Carla plugin host: New sound generator for Linux
A Wonderful Noise
© Lead Image © vska, 123RF.com
Thanks to the Carla plugin host, you can now integrate plugins in any format into any audio application. Carla also comes with a universal toolkit for modular sound generators.
Linux has several sophisticated applications that give musicians excellent options for recording, editing, and mixing sounds. Numerous autonomous synthesizers and effect devices also are available for generating the corresponding sounds. However for this purpose, many musicians prefer to use software that they can integrate directly into their production environment as a plugin.
One problem that musicians contend with is the five very different formats that plugins for Linux use. Many applications only support two or three of them, and Murphy's Law states that your favorite module is not going to work with your favorite application, because the formats don't match.
Portuguese developer Filipe Coelho (a.k.a. falkTX) has been working on eliminating this issue. His plugin host, called Carla, supports virtually any plugin capable of running on Linux and can be used itself as a plugin in two popular formats, LV2 and VST. A host software of this kind can load plugin modules, display their graphical interfaces, and integrate their processing capabilities into the host environment's data stream.
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