Airwave is a wine based VST2 bridge, that allows for the use of Windows VST2 audio plugins with Linux VST2 hosts.
Due to the use of shared memory, only one extra copying is made for each data transfer. Airwave also uses the XEMBED protocol to correctly embed the plugin editor into the host window.
WARNING:
If you don't have a valid VST2 license usage of the VST2 SDK and distribution of airwave in binary form is not allowed by Steinberg.
A licence agreement is also required if the only use of the VST2 technology is for internal purposes. Due to the lack of a licence agreement, you are not allowed to use the VST2 technology. Steinberg no longer offers VST2 license agreements.
- gcc multilib (if 32-bit support is needed)
- wine (64-bit and optional 32-bit)
- libmagic
- Qt5(base) for the GUI
- Steinberg VST2 SDK header files located in
airwave/VST2
Packages:
-
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S gcc-multilib cmake git wine qt5-base -
Fedora
sudo dnf install gcc-c++ git cmake wine wine-devel wine-devel.i686 file file-devel libX11-devel libX11-devel.i686 qt5-devel glibc-devel.i686 glibc-devel -
Ubuntu
sudo apt install git cmake build-essential qtbase5-dev libmagic-dev libwine-dev wine64 wine64-preloader wine64-toolsNote: Only for 64-bit, use
-DDISABLE_32BIT=ONduring configure.
git clone https://github.com/rodlie/airwave.git
cd airwave
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/airwave ..
make
sudo make install
Of course, you can change the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX as you like. Note that airwave will try to build for 32-bit and 64-bit as default, if you don't have a multilib installation add -DDISABLE_32BIT=ON.
- Run the airwave-manager
- Press the "Create link" button on the toolbar.
- Select desired wine loader and wine prefix in the appropriate combo boxes.
- Enter a path to VST plugin DLL file in the "VST plugin" field (you can use the "Browse" button for convenience). Note, that the path is relative to the selected wine prefix.
- Enter a "Link location" path (the directory, where your VST host looks for the plugins).
- Enter a link name, if you don't like the auto-suggested one.
- Select a desired log level for this link. The higher the log level, the more messages you'll receive. The 'default' log level is a special value. It corresponds to the 'Default log level' value from the settings dialog. In most cases, the 'default' log level is the right choice. For maximum performance do not use a higher level than 'trace'.
- Press the "OK" button. At this point, your VST host should be able to find a new plugin inside of the "Link location" directory.
Note: After you have created the link you cannot move/rename it with a file manager. All updates have to be done inside the airwave-manager. Also, you should update your links after updating the airwave itself. This could be achived by pressing the "Update links" button.
If the plugin cannot be scan by your host, it is possible to use the airwave-tester and pass WINEDEBUG flags to have a better idea what is the issue with the plugin.
export WINEDEBUG=fixme-all,warn+all
/opt/airwave/bin/airwave-tester '~/.vst/DUNE 3.so'
The bridge consists of four components:
- Plugin endpoint (airwave-plugin.so)
- Host endpoint (airwave-host-{arch}.exe.so and airwave-host-{arch}.exe launcher script)
- Configuration file (${XDG_CONFIG_PATH}/airwave/airwave.conf)
- GUI configurator (airwave-manager)
When the airwave-plugin is loaded by the VST host, it obtains its absolute path and use it as the key to get the linked VST DLL from the configuration. Then it starts the airwave-host process and passes the path to the linked VST file. The airwave-host loads the VST DLL and works as a fake VST host. Starting from this point, the airwave-plugin and airwave-host act together like a proxy, translating commands between the native VST host and the Windows VST plugin.
- Some fonts may be missing in various plugins.
- Due to a bug in wine, there is some hacking involved when embedding the editor window. There is a chance that you get a black window instead of the plugin GUI. Also some areas might not update correctly when increasing the window size. You can workaround this issue by patching wine with this patch.
The following list is not complete. It contains only plugins, that have been tested by me or by people, who sent me a report.
Please note about d2d1.dll mentioned in the list: currently I know that only one version of d2d1.dll is working:
version: 6.1.7601.17514
size: 827904 bytes
md5 hash: 3e0a1bf9e17349a8392455845721f92f
If you will get success with another version, please contact me and I will update this information.
| VST-Plugins | works? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AlgoMusic CZynthia | yes | |
| Aly James LAB OB-Xtreme | yes | |
| Analogic Delay by interrruptor | yes | |
| Audio Damage Dubstation 2 | yes | |
| Bionic Delay by interrruptor | yes | |
| Blue Cat Audio Oscilloscope Multi | no | doesn't work with wine |
| Cableguys Volume Shaper | yes | you need to install native d2d1.dll and override it in winecfg |
| Credland Audio BigKick | yes | you need to install native d2d1.dll and override it in winecfg |
| FabFilter plugins | yes | haven't tested them all |
| GForce impOSCar2 | yes | |
| Green Oak Software Crystal | yes | |
| IK Multimedia Amplitude 4 | yes | |
| Image-Line Hardcore | yes | |
| Image-Line Drumaxx | yes | |
| Image-Line Harmless | yes | |
| Image-Line Harmor | yes | |
| Image-Line Maximus | yes | |
| Image-Line Ogun | yes | |
| Image-Line Morphine | yes | |
| Image-Line PoiZone | yes | |
| Image-Line Sakura | yes | |
| Image-Line Sawer | yes | |
| Image-Line Sytrus | yes | |
| Image-Line Toxic Biohazard | yes | |
| LennarDigital Sylenth1 | yes | you need to override d2d1.dll in winecfg |
| LePou Plugins | yes | LeCab2 has slight GUI redrawing issues |
| NI Absynth | yes | |
| NI FM8 | yes | |
| NI Guitar Rig 5 | yes | activation doesn't work |
| NI Kontakt 5 | mostly | up to v5.3.1, can import libraries only in Windows XP mode |
| NI Massive | yes | only 32-bit |
| NI Reaktor 5 | yes | |
| Magnus Choir | yes | |
| Martin Lüders pg8x | yes | |
| Meesha Damatriks | yes | |
| Odo Synths Double Six | partly | GUI issues |
| Peavey Revalver Mark III.V | yes | |
| ReFX Nexus2 | yes | |
| ReFX Vanguard | yes | |
| Reveal Sound Spire | yes | starting from 1.0.19 you need to override d2d1.dll in winecfg |
| Sonic Academy A.N.A. | yes | |
| Sonic Academy KICK | yes | |
| Sonic Cat LFX-1310 | yes | |
| Sonic Charge Cyclone | yes | |
| Smartelectronix s(M)exoscope | yes | |
| Spectrasonics Omnisphere | yes | |
| Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 | yes | May require copying STEAM dir manually to place on install. Runs too slow with many presets to be usable on a decent laptop. |
| SQ8L by Siegfried Kullmann | yes | |
| SuperWave P8 | yes | |
| Synapse Audio DUNE 2 | yes | |
| Synth1 by Ichiro Toda | yes | |
| TAL TAL-U-NO-LX | yes | |
| Tone2 FireBird | yes | |
| Tone2 Nemesis | yes | |
| Tone2 Saurus | yes | |
| u-he plugins | yes | Linux version is also available |
| Variety of Sound plugins | yes | |
| Voxengo plugins | mostly | inter plugin routing doesn't work (architecture issue) |
| Valhalla VintageVerb | yes | |
| Xfer Serum | yes | install native GDI+ (run winetricks gdiplus) |
| EZDrummer2, BFD3, XLN AD2 | yes | host need multi-channel support |