I’m aware of Yabridge. The problem with Yabridge (or any other plugin bridges, like Carla) is that any plugin used with it will be treated by the DAW as an instance of Yabridge rather than an instance of whatever plugin it is. This changes what parameters the DAW looks for.
If I remember correctly, the DAW is aware of parameter names in the VST3 standard. Most of my existing plugins are VST3 (compiled for Windows). In a typical situation, this is exposed to the DAW by the plugin when it is instantiated, and the automation and knob settings of those parameters are written to the project file under those names. However, when the project is moved over to Linux (or anywhere else other than Windows with all the same plugins), the DAW will scan the list of plugins that it is aware of, not including the Windows ones because it doesn’t know how to parse them. The DAW will simply give me a couple hundred “plugin not found” warnings. If I remember correctly, my DAW gives me the option to find and link these plugins by hand.
So I could theoretically go through the whole project and remap all the plugin automation by hand, but there wouldn’t be any technical benefit. It’s just simpler to keep a Windows partition.
Also, I have switched to Linux (Debian Bookworm w/ KDE) on my home PC for everything else. I’m loving it so far, especially KDE Plasma and KDEConnect. I don’t know how I lived without it. I might end up producing new tracks on Debian, but I have to install more software before I make that commitment. Really, it needs to “feel right”, which is admittedly not well-defined.
if yiu wver do swap to linux, check out yabridge for bridging plugins
I’m aware of Yabridge. The problem with Yabridge (or any other plugin bridges, like Carla) is that any plugin used with it will be treated by the DAW as an instance of Yabridge rather than an instance of whatever plugin it is. This changes what parameters the DAW looks for.
If I remember correctly, the DAW is aware of parameter names in the VST3 standard. Most of my existing plugins are VST3 (compiled for Windows). In a typical situation, this is exposed to the DAW by the plugin when it is instantiated, and the automation and knob settings of those parameters are written to the project file under those names. However, when the project is moved over to Linux (or anywhere else other than Windows with all the same plugins), the DAW will scan the list of plugins that it is aware of, not including the Windows ones because it doesn’t know how to parse them. The DAW will simply give me a couple hundred “plugin not found” warnings. If I remember correctly, my DAW gives me the option to find and link these plugins by hand.
So I could theoretically go through the whole project and remap all the plugin automation by hand, but there wouldn’t be any technical benefit. It’s just simpler to keep a Windows partition.
Also, I have switched to Linux (Debian Bookworm w/ KDE) on my home PC for everything else. I’m loving it so far, especially KDE Plasma and KDEConnect. I don’t know how I lived without it. I might end up producing new tracks on Debian, but I have to install more software before I make that commitment. Really, it needs to “feel right”, which is admittedly not well-defined.