Hi LinuxDSP -
I decided to purchase and download anyway, and have the activation keys saved to back up - so good to go now
thanks
Pete
@pedrocortez: Hi, yes you can just backup the plugins (and the activation keys) - and re-install them if you need to. I’m glad you like them, I hope they work well for you.
I am not quite determined of this issue. I agree with the above that DSP should be open to examine; thus being open source.
But, I am willing to pay for a great product and appreciate someone making something for Ardour, and think its a great start in the direction that we need to go with this. And I want to say thank you for making them so affordable. That is a great bargain.
Are they guaranteed to work?
Can some third party certify this product as being spyware free to gain trust amongst the open source crowd?
Can you go open source for those willing to pay?
Can we just make our own even better compressors like the LA2A from scratch? I think that is about all the compressor one needs! Maybe a good DBX.
An LA2A or DBX would be great. When will you have these completed by, I look forward to using them !
@ analyzingfunny
“Can you go open source for those willing to pay?”
This has been proven already not to work. Example: the issue sponsoring system for ardour. The chances of getting enough people to pay enough to make it worthwhile for LinuxDSP (even for the open-sourcing of one of his plugins) would be fairly high…
@analyzingfunny:The issues regarding open source and commercial viability are many and complex, but in my case it can best be explained as follows:
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It costs about GBP 500 to GBP 1000 for one fulltime developer (me) to develop one of the linuxDSP plugins - and fortunately there are some other people involved with the project who give their time for free, to help with testing etc.
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The revenue generated from the plugins alone does not at present justify the cost of developing them, therefore to make up the shortfall we provide DSP algorithms and technology to be used in other products. Making the algorithms open source and freely available to anyone without restriction would compromise this revenue source severely (I hope the reasons for this are self-explanatory)
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linuxDSP does support open source projects, and as I have said before, are happy to provide details of how the software works for free to anyone who takes the trouble to ask, but not complete fully working and tested code for algorithms for the reasons in (2)
Other points:
“Are they guaranteed to work?” - The short answer is no. The longer answer is, we take every care to make sure the plugins work properly, but they are dependent on other applications and so given the ‘fluid’ nature of linux software development, they cannot be guaranteed to work for all time on all distributions etc etc although we work very hard to make sure that any problems are resolved and updates are normally provided at no extra cost, and the downloads do run in a demo mode, so you can try before you buy.
“Can someone certify this product as being spyware free” - If you download the plugins from the linuxDSP website or use them as part of an ‘officially’ sanctioned distribution or product then they do not intentionally contain malware. If you get them from a torrent or other ‘unofficial’ means - who knows what they might be? It is perhaps also worth considering that to attempt to distribute malware in the software would be foolish - not least because apart from the obvious legal issues, it is not exactly targeting a large number of users by any stretch of the imagination… Its also worth pointing out that there have been documented cases of some open source code containing malware too - “hidden in plain view” - so nothing is completely immune. Do you personally check every line of code you download?
“Can we just make our own even better compressors” - Maybe. One of the things I hoped to achieve was to supplement the choice of available software for audio production on linux, and if the linuxDSP plugins facilitate that, either directly, or by encouraging others to produce better and better software then that’s a good thing too. I think it is essential that commercial software can coexist with open source software where necessary - A good example being the popularity and success of the Harrison Consoles “Mixbus” version of Ardour.
Hi, @Redsandro, I just wanted to let you know, that I have implemented dragging frequency handles on the crossover filter graph in the Calf Multiband compressor
and it now looks like this:
Here is the full size image:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3377727/CalfMultibandCompressor.png
I think that’s pretty decent and it is free as in freedom.
Please consider this is from latest git and layout is still subject to change.
Best regards.
the calf comp looks fantastic, i m just trying it out on a mixbus session, thanks for posting this
hans-
You and the rest of the Calf team are making it very tempting to see if I can compile these for OS X to give to my students to use in my mixing class on Mixbus. Need to try them out on Linux and see if they sound as good as they appear as it seems like a VERY useful collection(Heck the gate has a downwards expansion ratio control, that by itself would sell me if it is usable:).
Seablade
Who really dislikes the default AU plugins from Apple.
my first try with these plugins is VERY promising and i will have further testing and comparison with the beautiful multiband compressor by linuxdsp.
@seablade no way to get students using linux? i sometimes have a similar problem 
Someone want to donate 8-11 high powered computers, decent quality (midrange at least) audio cards, monitor systems, and above all space, I could consider it…
Well that and a half dozen other reasons right now, sorry. I am a large linux fan and supporter, but won’t try to force it on anyone else. Most of my students are already on Mac because they need other software that doesn’t run on Linux to collaborate with others in theater.
SeabladeI think (but i dont really know) that there s also specific software for theater / performance sound design that runs on mac/win people use a lot and there s no alternative to it (you mentioned working in a theater environment..)
You would be correct. Every now and then an option pops up on Linux but usually ends up unfinished and unmaintained. As of right now QLab and SFX are the top of the software heap for this purpose, my personal preference being for QLab.
Seablade@ seablade yeah sure there are several reasons, and I m always curious to hear about them and i understand completely! My experience is, that mostly it is an industry standard thing and / or people are just used to another software (e.g. photoshop <-> gimp etc…) and already got a mac anyway…
It comes primarily down to, for the most part they are already on a Mac, and being that theater is a collaborative art form, and that what I teach doesn’t have a degree in itself, but is part of a larger degree, they need to be able to collaborate with others using software that just doesn’t exist on Linux. Yes alternatives exist, but that doesn’t help the collaboration aspect, nor do the alternatives compare very well and I certainly don’t have time to submit patches to fix this, and I am not going to force a student to make their own life miserable and make choices that will make it harder for them to get jobs.
That being said, I have already had a few students come through that used Ardour on Linux for my classes, so it isn’t out of the question, but I won’t be making a computer lab out of it any time soon, sorry. For what I teach it just isn’t a good choice for them.
SeabladeI think (but i dont really know) that there s also specific software for theater / performance sound design that runs on mac/win people use a lot and there s no alternative to it (you mentioned working in a theater environment…)
haha and the computer LAB appearance you have once you deal with linux distros is certainly still an issue 
I had some interns being very interested in linux and i helped installing avlinux on their laptop and explained a lot, but it s true, once they re on their own again they run in problems very fast, and not everyone is up to read forums and try out, most want and need just a out of the box working system that runs “forever”
“Is there something of a plugin for multiband compression, something like JAMin has built in?”
After my own bad experience with linuxdsp, I’d recommend you don’t get the Linuxdsp multi-band compressor. There were a number of problems with the software and terrible communication with the developer who wasn’t interested beyond telling me to RTFM (which didn’t actually address any of the faults) and an upgrade policy which means you could end up having to fork out the full price every time there’s an upgrade.
Not good.
Personally I have been perfectly happy with LinuxDSP stuff, and have quite enjoyed the MBC2 multiband compressor a lot myself. That isn’t to say I don’t plan on trying out the Calf compressor as well, but just giving other viewpoints.
Kinda pointless however considering this is a thread that was started 2+ years ago.
SeabladeOops - didn’t notice the original date.
I think some improvements might have been made in newer versions. Don’t know - I baled earlier this year and haven’t been back.