[Feature Request] Standalone version as LV2 plugin

[BenjaminNavarro]

Would it be possible to provide the standalone interface as an LV2 plugin?

I love Guitarix and find it better than its commercial counterparts but I find it very difficult to use it inside a DAW. The three ways I know of:

1. Run the standalone app and route the signals to the DAW. Not convenient since the app presets are not tied to the project loaded inside the DAW and it can become really cumbersome for multiple guitar tracks.
2. Use the LV2 plugins. I couldn't find any clear relationship between a preset made or downloaded from the standalone app to its LV2 plugins equivalent, making their reproduction inside a DAW a real hassle.
3. Create an LV2 plugin from the standalone app using Carla. This is close to the experience I'm looking for except that in order to save multiple presets one needs to create as multiple plugins and mess with XML files. Not super user friendly and not officially supported.

So I wonder if it would be possible to provide an LV2 version of the standalone app, similar to what others do (e.g Guitar Rig, Bias, etc). I find that approach easier to work this, especially when switching between projects.

As a C++ dev myself I'd be happy to contribute but I never worked on audio related products so if this is something achievable by a newcomer like me, I welcome any pointer to know where to start.

[brummer10]

Welcome @BenjaminNavarro

Well, it would be possible at least, but there are some straits. The biggest problem would be that guitarix use GTK3, so it could only work with the externalUI extension because most Hosts cant load GTK3 UI's into there processing space.
Then a LV2 replacement for jackd needs to be worked out. As guitarix GUI and engine could communicate via sockets the LV2 turtle data could be spartan, but for following the specs, a atom port would do it as well.

Doing all that, will require a good amount of work, for sure.

[BenjaminNavarro]

Ok I see, so I guess we won't see this happening anytime soon.

In the meantime, would it be possible for guitarix to dump the set of LV2 plugins and their settings to reproduce the sound of the current preset?

[Houston4444]

@BenjaminNavarro : Waiting for a such thing, the best thing is to use it with a session manager, as RaySession or New Session Manager, Guitarix is NSM compatible. I even think that this is a better solution.

[BenjaminNavarro]

@Houston4444 Oh I didn't know about session managers, I'll definitely look into it and see if they suit my needs. Thanks for the info

[lafrech]

Thanks @BenjaminNavarro for opening this.

For the record, I opened a discussion about this in Ardour forums. Nobody came up with a fantastic solution.

[brummer10]

Hi The issue that guitarix didn't reload the session settings is now solved in the latest git. So, using the latest development version with NSM will properly give you the best experience.