Airwave

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.

Requirements

• 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-tools
  

  Note: Only for 64-bit, use -DDISABLE_32BIT=ON during configure.

Building

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.

Usage

1. Run the airwave-manager
2. Press the "Create link" button on the toolbar.
3. Select desired wine loader and wine prefix in the appropriate combo boxes.
4. 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.
5. Enter a "Link location" path (the directory, where your VST host looks for the plugins).
6. Enter a link name, if you don't like the auto-suggested one.
7. 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'.
8. 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.

Wine compabilities issues

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'

Under the hood

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.

Known issues

• 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.

Compatibility

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