this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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So I have some old music projects that are basically stuck on Windows. Even if I moved over all the files and ran the plugins through WINE, I would have to go through the entire project and fill in the blanks with the WINE-bridged plugins and redo all the automation I have. Running the program through WINE isn't really an option because my projects were just below the performance limit on native Windows. I know some programs run on WINE better than Windows, but I need real-time audio with a specific audio interface that doesn't support Linux. I could use WINEASIO, but I would still be losing a lot of performance compared to native Windows, where again I am regularly reaching the performance limit of my setup.
Also, I'm holding off for a few months on installing Debian onto my Windows work laptop because all my technical programs are ready on Windows immediately. I'm waiting until I get more storage and until I know if the programs I need for my future job are compatible with WINE.
I love WINE as much as the next Linux user, but it can't solve everything. I acknowledge that it is Windows rather than WINE or Linux that is making things difficult for us. Unfortunately, I need to have a native Windows partition for the foreseeable future, although I'm doing almost everything else on Debian on my home PC.
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.