Waveform 13 Linux Mint 22

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

This might just be the way of the world..

WF 13/Linux Mint 22: Waveform loads and runs fine. VST scan, finds Biotek and Attraktive and DAW Essentials and Master Mix - BUT- both Master Mix and Attraktive refuse to verify. Ok, try to load Biotek, 'no compatible plug-in format found' - wtf?

Updated everything, rebooted, no changes. At least my Acid loops load and run OK.

Any idea what's happening here? I knew I'd lose all my DAWesome gear, but if there a .so it should load, right? I followed the READMEs in all cases...

Not a showstopper as I'll just keep on with my plans go to all hardware if this fails. I'm Linux or nothing now, whatever the cost. All my animation/video editing/writing tools run fine, thankfully.

All info appreciated, if anyone has any ideas.

[dajonaga]

I'm not sure what might be going on... but...

You can try Wine+Yabridge to use the Dawsome plugins, or install Windows flavor of Tracktion's pulgins.

[talby]

On my Linux, the Waveform DAW seems to work fine for plugins in VST format, but not for formats LV2 or VST3.
The Tracktion plugins, which are delivered together with Waveform, are coming in various formats. Use the VST format version of them. Let us know if this solved your problem or if there is still something else going on!

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Thanks for the response. I'll spend a little more time poking around - may be a bit before I post back.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Update:after a fair amount of fuss, Biotek2 and Collecrtie are running fine, which is a plus as I can do a pile with those two instruments and some drum loops. Attraktive both VST and VST3 refuse to load no matter what I do. The one .so of Master Mix I get in the download refuses to oad as well.

Oh well. The current state is certainly workable and I like it better than Ardour.

BTW: Vital Pro installed and ran the first time, zero issues. Sweet.

Next fight: hooking up the Akai MPD218. Sundays fun!

[UPDATE] MPD218 plugged in and immediately recognized. Quite happy. I need an FM Synth to fill out my stable, though.. I wonder if F'em runs under Linux? Yaay more research... ugh.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

OK.... F'em sounds great WHILE IT WORKS... whci is about 3 minutes before screwing up Waveform and making me restart it.

Too bad, no sale. Would buy it on the spot if it worked on my machine...

SYMPTOMS: Everything loads fine, put on a track, found content, all good. Set MPD as the MIDI input. Great! Start checking presets.. sweet.. then sudden silence. Eh? Minimize window and WTF WAVEFORM HAS LOST THE MPD218?!?!?!? Gone, not in MIDI devices, just POOF. Get out of WF, reload, all good again. Repeat steps - same failure. Checked USB MIDI devices outside of WF, never lost eve though WF lost it. Eh?

Did same steps with Biotek, nothing bad happened. Repeated with Vital.. nothing happened. Double EH?

Apparently on MY specific install, this is just a thing with F'em. WF doesn't want me to use an FM synth (maybe Biotek is jealous???).

Very glad there was a demo, saved me and Tracktion support a lot of issues. Whew!

Still plenty happy with what I DO have, though.

[dajonaga]

In my experience, F'em is awesome but some presets are VERY CPU hungry... my Ryzen 5 3600 just goes AWOL

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

OH BOY WAS I WRONG TO BLAME F'EM! Sorry F'em devs!!

After playing with tracking in MIDI for Biotek - guess what? WF LOST MY MPD218! Ok, so wtf ensues.. unplugged the MPD and plugged in my MPK+. About 20 minutes later, poof, gone. Yaay. Plugged in my Nektar LX25+. SAME DAMN THING.

All signs point to WF 13 on Linux Mint 22 being an impediment, not a tool.

Going to install Ardour and see if it works, if so, le sigh bye WF. Was great since T4, but.. all good things come to an end and times they are a'changing.

I'll post results in a day or two after more thorough testing. Feh though so far.

[frankmissing]

This might just be the way of the world..

WF 13/Linux Mint 22: Waveform loads and runs fine. VST scan, finds Biotek and Attraktive and DAW Essentials and Master Mix - BUT- both Master Mix and Attraktive refuse to verify. Ok, try to load Biotek, 'no compatible plug-in format found' - wtf?
Updated everything, rebooted, no changes. At least my Acid loops load and run OK.Any idea what's happening here? I knew I'd lose all my DAWesome gear, but if there a .so it should load, right? I followed the READMEs in all cases.... Not a showstopper as I'll just keep on with my plans go to all hardware if this fails. I'm Linux or nothing now, whatever the cost. All my animation/video editing/writing tools run fine, thankfully.

All info appreciated, if anyone has any ideas.

I would start the analysis with simple steps:
Step 1 rebooted the system
Step 2 checked for updates
Step 3 checked all drivers
Sometimes it is worth waiting 1 day and the system is restored, there are different bugs!

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Ok, I think I've found the issue, and past this point I won't be wasting my time with Waveform any longer. I'm not a paid QA person so it's simply not worth the cost and energy to chase he issue down further.

For a brief instant before WF loses its marbles some error window pops up. This happens ONLY after playing SOME patches for a while. By switching around VST, I found that Collective wouldn't close the error window.

'CPU Overload'. Ok, interesting..

Simply inserting the MPK+ and letting it sit did nothing. Plunking one note then waiting did nothing. But on SOME patches about 4 notes, BOOM, error message snd ALL INPUTS vanish from WF until I restart it.

Installed the latest Ardour, performed the same steps, zero issues and no CPU overload. How Interesting.

So, alas, yes it's time to wave goodbye to WF. Ardour, while a pain to use in many ways and less refined than WF, is STABLE for me and I want to compose/perform music, not endlessly debug Other Peoples Code.

WF on Windows is excellent. Not on Linux. So be it.

[talby]

Trying to help, let me assume some details concerning your problems with the Tracktion plugins:

1) you confirmed that you have the proper license properly in place for being allowed to run the plugin and the license for its maybe available Content package(s), for the Tracktion plugins & Content packages shown here: Waveform - Settings - Licensing
2) you have configured a path "/home/username/.vst" in Waveform - Settings - File Locations - VST Plugins
3) you have removed the troubling plugin from all other locations and afterwards run the command "Remove any plugins whose files no longer exist" found in Waveform - Settings - Plugins - Scan for Plugins...
4) you find consistent with Step-1 your available Tracktion plugins and contents offered in the Tracktion Download Manager; on Linux, if upon "Install", called in the Download Manager, the automatic installation is not executed automatically, what unfortunately is the most likely to happen, then at least finding the tried to install plugin and maybe tried to install content installation package(s) fully downloaded to the default Downloads folder of your Linux system; the Tracktion Download Manager falsely reports on Linux the packages would already be installed, and ready to maybe become re-install, while the truth is that they have only been downloaded and you could re-download them
5) you have installed the not-automatically installed plugin and content packages manually; doing so you followed the instructions found in the installation instructions file(s) found inside the installation package(s); you accordingly placed the *.so file of format type VST (Linux VST version 2), but not the *.so file from the format type VST3, in the folder which you configured in Step-2, and you placed the Content data to folders /home/username/Tracktion/pluginname/contentsubfolders, for instance: /home/username/Tracktion/BioTek/contentsubfolders
6) you have run the command "Scan for new or updated VST plugins" found in Waveform - Settings - Plugins - Scan for Plugins...
7) still on the page Waveform - Settings - Plugins, you found the plugin now listed in the table of for Waveform currently available plugins
still on the page Waveform - Settings - Plugins, you have in the current Linux version of Waveform deactivated(!) the Plugin Sandboxing feature
9) you confirmed BEFORE starting the plugin a first time that for the plugin needed Content data is properly in place as cared for it in Step-4 and Step-5
10) you took into account that Tracktion Attracktive is a simplified sound player for the sounds having been created by the fully-fledged BioTek2 synth, and respectively the Attracktive plugin searches for content in /home/username/Tracktion/BioTek/contentsubfolders
11) you saved your current Edit, for the case something would crash, and added to a track of your Edit the plugin, and now WAIT SUFFICIENTLY LONG TIME so that the plugin should have finished in the background its scan for all its available contents; IIRC, it is doing this either upon the fist time adding it to a track, or upon the first time opening its GUI; if the scan process failed to terminate properly although it in fact might have scanned and registered all content correctly, then after a reasonable time, maybe some 5 to 10 minutes, close the plugin (if needed killing the process(es) by means of your operating system tools) and restart it; in my experience it now should eventually work;

I assume correctly that this is also your experience and now all Tracktion plugins work?

[talby]

Trying to help, let me suggest something concerning your problems with your hardware MIDI controllers disconnecting from Waveform or maybe even crashing something in Waveform and subsequently finding them disconnected. Please note, that I do not have any such hardware controller and can only suggest some ideas derived from what I read about hardware controllers and Waveform.

I could imagine that your controllers send MIDI data willing to trigger a certain function, but Waveform in your current configuration interprets this data differently. Quickly some chaos is produced and the setup falls apart. Obviously the sent data and the interpretation of the data should be in harmony. So, find and select the configuration profile stored in Waveform for your hardware listed here: Waveform - Settings - Control Surfaces.
If it is not listed, you should create your personal configuration profile for your hardware by "Create New Custom Control Surfaces..." and then pre-configure it by "Edit Control Mappings...", which will register the various controller knobs and sliders available on your hardware. Afterwards you will from the Edit of your Project use the MIDI LEARN feature and complete the configuration by assigning DAW or Plugin functions to the registered knobs and sliders.

Well, at this point I cannot add more to it, sorry. But maybe I gave you some idea for troubleshooting.
Others may have practical experience with this and might be able to share it with you.

In any case, I would not give up so quickly, and I would also not exclude the option to contact the support so quickly. Just try to accompany your questions with as much information and details as possible, in order to give a chance here on the forum to other users, or on the support form to the company's support team, to properly understand remotely what might happen in your particular system. For instance, what I did not understand by now, you succeeded with all what you are trying to do on Linux before in a Windows installation, with the same software and plugin and content packages versions? And the same hardware controllers with the same Control Surfaces profile in use?
A couple of days of investigation my safe you a nice workflow for much time to come!

Best wishes!

[unholyeyebrows]

Might I also suggest base-lining your hardware and Waveform using stock Ubuntu 24.04 first. I've tried a few Ubuntu-based distros expecting (incorrectly) equivalent compatibility with mainstream Ubuntu but sometimes there are differences. Waveform is tested against stock Ubuntu hence this suggestion.

See how your stack of hardware, Waveform, and plugins work with Ubuntu, and then re-install with Mint and re-test. A fair bit of work but at least that way you might avoid debugging issues which end up being caused by Mint rather than Waveform.

Ultimately I have stuck with Ubuntu and have a decent stable audio experience with Waveform and my plugins.

Good luck!
Nick

[dellboy]

I have Waveform Pro 13 installed on Mint 22 and it works ok. I find everything on Linux needs extra work to get it working well compared to OSX or Windows, but it is possible. The one thing that I did to make Linux Mint work better was to add Ubuntu Studio to it. Its still remains Linux Mint, but the guts of Ubuntu Studio are added on top. I am not in any way recommending it, because I am not sure it can be undone, but I have it installed and it works ok. The other option is to install the Bitwig demo. Bitwig just seems to work on Linux much like it does on Windows. Reaper is the other possibility.

https://ubuntustudio.org/ubuntu-studio-installer/

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I gave up, honestly NOT interested in debugging this with WF13 as I have an alternate DAW that functions perfectly in Linux Mint, with all VSTs (F'em sounds great, will get it soon-ish) and LV2 plugins. Acid loops run well in it, and it loves my Akai MPK+ so.. pfft.

Back to actually making music Been a blast with Waveform, will see how it evolves on Linux Mint, but I have music to make and after 42 years as a software engineer I am SIXCK of jacking around with debugging and code.. sorry.