**This is an old revision of the document!**
Calf Studio Gear
Whether you want to drown your vocals in reverb or just need to put a gate on your Master Out, the Calf collection of sonic toys and tools probably has what you need. Plug some sound into this, and prepare to be amazed.
Strengths [Weaknesses]
Stable
Audio effects are not easy to generate, but the Calf audio effects are some of the most stable and reliable available.
Attractive
If you want your audio rig to look good as well as sound good, the new UI for Calf effects are nothing like the old utilitarian sliders and number fields from the days of old. These are attractive and enviable GUI applications.
Complete
The Calf collection is nearly an entire studio, encompassing synths, a sample player, effects, and utilities like gates and compressors and limiters.
Fun
You make music because it's fun. Calf effects play along.
Weaknesses [Strengths]
New
Calf effects recently got a major overhaul, and with that, the new Calf plugins may not work with your old projects that used Calf. Of course, Calf is open source and open source never really dies, so you can install the original Calf plugins to go back through your old projects and freeze the tracks using the effects. However, you cannot have both the original and the new plugins installed.
Install
Installation of Calf studio gear is theoretically straight-forward, but for the transitionary quirks resulting from the recent update from the LADSPA format (the Linux native plugin format, akin to VST, RTAS, or AU) to LADSPA version 2 (lv2 for short).
If you have old music projects that used the original Calf plugins, then now would be a good time to install Calf version 1 and freeze or bounce your tracks, baking in the effects to relieve the projects from depending upon old Calf plugins.
You can get the old Calf plugins from http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.1/audio/calf, or from this anonymous backup location (the md5sums have been verified, and this backup is a trusted source).
To install the new Calf plugins, you may use the Slackermedia builds.
See Also
Jack Rack
Invada
Tap
Steve Harris LADSPA