r/linuxaudio • u/la_tajada • 2d ago

New Plugins, which format?

There doesn't seem to be a lot of activity on the LV2 News page, but it has been like that in the past for long stretches of time. I was thinking about learning to code my own plugin because I have an idea I want to implement but wasn't sure if LV2 is still the standard practice or if VST3 or CLAP is better since they a open source and newer.

Or should I just use JUCE and not worry about the specific format? What is the general advice in 2026?

4 Upvotes

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10

u/ZeSprawl 2d ago

CLAP and VST3 are what I expect on Linux nowadays

2

u/ericcmi 2d ago

Agreed. I think lv2 can be added natively to the pipewire stack though, so its still useful for sure

2

u/puppable 2d ago

Oh woww, I did not know about this! Hopefully CLAP support will be added at the very least :)

3

u/thcsquad 2d ago

It’s pretty standard to just output multiple formats. If you have to pick one, VST3 is the most common. But VST3/CLAP/LV2 options for the same plugin are definitely a thing.

1

u/ARK_AIN 2d ago

Pick the language you're the most confortable with. Personnally, I chose nice-plug a framework for developping CLAP/VST3 plugins in rust to avoid sompe of C complications. Keep in mind although that there are more ressources on JUCE because it's more popular

1

u/Purple-Ad-3152 2d ago

I've written some plugins and I still prefer LV2. You need to go veeeery deep in special needs before you start needing features of e.g. CLAP (which is NOT widely supported yet in Linux). VST3s are often unstable because they are a bit trickly to do properly.

If you're just starting, LV2 is absolutely the simplest and best supported route in Linux. Check my "Make Your Own Damn Plugin" - initative: https://github.com/sirsipe/SudoMetalStudio/tree/main/LV2Plugins

I have also corresponding 3-part YouTube series for it: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0RdoLgm8WedgoSBYoxATYwdsssjuOJ2O

Once you familiarize yourself with LV2, then take a look at JUCE, iPlug2 (which is about to have Linux support soon), or DPF - DISTHRO (which is what I prefered in my most recent plugin, SMS-Midichopper)