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Carla is one of the most powerful plugin hosts on Linux, but does routing your VSTs through it actually beat letting your DAW handle things natively? We ran real sessions, benchmarked CPU loads, and stress-tested both approaches to give you a straight answer.
Forget the idle benchmarks and synthetic tests — we loaded up Reaper, Ardour, and Bitwig with actual plugin chains, hit record, and measured latency under real production conditions. Here's what the numbers actually look like, what hardware and kernel settings move the needle, and what every budget level can realistically expect.
Free doesn't mean cheap — not anymore. These 15 open-source plugins span compression, EQ, reverb, saturation, and beyond, and several of them genuinely go toe-to-toe with tools that cost hundreds of dollars. If you're still dismissing the open-source world, this list might change your mind.