CALF effects, they do not work.

[Gran Francisco]

After an automatic update of Audacity 2.1.3 on ubuntu 17.10. x86_64, Calf effects, do not apply. The previous listen if it works, but when the effect is applied, no process occurs. language

In Spanish language
Efectos CALF, no funcionan.
Despues de una actualización automática de Audacity 2.1.3 en ubuntu 17.10. x86_64, los efectos Calf, no se aplican. La se escucha previa si funciona, pero cuando se aplica el efecto, no ocurre ningun proceso. lenguaje

[steve]

There has been an ongoing problem with Calf plug-ins, which is a shame because they are terrific effects. The problem is not unique to Audacity - I'm not sure about the status right now, but there have also been repeated crash issues with Calf plug-ins in Ardour.

I think that the problem is that the Calf developers take an uncompromising approach, and use very recent libraries, which can cause compatibility issues with older libraries in most mainstream Linux distributions. I get the impression that the distribution packagers don't test thoroughly enough and assume that if the effects build and launch, then they are OK (apologies to the Ubuntu packagers if I am misrepresenting).

I've just tested on Ubuntu 16.04 with the Calf LV2 plug-ins from the Ubuntu repository and Audacity 2.1.2, and it seems that most (but not all) of the Calf plug-ins are mostly working correctly. (Note that Audacity does not have all of the features of real-time DAW applications such as Ardour). One problem that I see is that if one of the Calf plug-ins fails, then all Calf plug-ins will fail until Audacity is closed and restarted.

Sorry but I don't know the solution to this, other than perhaps building both Audacity and the Calf plug-ins from source code and then debugging any problems that arise. Both Audacity and the Calf plug-ins are complex software, so not an easy job. If you know of any skilled Linux developers that would be interested in helping, please send them our way.

[Gran Francisco]

Thank you very much for the explanation Steve.

[echoplex-media]

This is a real bummer as I love the plugins. Is rolling back audacity and/or calf the current working solution?

[steve]

It is still possible to use Calf plug-ins "with" (rather than "in") Audacity.
If you use Jack Audio System, you can use the plug-ins in "Calf Jack Host", and route the signal through the plug-in rack before being recorded. This way you can either add live (real-time) effects while you record, or bounce a track from Audacity, through Calf Jack Host and back into Audacity, which gives true real-time effects while bouncing from one track to another. It's a bit of a faff to set up, but it works very well.

Click image to expand

Audacity-Calf-Jack.png (389.68 KiB) Viewed 2365 times

[MarkusSchmidt]

Dear Audacity users,

since Calf Studio Gear 0.90.0 release the plugins can't be added to the list of usable ones from within the plugin manager any more. Version 0.0.60 worked well. I contacted the Audacity developers team via the preferred method (email) to bring it to their knowledge and asked for advice in debugging this issue.

Unfortunately no response so far.

To clarify some things:

The problem is not unique to Audacity - I'm not sure about the status right now, but there have also been repeated crash issues with Calf plug-ins in Ardour.

I think that the problem is that the Calf developers take an uncompromising approach, and use very recent libraries, which can cause compatibility issues with older libraries in most mainstream Linux distributions.

Crashes in Ardour are unrelated to non-working plugins in Audacity. Additionally Calf doesn't rely on recent libraries.

In 2013 (afair) there was a problem with the quite outdated FFTW library which affected a couple of plugins since it wasn't (and still isn't) thread-safe by sharing FFTW plans. The issue was fixed in Calf in 2014 by implementing a custom FFT routine. This problem made Ardour crash when different DSP routines accessed libfftw.

Another reason for recent crashes was the fact that Debian maintainers/LMMS crew decided to offer a very outdated version of Calf LADSPA as dedicated package which is obsolete since a couple of years now. Having old LADSPA and recent LV2 Calf effects side by side made Ardour crash when adding a plugin to a bus/track. This is fixed by LMMS team by moving their Calf fork to a dedicated namespace and will be released with the next version. Additionally FalkTX made a package for KXStudio to make things work in the meantime at least for his users.

I hope this sheds at least a bit light onto the known problems.

Best
Markus

[steve]

since Calf Studio Gear 0.90.0 release the plugins can't be added to the list of usable ones from within the plugin manager any more. Version 0.0.60 worked well.

My recent tests were with Version 0.0.60 on Ubuntu 16.04.
As I wrote previously, most of the plug-ins worked fine, up to the point of one of them not working. When one of the Calf plug-ins failed, all Calf plug-ins failed until Audacity was closed and restarted.

I've not yet tried version 0.90.0. What's the problem there? Do they not enable at all?

Calf doesn't rely on recent libraries

I stand corrected. My comment was based on trying to build Calf some years ago and failing due to several dependencies being too old on my system (on Debian stable if I recall correctly). Have now looked again at the current Calf requirements, I quite agree.

In 2013 (afair) there was a problem with the quite outdated FFTW library which affected a couple of plugins since it wasn't (and still isn't) thread-safe by sharing FFTW plans. The issue was fixed in Calf in 2014 by implementing a custom FFT routine. This problem made Ardour crash when different DSP routines accessed libfftw.

Thanks for the details. It's encouraging to hear that the problem is understood.

Unfortunately no response so far.

Sorry about that Markus, but you have caught us at a bad time. We are very understaffed, one of our most senior team members passed away a couple of months ago, and we are all hands on deck preparing for the release of Audacity 2.2.1 (scheduled for early December).

I hope this sheds at least a bit light onto the known problems.

Yes it does. Thank you.

[MarkusSchmidt]

I've not yet tried version 0.90.0. What's the problem there? Do they not enable at all?

Exactly. They show up in the plugin manager ready to be added. Trying to add one or more of them shows a progress bar (as it should) but nothing is added to the plugin menu. No errors in the console, nor in the terminal. If you have any advice for me where to start debugging I'm willing to help out.

We are very understaffed, one of our most senior team members passed away a couple of months ago

Makes me sad to hear! I hope the rest of the crew stood strong and took it calmly. Please keep up your great and important work, wish you guys all the best for the upcoming release.

[steve]

I presume nothing in Audacity's log either? (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/help ... stics.html)

[MarkusSchmidt]

Ooops, wrong terminology, nothing in log is what I meant.