Installation

This tutorial shows how to install and configure Reaper and Yabridge (or Carla) in order to get a working DAW with both Linux VST and windows VST.

[If Needed] Re-Installing Wine

  1. Remove any trace of past wine installation

    Check package names that need to be removed:

    apt list --installed | grep wine

    Remove all wine package identified in the previous command:

    # Example
sudo apt remove fonts-wine libwine wine-stable wine32 wine64 wine --purge

    Warning

    Careful not to remove unwanted packages (example: carla-bridge-wine64, carla-bridge-wine32 installed for Carla)

  2. Install the latest version of wine using this link:

    https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu

    Note

    In my case, wine stable version was still not available for the Jammy release (ubuntu 22.04 / Mint 21), so I installed wine with the staging branch (winehq-staging).

Install and Configure Yabridge

Download latest version and follow installation instruction from https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge.

Example for Version 5.0.2:

wget https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/releases/download/5.0.2/yabridge-5.0.2.tar.gz
tar -xvf yabridge-5.0.2.tar.gz -C ~/.local/share/
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/share/yabridge"
yabridgectl add "/home/ndejax/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3"
yabridgectl add "/home/ndejax/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/VstPlugins"
yabridgectl add "/home/ndejax/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Ample Sound"
yabridgectl sync

Ater that, the windows VST should appears just like native linux VSTs in your DAW.

Install and Configure Carla

If Yabridge is not working for you, you can try with Carla:

  1. Install kx studio repositories using the DEB provided here: https://kx.studio/Repositories

  2. Install Carla and the required bridge:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install carla-git carla-bridge-win64 carla-bridge-win32 carla-bridge-linux64 carla-bridge-linux32 carla-bridge-wine64 carla-bridge-wine32

  3. Configuring Carla to allow using bridges

    Open Settings > Configure Carla > Main

    Tick Enable Experimentals features

    Open Settings > Configure Carla > Experimental

    Tick Enable Plugin Bridges and Enable Wine Bridges

Install and Configure Jack

Below is the packages you need to install to get jackd audio sound server + its GUI tool qjackctl and

sudo apt-get install jackd qjackctl pulseaudio-module-jack

In qjackctl:

  • set Sample Rate to 48000 in Setup > Settings > Parameters

  • set Frames/Period to 128 in Setup > Settings > Parameters (lower if your latency is still to high)

  • select your microphone in Input Device in Setup > Settings > Advanced

  • check and edit Setup > Options > Execute script after startup as below:

    pactl load-module module-jack-sink channels=2; pactl load-module module-jack-source; pacmd set-default-sink jack_out (It allows you to continue to hear the sound of other applications)

Important

After that, each time you run jack, you may need to go to the sound settings in Ubuntu/Mint and recheck the input and output devices (Jack Sink and Jack Source) and also check the volume levels of the devices you’re using (micro and speakers).

After Launching Reaper, you should get a graph like that:

../_images/graph_qjackctl.png

In my case the system playback 1 and 2 correspond to the jack output of my laptop and playback 3 and 4 correspond to my laptop internal speakers.

Install and Configure Reaper

  1. Download Linux x64 linux binaries in Reaper website: https://www.reaper.fm/

  2. Install it running the following commands:

    tar -xvf reaper*_linux_x86_64.tar.xz && cd reaper_linux_x86_64
./install-reaper.sh

  3. Add the Carla VST path:

    Open Options > Preferences > VST > Edit path list ...

    (If you’re using carla, the plugins in my case were located in: /lib/vst/carla.vst)

  4. Choose the audio device:

    Open Options > Preferences > Audio > Device Check Auto-start Jackd

    Note

    If you still want to hear the sound from the rest of the applications (Pulse Audio), you first need to start jack using qjackctl (configured previously) before launching Reaper.

Install VST

Native Linux VST:

  1. Copy the files to one of the search path of Reaper

  2. Rescan the plugins in Reaper

Native Windows VST [DLL]:

  1. Copy the files to one of the search path of Yabridge/Carla

  2. Rescan the plugins in Yabridge/Carla

  3. [Carla only] use it through Carla-Rack in your track

Native Windows VST [EXE]:

  1. Install the VST using wine

  2. If required, add the VST path in Yabridge/Carla

  3. Rescan the plugins in Yabridge/Carla

  4. [Carla only] use it through Carla-Rack in your track

Sources: