LV2 port

[KottV]

Hi,

There is active work on JUCE LV2 in Camomile sourcetree: https://github.com/pierreguillot/Camomile/tree/dev/imp-lv2-support/Dependencies/juce_audio_plugin_client_LV2

Could You look at that and maybe better to join yours code?

[falkTX]

I backported some of their changes when they started. but now I see they made some non-backwards-compatible ones. I cannot import that as it would break the existing plugins.
From what I understood in another thread, there was no interest at all on their side to work together on this :(

[KottV]

You mean that thread pierreguillot/Camomile#70 ?
At least I know why wrapper was split in two parts.

I'll try to use their code in my builds. Just to see if it work at all for general plugins.

[falkTX]

No, that is an old conversation. There was something newer, in yet another LV2 wrapper fork.
But anyway, I will keep the current version and just adapt a bit where needed. The MIDI Buffer usage needs to be updated to latest version, but the rest already works well.
Some of the code can be simplified to use new lv2 utils that did not exist back when it started, but it does not mean it does not work already, it is just that we can make it nicer looking.

One potential task/change to do is stop using control ports and use new lv2 parameter API, so that DSP side can change their own parameters. But usually this ends up being abused by plugins, so I am not sure this would have a good impact long-term.

[KottV]

I see. I have look a little more and think that Camomile's code won't work in common case. It's heavy modified for their needs (?).

One potential task/change to do is stop using control ports and use new lv2 parameter API, so that DSP side can change their own parameters. But usually this ends up being abused by plugins, so I am not sure this would have a good impact long-term.

Cannot say I understand that. But I trust You :)

On my side I've managed to build lv2 versions of some plugins with JUCE's cmake paradigm (pretty rough yet). At least these "new" plugins can be build automatically now.

[falkTX]

I see. I have look a little more and think that Camomile's code won't work in common case. It's heavy modified for their needs (?).

It just breaks the DISTRHO-Ports plugins that want state as a string (so it is understandable by humans, and editable too), also always enables latency port (most plugins do not have a need for this) among other similar things.
In order to keep the existing plugins working, I cannot use their version, as it would change how hosts see the plugin and break sessions/projects.

On my side I've managed to build lv2 versions of some plugins with JUCE's cmake paradigm (pretty rough yet). At least these "new" plugins can be build automatically now.

Would be nice to push these changes here at some point.
I know this juce version is a tiny bit out of date (check juce6 branch for latest stuff) but having a way to officially build lv2 versions would be amazing for most devs - they no longer would have to manually fiddle with makefiles, which is the biggest pain at the moment.
Might need tweaking of ProJucer to accept LV2 target, unless the cmake side can do that without ever touching ProJucer?
(I pretty much never use that tool myself, so I dont know the workflow for it)

[KottV]

Yes, it's possible to build plugins without Projucer(cmake, make, that's all), though for complex project may still better to use PJ.

https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/ChowPhaser (worth to check :))
or
https://github.com/witte/Eq

[falkTX]

I mean, can you add lv2 support to a project by using an alternative juce version, without opening ProJucer?

[KottV]

Exactly. It needs your's LV2 Wrapper and modified https://github.com/juce-framework/JUCE/blob/master/extras/Build/CMake/JUCEUtils.cmake

But the project has to be in cmake already, like two mentioned above.
Another thing - Projucer from JUCE6 can generate Makefiles without X11.

[falkTX]

Alright that is great to know!

Sadly I do not have time to do much about this right now, finishing other projects first. But near the end of the year I will resume work on DISTRHO/LV2 and DPF as well.

[KottV]

I understand. And yes, LV2 port is working well)

I'd like to ask your thought about two things:

1. In Camomile's fork wrapper is defined in AppConfig.h as #define wrapperType_LV2 wrapperType_Undefined
   and there is now declaration of getStateInformationString in juce_AudioProcessor.h

and it seems to work

Potentially it allows use wrapper as fetchable module without modifying juce_AudioProcessor.h

2. In JUCE6 when use cmake there is no AppConfig.h by default (though it can be added by hands) and LV2 params (URI for examples) are defined in CmakeLists.txt directly.
   So I try to figure out how to deal with "classic" AppConfig.h and new cmake's behavior.

[mxmilkiib]

Pinging @atsushieno as they might be interested in jatinchowdhury18/AnalogTapeModel#7 and this thread given https://github.com/atsushieno/JUCE/tree/juce_emscripten / https://github.com/atsushieno/aap-juce / https://github.com/atsushieno/aap-lv2

[atsushieno]

@mxmilkiib Hey. I'm seeing various LV2 ports in the world and I know this is one of those. A fact that might be interesting for you is that my aap-juce and aap-lv2 are quite separate. In aap-juceI have my own JUCE wrapper and plugin client for my own and the current version uses the original juce-framework/JUCE without any changes. aap-lv2 has nothing to do with JUCE either - it is more like a repo that depends on the Android ports of LV2 dev toolkits.

Therefore there is not actually things that my repos can be of any help, or anything that our codebase benefits from LV2 ports. When I created the plugin wrapper in aap-juce I learned from another LV2 port on how to generate metadata (for our own) in the past though.

[falkTX]

To those listening, I just updated this fork against latest JUCE master branch.

There is still no direct LV2 support in ProJucer, so we are basically in the same situation as before.
But at least everything in updated now.

I have cleaned up all the patches, feel free to grab at
https://github.com/DISTRHO/DISTRHO-Ports/tree/master/libs/juce-current/patches

[KottV]

Good news.

[falkTX]

another ticket to close, juce7 has official lv2 support now, no need for this ticket here