]

Some people might think, that Native Instruments are a
royal pain-in-the-kabooska for linux users, compared to U-he,
discoDSP, PianoTeQ, Overtone, Bitwig, Harrison...well,
such is true, But NI have also some great and unique products worth
some trekking in the deep kimchi, and are generous in my mind,
having holiday gifts, half-price sales, and 30 minute demos,
so I'm all and far to little time for teh
Time to roll the dice on my new drum sampler!

Happy shopping!

edit: thanks yellowmix, for mentioning a product some people
haven't seen (next post) Certainly priced right at $99
to preserve any serious sample users sanity!
Cheers

[yellowmix]

Sononym supports Windows, Mac and Linux x64 platforms: https://www.sononym.net/

I think it's the best sample manager available today.

[glokraw]

Old news can still be good news...U-he have a public beta
and pre-order pricing on the new Twangstrom spring reverb effect.

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=515950

Like the ColourCopy delay plugin, there is lots of supplemental
tone control. It has yet another excellent gui, that offers great access
to create numerous combinations, and utilizes that new-fangled
preset database machine thingamajig. Which works

The newly wavetabled Hive V 1.2 is out, and as a free mega-update!

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=516417

It greatly extends an already delightful instrument.
A scripting methodology is also included, so linux users with some of
those synapses already in place and firing, should find much
to maximize. 400+ new presets based on the new included wavetables
show off the sound design skills Howard Scar, and those
nicely attempting to be.

Now U-he have a dedicated linux versions forum area:

viewforum.php?f=292

And Reaper also has added a main page linux forum:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=515950

Cheers

[glokraw]

Santa stopped by with some nice leftovers from Plugin Boutique,
SlamDawg, and SphereQuad. Both work nice in linux reaper
after being wrapped in linvst.

SlamDawg is great at dialing in tone, 9 big dials and
2 sliders, elegant dark gray gui with red and blue accents on the dials,
and handy preset management. Good thing that, as four of the
included sounds are way too loud but are easily modded
and over-written A jewel for under $10
There is a more feature rich version one might upgrade too,
but I like the central focus of this one.

SphereQuad is a typical multi-fx unit, but with it's own
twists on presenting various combos of typical modulators.
Some really nice presets, and easy to use, nicely placed
in a chain after SlamDawg, and in the French-Fries pricing bin.
Let the good times roll

In the boutique freebie area, there was also a nice
primitive unpolished sounding Varazuvi Indian Flute.
Sounds quite nice with some Replika diffuse reverb.
132 meg samples, and in a lower range than many flutes.
Cheers

[glokraw]

http://www.audjoo.com/h/Helix.htm

http://www.audjoo.com/h/man/manual.html

The Helix synthsesizer, not to be confused with
a previous freeware version from the same author,
nor the Line6 Helix effects, is a great synth,
and it's working fine in wine reaper. The online manual
details some powerful features, and the full version comes with
a large trove of presets from BigTone, one of the really great
sound designers. The price was reduced years ago, is currently $75,
and I wouldn't expect future versions any time soon, if ever.
As it stands, it's a powerhouse, not easily outgrown,
and it also can import

"loopable 8/16/24/32-bit MONO WAV files, no larger than 4096 samples."

I extracted the downloaded .exe file, which produced the data folder
and plugin .dlls, which I copied to my vst path. The big vertical slider
in the gui will control the parameter you select, in addition to normal
mouse knobbing. 2018 is fading fast, it's been a good year

Cheers

[glokraw]

Got an old CM dvd around that has the Dominator synth
and it's effects version? Don't use it for a coaster,
as the effect plugin can receive
midi input from another track, and process the sound
that comes with it, along with it's own Dominator preset,
great fun if you find some compatible sounds to team up,
quite easy, as Dominator is a fine sounding synth, with
lots of good sounds, and the effect capabilities
are begging for someone who masters filters
and oscillators and modulations.

Your new midi controller that arrived recently
could get a well deserved workout. SynthMaster One
strikes me as being a good source of jaunty midi output,
with sounds that would be an easy fit.
2019 is off to an awesome start!
Cheers

[glokraw]

Good news from France, and places unknown,
the great Blue Cat Audio commercial guitar and effects softwares
have been found to work in linux. A very friendly and smart
kvr member queried BlueCat support, as their demos
worked fine in linux-wine, but the separately downloaded
full versions had some issues.

Part of the solution is down to placing your serial number
in a .ini format text file, located in

.wine/drive_c/Users/your-user/AppData/Roaming/Blue Cat Audio
/name-of-product

or

.wine/drive_c/Users/your-user/Application Data/Blue Cat Audio
/name-of-product

Apparently the windows installer doesn't mind-meld us linux users
for sundry install paths, but BlueCat know a sale is a sale,
and fielded the support request, instead of round-filing it.
The brand new 1.12 release works well. Earlier versions
were found to work by BlueCat themselves, good to know
they took an interest. I hope a lot of linux users will test
the demos and freeware, and make purchases in the new year,
the software is outstanding. Drag n drop plugins anywhere, load vsts, input and master chains, with pre and post
chains tucked in between, solid preset management,
and a worthy collection to start with

some details: I made a fresh linux install of the latest
wine-staging 4 rc4, on a fine ubuntu spinoff, called Bodhi,
and am keeping it without any over-rides,
so I can recommend things that will run, or at least
stagger usefully, without any/many special actions.

The BlueCat Axiom 'scorecard' is

32 bit Axiom works in wine-reaper
32 bit Axiom works in linux-reaper, when wrapped by linvst
64 bit VST3 works in wine-reaper

I'll test the 64bit vst2 version later, and edit this.
Gotta bend some strings before I forget how

Axion is a full-featured ampsim and includes their
Destructor and Late Replies products, so if you choose
a preset made with either of them, the related
full gui appears when editing is desired. And Axiom will load
vsts of the same architecture/vst-version.
The BlueCat Axe Pack includes even more products,
all with great capabilities, found among these bundles:

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/C ... 0_Bundles/

Cheers

[Markku]

Thanks for the tip about Wiggle, glokraw! I had not noticed that synth before. It works well in Linux+Wine. Cool sound too. Now I need to stop buying stuff and start making more music, otherwise I end up being only a collector!

However, new versions of Wine are really compatible with more and more VSTs. Only one I really would want is Serum -- Serum's demo is not working well in my rigs. But with the *huge* arsenal I have, that's not very large omission.

[glokraw]

Hey, I have the 32bit Serum demo here, it seems to run
really well, (Mint 18) all the various control types respond smoothley.
Pretty sure all it needed was the real msoft d2d1.dll
put in C:/windows/system32. If wine has it's own d2d1.dll,
rename it, appending with some CAPSLETTERS before
adding the real one, then run winecfg
and in the libraries tab, type in d2d1 in the
'new override for library' textbox, and click the add button

Since you showed up here in person, a public thanks
is in order for your help in getting Axiom running in my
linuxi Thankyou!

I had Wiggle out last night, love the preset browser,
wish that style were more prevalent.
Have a great weekend, or time off according to specs