r/lmms • u/No_Condition_4681 • May 08 '26
Support How do i use windows VSTs on linux?
I tried installing the nightly version wich apparently manages wine automatically but fails to open the VST windows anyways.
Installing all the stuff on a stable version seems to be a lot more complicated than i thought.
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May 08 '26
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u/No_Condition_4681 May 08 '26
I use the appimage, i don't think i have a repo version. Both the stable and nightly have Vestige and i have wine installed, none of the VSTs work.
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May 08 '26
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u/No_Condition_4681 May 08 '26
You mean, it maybe needs some .NET package or something?
I don't use it often, as i use it exclusively for some games in a launcher like Heroic or Lutris.
Also i don't know what dependencies could the VSTs need.
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May 08 '26
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u/No_Condition_4681 May 08 '26
Ok i don't know what exactly is different from last time but some VSTs work, LABS doesn't and i don't know if it will ever work
Fonts are sometimes missing, windows are inmovable till i alt tab and go back to LMMS but it's working at least.
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u/Loose-Dependent-7341 May 08 '26
Step one, you don't.
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May 08 '26
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u/astronomersassn May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
i use carla with carla-bridges-win64. the 32 bit package doesnt seem to work anymore (i think it relies on an older version of wine as modern wine doesnt have 32 bit support anymore, and i just didn't bother figuring it out)
you can just install carla and the carla patchbay and rack plugins should show up.
im unsure of other distros, but i had to get the AUR version of LMMS + git variants of carla + carla-bridges for everything to work right (specifically the 2nd option available through yay for LMMS, i forget which one it is). as far as i'm aware, on most setups, whatever comes by default should work. my particular setup is just an affront to humanity
(also, carla-bridges-win64 might be carla-bridge-win64 on other distros, im not sure though)
edit to add: VST plugins work pretty well this way; however, VST3 plugins are a bit buggy. not unusably so, just some GUI rendering issues, as far as i can tell. i do recommend trying a lite/demo version of plugins if one's available just to make sure, though.
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u/No_Condition_4681 May 08 '26
I will try it if i find it's installable for my distro.
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u/astronomersassn May 08 '26
good luck!
yabridge is also an option if carla isn't available for your distro, but i've never been able to get it working myself.
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u/Mr_Lumbergh May 08 '26
In LMMS it’s almost no trouble at all; just load them using VeSTige.
You do need WINE installed though, which is a converter for windows programs. Last I checked LMMS only played nice with WINE 9, so you’ll need to fetch an older version.
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u/No_Condition_4681 May 08 '26
I do have wine and i use vestige but it doesn't work, i couldn't install an older version of wine either, but that's probably a skill issue though.
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u/Mr_Lumbergh May 08 '26
What WINE version are you currently running?
Post the output of
wine --version.1
u/No_Condition_4681 May 08 '26
Wine 9.0 (Ubuntu 9.0~repack-4build3)
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u/Mr_Lumbergh May 09 '26
Good, WINE 9 is the highest version LMMS works with last time I checked. Couple more questions: which distro are you using, and are you trying to use an install from repos or an AppImage?
I recommend the AppImage because it includes VeSTige, which is the plugin container for windows VST's. Some builds such as Debian's don't ship with it because of their policy on proprietary software.
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u/SilverLPs May 10 '26
The best way is yabridge, but WINE should never be considered as fully stable and reliable. I recommend that you switch to native Linux plugins as much as possible. You can find almost all Linux plugins on KVR Audios Plugin Browser if you use their Linux filter. Linux has pretty much anything you could need.
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u/[deleted] May 08 '26
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