Calf plugins crashing in 9.0

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Running on an up-to-date Debian testing (forky) machine with:

  • Debian’s gtk2 packages 2.24.33-10

And freshly, locally, built from source:

  • Ardour 9.0
  • Calf master branch.

Calf plugins open with GUI in the Calf Jack host, but when I try to use in Ardour, it crashes with the following error message:

CALF DEBUG: instance 0x55f7c561a070 data 0x55f7c55c4960
CALF DEBUG: calf 0x7f801f7bce70 cpi 0x7f801efd5e50

(ardour-9.0.0:87368): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 21:04:08.050: specified class size for type 'CalfKnob' is smaller than the parent type's 'GtkRange' class size

(process:87368): GLib-CRITICAL (recursed) **: Failed to get RW lock 0x7f81aec10bd0: Resource deadlock avoided
Aborted                    (core dumped) gtk2_ardour/ardev

Works fine in 8.12.

#2

CALF plugins are no longer usable in Ardour. They rely on GTK+2 which has already been removed from several Linux distributions (and will be removed from almost all of them soon). Do yourself a favor and switch to LSP or some other similar plugin family.

2 Likes
#3

Interestingly, it looks like Debian, at least, did something to get the plugins to work without depending on GTK-2 (if I’m reading this bug report and resolution correctly).

Oh lol, they just disabled the GUI :joy: I mean hey, if it works it works…

#4

In my experience Calf worked on Debian Bookworm with the falkTX LV2 GTK UI bridge hack even after Ardour moved to their forked GTK but on Debian Trixie even with the falkTX GTK UI bridge they no longer work, their time has finally come I think…

#5

I already use LSP pretty extensively but there are a number of plugins in Calf that don’t have equivalents in LSP - and that I haven’t found solid FOSS replacements for - especially the de-esser (the Airwindows ones are OK, but the Calf GUI makes it super easy to dial in).

Looks like Debian do intend to drop gtk2 in the next 12 months though.

#6

which plugins are you missing ?
Anyway I did a quick test with ardour-9 from websie and calf from openSuse repo. They load fine but you can use only generic gui. Still calf is a dead horse.

#7

Have you tried “Edit with generic controls”?

https://manual.ardour.org/working-with-plugins/working-with-ardour-built-plugin-editors/

For me it was a nice surprise to see that, at least in this limited manner, CALF plugins are usable in Ardour 9…

Spent the weekend working on a project including CALF’s organ, wave table, rotary speaker simulator and bass enhancer… No crashes…

#8

I was getting the generic controls with the dmo packaged calf plugins - but when I recompiled trying to get the GUI back I got the crash.

The GUIs are the main thing I like about the Calf plugins unfortunately - clean simple interfaces with clear interactive visual feedback.

I’m probably stuck on Ardour 8.12 until I can migrate all my active projects off Calf, which might take a while.

#10

Mine are installed straight from Mint’s repositories…

Ardour 8.12 would’n’t even load them in my system… Now at least with generic controls they work…