Hi there, Great Day to you,

How would i run Linux inside a VST plugin, and host a compatible DAW such as Renoise inside it ?

I want to run Renoise alongside another DAW and save settings

Thank you

 

Don't waste your time.
Linux still a rabbit hole for audio production (on the non-amateur level).
A tone of bugs.
Problems with audio interfaces (not ALSA related)
And performance!
Performance on Linux are awful.

I compare Win 10 (DPC optimized to 73 nano-sec input latency) with Win11 (same optimization but 500 nano-sec only! I don't know why)
and with few Linux distros.

Plugins for performance bench:
*1 - TBTECH Kirchhoff-EQ (117 bit. x2 OS on)
*2 - AA TAN 2 ZL

W11 - 12*\26*
W10 - 11*\22*
Linux (latest Mint\Ubuntu Studio low latency kernel installed) - 10*\ 6*
Only 6 Tan compressors.
VST run with yabridge.

 

Don't get me wrong - i hate Microsoft. And i want to work on Linux too. But...

 

I forgot to mention.

Ryzen 2700 no OC
16 GB DDR4
Samsung EVO SSD
Sapphire RX 580

All tests i done in 96kHz !!!

 

You might want to clarify things. What's the OS you're running? And what exactly are you trying to achieve.

If you want to run Linux alongside other operating system, then a virtual machine is your only bet. On Windows you might give WSL a look. Anyways it's not going to be simple.

Might be misunderstanding something here.

 

Yeah, this is why I don't run Linux (though it's my trade) as my audio workstation.

To do a media-oriented (audio/video) system it's kinda like building a Hackintosh box. Look up the hardware that's tested and supported and use well-known versions known to work.

It's not as bad as it was and it's doable, but it's not a "just a quick install" job either.

 

I think he wants to run a Linux DAW - Renoise in this case inside a Windows DAW, like we can do in Linux with LinVST or Yabridge. As far as I know such a bridge plugin for Windows doesn't exist, but I may be wrong. When you want to use more OSes together, I always advocate having more computers connected in a network and using something like ReaMote or ReaStream for transferring audio and MIDI over network. There are many good apps that can do that and if you setup a good network, with a good switcher, the latency is gonna be acceptable. Not great, but ok.

Bridge plugins always come with some CPU overhead and compatibility problems. Having said that, many people are perfectly happy with using either Yabridge or LinVST on Linux for hosting Windows plugins. Since I like to run native DAWs and plugins, I rarely use LinVST and I only need a handful of Windows plugins anyway.

Cheers!

 

reViSiT comes to mind, dunno if it´s updated or alive. Also the renoise redux is kind of close as workflow wise. Other than that Rewire or Ableton Linkfor renoise

 

I don't think it is possible because to run Linux under Windows you need virtualization. So you would have to run a virtual machine. I guess you might be able to run Virtual Box or some other virtualization program in your Windows Host and you might be able to connect to it via midi. Even getting the sound back into your DAW might be possible somehow. I have no Idea about the latency, but I would suspect it not to be great to say the least. It might not be usable at all. Other than that, I doubt there is and ever will be a bridge to run a Linux operating system inside a vst. It is not really something that would make much sense. It would be so much easier to compile a program to run it under Windows natively in my opinion so that the other approach just doesn't seem to make much sense at all.

 

Are you joking? VST plugin is an adiition to a host (DAW), and a host runs "inside" OS (Windows, Linux, MacOS). You run a host "inside" an OS, and a plugin "inside" a DAW. You can't load an OS "inside" a program (exept it's a virtual machine). And with a plugin it's even less possible (and less meaningfull).

But let's be serious. For such a configuration you should use two computers connected by network with Audiogridder: https://audiogridder.com/. But Linux support in Audiogridder is still experimental (it doesn't mean it doesn't work, just no guarantees).

 

You make some sweeping statements, but your experience is far from universal.

There is a learning curve, but not everybody encounters a tone of bugs.

There are no problems with audio interfaces. Many of them simply don't work with Linux, period. And they don't work not because of Linux, but because the manufacturers don't make them Linux-compatible and refuse to provide necessary documentation so that Linux community can develop the drivers themselves. Simple as that. It's a problem with manufacturers, not interfaces. So you need to find a compatible interface and not waste time with the ones that are known to be non-compatible. It will have to be a simple interface, without DSP functionality. Most of the Class-Compliant ones do work. The ones I used recently include SSL 2, SSL 2+ and RME Babyface Pro FS (without Total Mix, obviously). They worked fine, just as well as on Windows, no problems whatsoever.

If there's any difference in performance between Windows and Linux versions of Reaper, in my experience it's slightly in favour of Linux. The same goes for most of the native plugins. Reaper just worked on every flavour of Linux I've ever tried. I even managed to install Linux (Asahi) on a couple of M1 Macs recently, and Reaper works like a charm even there.

A meaningful comparison test would involve native versions of plugins. Yabridge is a very good wrapper, but that way you'll never get the performance comparable to running a plugin natively.

 

Ya, i m ( running Windows - and the virtual machine can be Windows as well ), trying to achieve ability to save all settings in Renoise with another DAW session... that's the only thing, to load a song with everything in place

 

But yea, the songsizes would be astronomical

Just wondering if that is even possible

 

Yes you got it, that's what i mean - virtual machine inside a VST plugin

Just to use Renoise as a Sample Player, so all it's settings can be stored in the host DAW

Yes the songsizes would be crazy... just looking to see how this would be done

 

This is the main question. The one after it is " How do I do this?". The answer is not running an Operating System, with an application running, which then hosts a plugin (which by the way is a DLL file under the main operating system), which then virtualize an operating system; And then there needs to be another Plugin host, and another plugin running on the VM'd linux, which also needs shared use of the audio interface.

This is the software version of a Matryoshka doll. Whatever you are trying to accomplish, it is not going to happen this way. Get creative. Maybe boot to the linux, and it hosts the VM running a Windows image. Then a plugin host and the plugin inside that, with a virtual audio cable between them. It will run horribly even if it works.

 

Last edited: Jul 9, 2023

2024 update.
I'm still want to move from Microsoft spyware (now this fact became more obvious to masses after MS Recall anouncement)
I find the way to run my multi I\O audiointerfaces on Linux with FFADO driver.
IMHO - FFADO mixer is waaaay better than RME TotalMix.

Pipewire gets update and now i don't need run Qjackctl.
I have no problems with audio in DAW same time have audio in system apps.
Wayland become a thing now.

Yabridge work not bad, but i suggest to use it with Bottles.
Because many plugins needs DXVK support (GUI of bridged plugin may freeze without it)
Fastest way to fix this is use Bottles (add DXVK to installed Win program)

For those who want to try Linux for music production.
If you are noob - stay away from Linux Mint.
For example - my TWO audiointefaces do not work in Mint as they should because Mint have some shitty version of FFADO in their PPA.

AV Linux or Ubuntu Studio is fine solution.
Don't dive to Arch bases distros if you new to all this rabbit hole.

Fuck Microsoft!