Bug#600981: ITP: lv2file -- A command-line program to apply LV2 effects to files

[Jeremy <jeremybubs@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@gwolf.org> wrote:

Jeremy Salwen dijo [Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 12:42:27AM -0400]:

> lv2file is a simple program which you can use to apply LV2 effects to your
>  audio files without much hassle.
>  Possible use cases of lv2file are:
>  * You want to apply an effect without having to open a GUI or start
>    a project.
>  * You want to apply effects to a large number of files, or in an
>    automated manner.
>  * You need a deterministic environment to debug a plugin you are developing.
>  * You want your audio tools to be command line only.
>
>  lv2file does not come with any built-in effects, so you must install other
>  packages containing LV2 plugins to use with lv2file.

What are LV2 effects, how can they be useful to me? Where can I get
them? What are other example packages I can use to create those effects?

LV2 is a standard for audio processing plugins (http://lv2plug.in/).  There are numerous packages already in the debian archives containing LV2 plugins which will work out of the box with lv2file.  For example, the prototype package I and building suggests the following packages containing LV2 files: lv2vocoder, vocproc, invada-studio-plugins-lv2, lv2fil.  These plugins also work with most major audio processing software on linux, such as qtractor, ardour, and traverso.

In order to create these effects (as a developer) you should install lv2core and read the included documentation.  However, unless you are experienced with audio programming, you usually would only use other people's plugins, and simply adjust the parameters (for example, the volume parameter on an amplifier plugin).  Lv2file (and most other programs which work with LV2 plugins) allow you to control these parameters directly.

Jeremy