dssi-vst status

[danryu]

Hi falkTX,
Thanks for all your audio linux work, and sorry to create an issue like this, but just wanted to contact you for info. I'm trying to create a usable DAW with Ubuntu realtime/JACK/Ardour3/Hydrogen/Claudia/TAL-Noizemaker/Calf, with some excellent results, but also plagued by instability with Ardour/ladish/claudia. I'm now investigating the options for running Windows VSTs but docs on the web are outdated and confusing. As far as I can tell your dssi-vst + carla solution is currently the primary choice for running Win VSTs, but some of your forum comments (again maybe outdated) suggest that it's not worth trying. If dssi-vst and carla are in a good state (I know you're committing code to carla at the moment) how do I actually use it? Or does carla handle use of the wrapper directly? A few lines of Howto would be greatly appreciated.
Once again, much kudos for all your contributions to the GPL audio world, it is outstanding.
Cheers,
Dan

[falkTX]

you should had contacted me over IRC, but anyway.

dssi-vst does work right now, but has a few issues.
I'm now maintaining the project, and yes Carla does work nicely with it (the 1.x series).

for the upcoming Carla 2.x series, it will have an internal method to load windows plugins. no more dssi-vst needed.
BUT I still need to work on it a bit more on before calling it a proper replacement.

[danryu]

OK, thanks, I've found the #kxstudio channel now so I'll refer there for more questions.
Meanwhile I'll let this serve as a "dssi-vst needs a 3 line howto" issue. The existing README seems to assume a lot of previous knowledge of vst solutions in general. I just want to know how to deploy dssi-vst and run it, without knowledge of plugin host internals.

[falkTX]

the simplest way to do this in carla is just:

1. configure vst folders in the settings
2. rescan dssi plugins
3. load the plugin(s)

I never though this needed a tutorial ;)

[danryu]

That's because you're lead dev and thus kind of an expert ;)
Not so for hopeful users like myself trying to wade through all the conflicting information and actually try and make something work.
Even just that information was useful - that dssi-vst and carla work out-of-the-box like that. So I should be able to install carla and dssi-vst (as I have), and do the steps 1-3 as you outlined (as I already had). I tried to load the TX16wx sampler and TAL Noizemaker Win VSTs (TAL-NoiseMaker.dll and TX16Wx.dll) by adding paths to VST section in Carla and restarting Carla. But neither plugin shows up after restart, so ... that's when I wondered if I'd missed something.
What do I need to check?

[falkTX]

you need the step 2, re-run the discovery (for native DSSI plugins).
note that dssi-vst doesn't search folders recursively, so if you have more than 1 folder you need to add all of them.

[danryu]

OK, not sure which path I needed to add for the DSSI section, but I rescanned anyway.
Still can't see the Win VST DLLs.

Can I assume that I'm supposed to run the only executable that comes with dssi-vst, the vsthost binary? If so, then this is what I get with the TX16wx sampler:

dan@guava:~$ vsthost TX16Wx.dll 
Returning file identifiers: QDZfscmqd8BVhxE0LE5dhTVn
DSSI_PATH not set, defaulting to /home/dan/.dssi:/usr/local/lib/dssi:/usr/lib/dssi
RemoteVSTClient: executing /usr/lib/dssi/dssi-vst/dssi-vst-server.exe -g TX16Wx.dll,QDZfscmqd8BVhxE0LE5dhTVn
DSSI VST plugin server v0.986
Copyright (c) 2004-2010 Chris Cannam
Loading "TX16Wx.dll"... 
VST_PATH not set, defaulting to /home/dan/vst:/usr/local/lib/vst:/usr/lib/vst
dssi-vst-server[1]: not found in /home/dan/vst/TX16Wx.dll
dssi-vst-server[1]: not found in vst/TX16Wx.dll
dssi-vst-server[1]: not found in /usr/local/lib/vst/TX16Wx.dll
dssi-vst-server[1]: not found in /usr/local/lib/vst/TX16Wx.dll
dssi-vst-server[1]: found in /usr/lib/vst/TX16Wx.dll
done
Testing VST compatibility... 
dssi-vst-server[1]: VST entrypoint "VSTPluginMain" found
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x1023c811, (nil), {f7b697a3-4db5-4d3b-be71-c4d284e6592f}, 7, 0x10464d00, (null), (null), 0x10485640,): stub
fixme:process:GetNumaHighestNodeNumber (0x33f834): stub
dssi-vst-server: ERROR: Failed to instantiate plugin in VST DLL "TX16Wx.dll"
Plugin server timed out on startup: No such device or address
vsthost: bailing out

[falkTX]

well, I explained the steps for using the dssi-vst in carla.
vsthost is another thing.

BUT I see that is failing to load the plugin for you and that's no good sign...
I'll add "TX16Wx" to my collection for future testing.

[danryu]

Sorry, still confused ...
vsthost is supplied as a binary in the kxstudio package, but it isn't meant to be used?
So if I understand correctly, then the correct way to use dssi-vst/carla from the kxstudio repo is simply:

• apt-get install dssi-vst carla
• run carla
• and run the steps 1-3 outlined.

No more configuration, no running of superfluous binaries in the deb package, no additional wrapper scripts or one-shot commands to be run by hand.
Just a few config clicks to carry out in Carla. Restart Carla to find the new plugins.
If I'm correct, then Carla is failing silently (nothing in logs window beside lv2_rdf and curie props stuff) on loading those 2 DLLs I mentioned to you. I assume at least your TAL-NoiseMaker.DLL loads for you in Carla...

Whereas when I run "vsthost TAL-NoiseMaker.dll" from the terminal I get a wine error dialog, here's a bit of the output:

Backtrace:
=>0 0x7ebe07a0 _ZN15RemoteVSTServer17scheduleGUINotifyEif+0xa() in dssi-vst-server (0x0033f508)
  1 0x7ebe0be0 _Z12hostCallbackP7AEffectlllPvf+0xdf() in dssi-vst-server (0x0033f558)
  2 0x100cc0f4 in tal-noisemaker (+0xcc0f3) (0x004c7a4a)
  3 0xffffffff (0x001ad7f8)
0x7ebe07a0 _ZN15RemoteVSTServer17scheduleGUINotifyEif+0xa in dssi-vst-server: movl  0x6a8(%eax),%eax

[falkTX]

yes, those are the steps.
if you run carla in the terminal when scanning for DSSI plugins you should be able to see some dssi-vst/wine messages printed there.

but there seems a problem with plugins crashing in your system.
that might be the reason why carla is silent about this...

can you give more info about your system?
do you use 32 or 64bit? what is your wine version?

[danryu]

I'm running modified Ubuntu 13.10 64bit with kxstudio and various repos.
Running my own compiled realtime-patched kernel from git 3.10.25-rt23.
Wine version 1.4.1-0ubuntu7.

I don't see anything in the terminal window whenever I run Carla and perform any action, just one line:
LRDF Support not available (LADSPA-RDF will be disabled)

Also, in the Add New Plugin -> Refresh dialog, "Windows 32 bit" is greyed out - perhaps this is also a symptom ...

[falkTX]

as I said before, you need to refresh the list of native DSSI plugins.

and you should be using wine1.6.1 at least.
kxstudio repos provide a custom package for wine, named "wine-rt". Please try that.

[danryu]

The DSSI checkbox is always ticked every time I have done the refresh.
Updating now to your wine-rt....

[danryu]

Now running wine-rt 1.6.2.

No change. Carla - Refresh dialog still opens with LADSPA/DSSI/LV2/VST/Native all auto-ticked, and Windows 32bit greyed out.
Available tools:
GREEN: carla-discovery-native
RED: carla-discovery-win32
RED: python3-rdflib (LADSPA-RDF support)

[falkTX]

ignore the "carla-discovery-win32" thing.

if you added the VST folder(s) in carla settings, the vsts should be on the plugin list now.

[danryu]

No, as before I have all DSSI/native VST/LADSPA/LV2 plugins showing up in the Refreshed menu, but neither of the 2 DLLs which I previously mentioned, and have now installed in one of the default paths /usr/lib/vst. I assume they should be listed as WinVST or something similar in the Carla-AddNew dialog.