Ardour on Mac !, Music Software Options

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Ardour on Mac !

[red_wedge]

Funny, I posted about this in the Digidesign forum, and the Admin deeted the post. Guess they are feeling threatened.

[Jibreel]

its lik pro tools for free

[Jibreel]

does it work?

not on my set up, and i installed all the extras too.

[arvidtp]

did u set up and start jack before launching ardour? (from the Jackpilot application) It works for me (except if i remember correctly the keyboard shortcuts for play/stop/record dont work...

[Jibreel]

did u set up and start jack before launching ardour? (from the Jackpilot application) It works for me (except if i remember correctly the keyboard shortcuts for play/stop/record dont work...

yeah i did start jack

and Ardour just quits

[bug music]

yeah i did start jack

and Ardour just quits

Make sure Ardour is in your Applications folder or your User/Applications folder. Otherwise it will just quit, at least on my system it does.

[lancet]

same here too. no love

and no useful setup information on the website either.

[Jibreel]

i thought about that but it still crashed.

to be sure;
1- i start this "jack pilot" (looks like some kind of online app)
2- then Ardour

Both from the applications folder

[ru2b12]

I had ardour in a folder at first, it would not start until i removed it from the
folder and placed it in applications. Starts up fine now.
Also doesn't seem to like the waveshell vst being present in the vst folder.

[lepetitmartien]

I'm battling with it for 2 days in fact…

- install Jack Tools, X11 (on the OS X install CD/DVD)
- Ardour must be at the first level in the App folder, nowhere else.
- check all your plug-ins, remove the demo, Ardour seems to check the plug-ins folder and is very touchy. It'll block the start up until you remove them.

Now you have Ardour working but no plug-ins in LADSPA format… it's the place where i'm battling.

You must have you developer tools installed, along with the BSD subsystems (from the CD/DVD of OS X), if you're on panther, go to the apple developer site and update gcc to the latest version, the old is bugged it's free and it's easy.

to check the gcc version, in the Terminal type:

gcc --version

If it returns something less than 3.3, update now.

Then install Fink
it's an easy package installator, you'll need it

As Fink in the terminal is not that sexy:
install FinkCommander
its GUI app, it'll be way sexier

By using fink/fink commander you can install ladspa-cmt which is a collection of plug-ins in LADSPA.

You can control the CMT plug-ins are installed by typing in the terminal

ladspaplugins

you should see something like:

CODE

/sw/lib/ladspa/amp.so:
      Mono Amplifier (1048/amp_mono)
      Stereo Amplifier (1049/amp_stereo)
/sw/lib/ladspa/cmt.so:
      Ambisonic Decoder (B-Format to Cube) (1092/bf2cube)
      Ambisonic Decoder (B-Format to Quad) (1091/bf2quad)
      Ambisonic Decoder (B-Format to Stereo) (1090/bf2stereo)
      Ambisonic Decoder (FMH-Format to Octagon) (1093/fmh2oct)
      Ambisonic Encoder (B-Format) (1087/encode_bformat)
      Ambisonic Encoder (FMH-Format) (1088/encode_fmh)
      Ambisonic Rotation (B-Format, Horizontal) (1094/bf_rotate_z)
      Ambisonic Rotation (FMH-Format, Horizontal) (1095/fmh_rotate_z)
      Amplifier (Mono) (1067/amp_mono)
      Amplifier (Stereo) (1068/amp_stereo)
      Amplitude Modulator (1070/am)
      Analogue Voice (1221/analogue)
      Canyon Delay (1225/canyon_delay)
      Disintegrator (1846/disintegrator)
      Dynamic Sledgehammer (1848/sledgehammer)
      Echo Delay Line (Maximum Delay 0.01s) (1053/delay_0.01s)
      Echo Delay Line (Maximum Delay 0.1s) (1054/delay_0.1s)
      Echo Delay Line (Maximum Delay 1s) (1055/delay_1s)
      Echo Delay Line (Maximum Delay 5s) (1056/delay_5s)
      Echo Delay Line (Maximum Delay 60s) (1057/delay_60s)
      Envelope Tracker (Maximum Peak) (1080/track_max_peak)
      Envelope Tracker (Maximum RMS) (1081/track_max_rms)
      Envelope Tracker (Peak) (1078/track_peak)
      Envelope Tracker (RMS) (1079/track_rms)
      FMH-Format to B-Format (Discards RSTUV Channels) (1089/fmh2bf)
      Feedback Delay Line (Maximum Delay 0.01s) (1058/fbdelay_0.01s)
      Feedback Delay Line (Maximum Delay 0.1s) (1059/fbdelay_0.1s)
      Feedback Delay Line (Maximum Delay 1s) (1060/fbdelay_1s)
      Feedback Delay Line (Maximum Delay 5s) (1061/fbdelay_5s)
      Feedback Delay Line (Maximum Delay 60s) (1062/fbdelay_60s)
      Freeverb (Version 3) (1123/freeverb3)
      Granular Scatter Processor (1096/grain_scatter)
      Hard Gate (1845/hard_gate)
      High Pass Filter (One Pole) (1052/hpf)
      Identity (Audio) (1098/identity_audio)
      Identity (Control) (1099/identity_control)
      Lo Fi (1227/lofi)
      Logistic Map Control Generator (1849/logistic)
      Low Pass Filter (One Pole) (1051/lpf)
      Mixer (Stereo to Mono) (1071/mixer)
      Noise Source (White) (1069/noise_source_white)
      Null (Audio Input) (1084/null_ai)
      Null (Audio Output) (1086/null_ao)
      Null (Control Input) (1083/null_ci)
      Null (Control Output) (1085/null_co)
      Organ (1222/organ)
      Peak Monitor (1082/peak)
      Phase Modulated Voice (1226/phasemod)
      Pink Noise (Interpolated) (1841/pink_interpolated_audio)
      Pink Noise (full frequency range) (1844/pink_full_frequency)
      Pink Noise (sample and hold) (1843/pink_sh)
      Simple Compressor (Peak Envelope Tracking) (1072/compress_peak)
      Simple Compressor (RMS Envelope Tracking) (1073/compress_rms)
      Simple Expander (Peak Envelope Tracking) (1074/expand_peak)
      Simple Expander (RMS Envelope Tracking) (1075/expand_rms)
      Simple Limiter (Peak Envelope Tracking) (1076/limit_peak)
      Simple Limiter (RMS Envelope Tracking) (1077/limit_rms)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:audio, Amp:audio) (1063/sine_faaa)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:audio, Amp:control) (1064/sine_faac)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:control, Amp:audio) (1065/sine_fcaa)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:control, Amp:control) (1066/sine_fcac)
      Syn Drum (1223/syndrum)
      VCF 303 (1224/vcf303)
      Wave Shaper (Sine-Based) (1097/wshape_sine)
/sw/lib/ladspa/delay.so:
      Simple Delay Line (1043/delay_5s)
/sw/lib/ladspa/filter.so:
      Simple Low Pass Filter (1041/lpf)
      Simple High Pass Filter (1042/hpf)
/sw/lib/ladspa/noise.so:
      White Noise Source (1050/noise_white)
/sw/lib/ladspa/sine.so:
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:audio, Amp:audio) (1044/sine_faaa)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:audio, Amp:control) (1045/sine_faac)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:control, Amp:audio) (1046/sine_fcaa)
      Sine Oscillator (Freq:control, Amp:control) (1047/sine_fcac)

You will have a few plug-ins less, here the few example plug-ins of the developer package are installed too.

There are other plug-ins available, but I'm trying to compile them (it's dirty stuff in the terminal) but I have not managed to progress a lot. If I mange to, I tell you all whether you like it or not.

SooperLooper is a sample looper, it's an OS X app now and a LADSPA thingy. no problem to install this one.

And if you flee this post screaming, you haven't seen it all
(I know, I'm a geek, but i know some who are worse

[lepetitmartien]

I've tried all the ladspa plug-ins available to compile. Save the CMT suite which is available thru Fink and so is easy to install only one set can be compiled with no problem:

tap-plugins

Once uncompressed, in the terminal

cd <path to directory of tap-plugins>
(type cd then drop the foder and enter)
make (+enter)
make install (+enter)

it should go smoothly, if a library is missing, look for it in fink commander.

All the others i've tried have either some troubles with the up to date libraries or problems in the source code itself (origin of the problem):

swh-plugins (pkg-config and fftw3 libraries are too much for it)
vocoder-0.3 (source)
Blop (source)
vcf-0.0.5 (source)

If you have any question… just ask now i go to bed

[arvidtp]

1- i start this "jack pilot" (looks like some kind of online app)
2- then Ardour

make sure you press the start button in jackpilot (after setting up prefs for your preferred audio interface and latency)

by the way, this jackpilot is an awesome app that will serve you well for other things as well. I use it to send audio between Logic and MaxMSP in realtime (better than rewire because there is no "slave" concept - all software is equal and can get both audio input and output. In rewire, the slave cannot get audio input.)

Man - if i start using ardour i might have to check out those LADSPA plugins... but for now i am sticking with logic for serious work.

[Jibreel]

yeah this sounds like a hassle

this Jack app only shows built in audio, i do not see any logic or oehtr apps

and in the prefs i can not select anything, it is greyed out

[lancet]

no love here yet.. looks like Jack isn't doin' jack. :-)

although it appears that jack starts normally and I can select Jack router in sound prefs.

this is what happens.... from console.

JACK compiled with POSIX SHM support.
loading driver ..
JAR: Reading Preferences fInputChannels: 2 fOutputChannels: 2 fAutoConnect: 1
JAR: Reading Preferences fDefaultInput: 2 fDefaultOutput: 2 fDefaultSystem: 1 fDeviceID: 0
JAR: Blacklisted client Xquartz
JAR: Initialize [inSelf, name] : 3168800 jackd
JAR: Rejected client : jackd


Then Ardour....

snip lots of Jack debug info.....

JAR: --------------------------------------------------------
JAR: GetJackClient
JAR: TJackClient constructor
JAR: JackClient::Open id 1722 name ardour
cannot create new client; ardour already exists
cannot complete client connection process
cannot read response from jack server (Bad file descriptor)
JAR: TJackClient::Open jack server not running?
JAR: TJackClient destructor
JARInsert Log: Cannot find jack client.
JARInsert Critical Log: error = 1.
Oct 16 10:29:38 Ethanol crashdump[1728]: ardour crashed
Oct 16 10:29:39 Ethanol crashdump[1728]: crash report written to: /Users/lance/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ardour.crash.log

This post has been edited by lancet: Sun 16 Oct 2005, 15:31

[lancet]

yeah this sounds like a hassle

this Jack app only shows built in audio, i do not see any logic or oehtr apps

and in the prefs i can not select anything, it is greyed out

same thing happened here. I uninstalled Jack and re-installed , then I was able to setup my audio devices.


this is why I won't use a Linux machine to do anything serious... just like I don't have a car that requires me to remove/ re-configure and install the seat belts every time someone new gets in the passenger seat.

This post has been edited by lancet: Sun 16 Oct 2005, 15:48

[lepetitmartien]

I've made progresses for the swh-plugins, but still not there, maybe later tonight I'm in the "make" si it's definitely better.

[lepetitmartien]

Well, I give up the compile of the SWH plug-in suite… BUT!

A develloper of Ardour has been around and told us that binaries of the plug-ins (ready to install compiled forms for your CPU family) will be available shortly. There are people working on it seriously and even them have some troubles…

So it'll come, already the CMT are easily installed it helps.

About the VST, yes Ardour scans the VST folder, it has a VST wrapper, but has trouble to manage the VST plug-ins showing a window on startup so that's why…

[Jibreel]

would be very funny if this app has the saem audio editing power as pro tools in its arrange page.

[lepetitmartien]

And if kind people have the nerve/knowledge to make the binaries, our webmaster Soif would be happy to make a download page and give some drive space on our servers so that everyone can download the binaries easily and don't have to bother with all this.

[arvidtp]

would be very funny if this app has the saem audio editing power as pro tools in its arrange page.

well, its goal is to eventually equal and surpass pro tools in this area. It already surpasses pro tools in audio hardware/platform compatibility and price

[S.F.Selecta]

Can someone please help? Like other reviews i read it seems that a few ppl are having trouble getting this application to run, and myself being one of them. My problem is that when i run Ardour it seem to just crash and what im left with is just X11 being displayind in the finder with the terminal window activated. Is this where i need to be and i just have no idea what to do next or is it just not going to run on my computer (G4 powerbook). Please help cuz i would love to make a donation to this guy if i could get it to work!

[S.F.Selecta]

One more thing, why will the ardour-beta.dmg work but the 0.99 will not?

[lepetitmartien]

Ardour checks for VST plug-ins, if you have one installed which is displaying a window on the host start up it'll stop on the sport Ardour to load.

Save this it launched perfectly here.

So check the plug-ins, repair your permissions, restart and tell us if it occurs again.

I've not been able to compile other plug-ins BTW, it needs a PhD to do so as it's the script of the Make Install which is done for Linux and not for OS X (some hoodlums in the way dynamic libraries are made).

You can find the SWH plug-in suite Here in a .dmg for OS X, note that it's a try at it from the developer, so please give him feedback if you have a problem.

[S.F.Selecta]

Cool thanx I found out that i didnt remove all my vst-plugins (could have sworn i did), but now it works great. 0.9Beta30 version would allow them?

[lepetitmartien]

I have not checked the differences between versions but as the VST wrapper appeared along the line I doubt.

Note that ONLY the VSTs with a window opening on start up block Ardour (unsupported opening of window in X11), so it'll be usually the demo, you can left the other plug-ins in place.

Time to make some cleaning up down there

[Sonny Larsen]

It looks like alot of this has been worked out now. Two days ago I installed .99 on my iBook G4 (12" 1.2 Ghz, 1.25 GB RAM, running off a LaCie Firewire drive). I downloaded Jack and installed it, started the Jack Server, started Ardour, and I have been using it without much problem. I had a small bug where a file I imported kept on importing over and over again. I had to kill X11 to get it to stop. Other than that I have had no problems and I love the program.

[proud_chef]

Hello,

I'm a virginal mac user (12" G4 powerbook). I did a lot of recording and sound editing on Cool Edit on my PC but decided to get a mac to step up the recording process a couple months ago. Anyways, I simply can't afford Logic or ProTools so I figured I'd try Ardour. However, I can't get it to work. Much like the other people, as soon as I try to start it up, it crashes on me. I've moved it to the first level of the applications menu, installed jack and X11SDK and still haven't had any luck. Can anyone make any other suggestions that might make sense to a new mac guy?

cheers.

[Sonny Larsen]

OK, here is how I run it.

1. Start Jack Pilot (comes with Jack for OS X)
2. Start Jack (by hitting the start button on Jack Pilot)
3. Start Ardour by clickiing Ardour icon. X11 Starts automatically. (I have had Ardour crash on startup once doing it this way. You can start X11 manually and then start Ardour if you like)

Here are a few other tips:

-If you are using Tiger, make sure you have the Tiger version of Ardour.
-Make sure you have X11 installed (X11SDK is different) X11 is installed by running the Optional Installs package on Your OS X DVD. You run the installer and eventually you will hit a screen that has " Applications" and a small triangle to the left of it. This will then show you a bunch of Apps and at the bottom of the list is X11.

Hope this helps.

Also, for more help with Ardour, go here:
http://www.nabble.com/Ardour-f460.html
The developers themselves are there and are very helpful.

[lepetitmartien]

Proud_chef, be aware that any VST plug-in which opens a window on start up (like a demo for example) WILL block Ardour. Just Quit, clean the ~/library/audio/plug-ins/vst folder and up you go.

Also, as you're a newbie on macs, it always a good idea when you have installed something to repair permissions after with the Apple drive utility.

[proud_chef]

I got it working now...thanks for all the help guys...

One more quick question. The line-in audio input is pretty faint and is only registering on the left channel...any thoughts? Would this be a waranty issue?

b

[Sonny Larsen]

I' glad you got it running...it is an awesome app.

The line in problem could be many things. Depending on your sound card it may be that you need an external preamp. i use an M-Audio Audiophile in my Linux Box; it has no built-in preamp and so I need to use external preamps to record. You also should check in Jack Pilot and make sure your connections are set right. Also, if you are using a input into a stereo track it will cause the audio to only on one side.

I use my M-Audio Omnistudio with Ardour on OS X Tiger and my hardware has a mono/stereo button for inputs 1-2 and 3-4. You may have a similar option depeding on which hardware you are using.

On a side note, I LOVE JACK. I have been using Logic Express and for some reason there are all kinds of strange issues with M-Audio USB interfaces. I switched Logic's Audio driver to JACK Router and it has been running smooth ever since.