HOW To: Ardour with VST support (Hardy).

[sanus|art]

[!] - This tutorial is for x86 32bit only.
This post is meant to create "step-by-step" HOW TO on compiling ardour 2+ with VST effects support. It was pretty much time-waister to follow all the dependencies, so nothing new here except the needed packages really - consider it as an plain time-saver.

[!] For Jaunty (or ardour 2.8+):

Execute:

sudo apt-get built-dep ardour

and continue from step [5]

[!] For Hardy:

[!] - Ardour was released under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, vst sdk 2.3 are NOT - So here is a note from ardour developers regarding VST support:

You may not distribute binaries of Ardour with VST support. Doing so
is a violation of the license agreement for the Steinberg VST SDK. If
you are found to be distributing such binaries, you risk both
prosecution by Steinberg and public humiliation by me.

This is not my choice, and as soon as Steinberg change their
licensing, which they have indicated they will do, this policy (and
file) will be removed.


[1] - Download the latest ardour-<VERSION>.tar.bz2 source from [here] to yor desktop and extract it.

tar -xjvf ~/Desktop/ardour*.tar.bz2 -C ~/Desktop

[2] - Download 'vst_sdk2_3.zip' (must be version 2.3) from www.steinberg.net or here (use the search function if the link is leading nowhere as Steinbergs are changing the location of this archive all the time) to your desktop and copy it 'as is' (without extracting) into 'ardour*/libs/fst/<HERE>':

cp ~/Desktop/vst_sdk2_3.zip ~/Desktop/ardour*/libs/fst/

[3] - Install dependencies:

sudo apt-get install build-essential scons libtool pkg-config gettext libjack-dev libasound2-dev qjackctl libxml2-dev libsamplerate-dev libraptor-dev liblrdf-dev libgnomecanvas2-dev libboost-dev liblo-dev libglib-dev libgtkmm-dev libsndfile-dev wine wine-dev automake libfftw3-3 libfftw3-dev -y

[!] NOTE - If your ardour is 2.5 - You also need this as dependencies (thanks to angelsguitar for pointing this out):

sudo apt-get install aubio-tools libaubio-dev libaubio-doc libaubio2 pd-aubio python-aubio

[4] - Get into ardour's source directory:

cd ~/Desktop/ardour*

[5] - Configurations/makefile:
add 'VST=1' - to enable VST support.
add 'FREESOUND=1' - to enable the use of Freesound database lookup.
add 'LV2=1' - to enable support of LV2 if slv2 is available. Here is a bit about installation of all 'slv' related (tanks to motin)
add 'OLDFONTS=1' - to compile with fonts as of ardour v.1 (fonts in v.2 sometimes get bigger than is has to be).

I desided to compile mine with VST and FREESOUND.

scons VST=1 FREESOUND=1

It takes about 5-10 minutes - make yourself a cup of coffee. If you have slow machine, it could get to 20 minutes very easy.

[5.1] - Build:

sudo scons install

It takes about 5-10 minutes too - drink that cup of coffee while it's still hot.

[6] - The default VST folders locations are '/usr/local/lib/vst' and '/usr/lib/vst' (not exist - have to be created). You might want to create system link to one of those directories from your home '~/VST':
Create directory at '/usr/lib/vst':

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/vst

Create directory at '~/vst':

mkdir ~/vst

Create system link to '/usr/lib/vst' so you could add VST without being root.

sudo ln -s ~/vst /usr/lib/vst

(You can set the path for VST plug-ins in '~/.bashrc' but I choose to not mess with variables.)
Now you can put your VST in '~/vst'.

[7] - To launch ardour use <ALT+F2> and type:

ardourvst

or
create desktop icon/Launcher on your desktop:

gedit ~/Desktop/ArdourVST

and add the lines bellow:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=ArdourVST
Type=Application
Exec=ardourvst
Comment[en_US]=ardour
Comment=ardour
Icon=/usr/local/share/ardour2/icons/ardour_icon_48px.png

That is it, I hope I did not forget/messed up anything. This is my first tutorial

[dilandog]

This file (vst_sdk2_3.zip) is impossible to find!

[sanus|art]

Originally Posted by dilandog This file (vst_sdk2_3.zip) is impossible to find!

Try here. Accept the license ...

[dilandog]

No, this link is dead end. Steinberg seems to regularly change the URL required to get the SDK, search on Steinberg site is dead end too. I tryed ftp://steinberg.net -no luck.

[sanus|art]

Originally Posted by dilandog No, this link is dead end. Steinberg seems to regularly change the URL required to get the SDK, search on Steinberg site is dead end too. I tryed ftp://steinberg.net -no luck.

I was able to download SDK for 3 times during our little chat here from the page in link of previous post, are you sure you can't? You need to accept the licence + fill your name and email and then they redirecting you to some random page with working link to VST SDK. Maybe you get blocked our something?

[roaldz]

What if I already have ardour installed? Can I have two copies of ardour at the same time? Or do I have to uninstall the repo version? I heard the VST support in ardour is a bit buggy.

[sanus|art]

Originally Posted by roaldz What if I already have ardour installed? Can I have two copies of ardour at the same time? Or do I have to uninstall the repo version? I heard the VST support in ardour is a bit buggy.

I think the version from the repositories will be overwritten. The VST in ardour a bit buggy - true, but from my experience - any wondows application is a bit buggy while handling VST, that is why we are trained so much with the "Ctrl+S".

[cino]

Originally Posted by roaldz What if I already have ardour installed? Can I have two copies of ardour at the same time? Or do I have to uninstall the repo version? I heard the VST support in ardour is a bit buggy.

From one beginner to another, I do not know but I have ardour already installed and am trying the above instructions now...

[cino]

@Sanus

hey, I am trying your instructions, but I am not very experienced...

step 5 has no code for me and I was wondering if you could explain to me what to do, in a little more detail.

I now have ardour-2.4.1 on my desktop but am not sure how to do "these things" to the make file.

pls help.

cino

[cino]

omg -- never mind... **reads more carefully