[cw-discuss] Crossover - VST plugin support?

[Mark Knecht]

Jeremy,
   There are a bunch of issues around all of this stuff. I've been
using VST's for at least a decade under Windows. The first thing you
should look into is whether Codeweavers is going to have any issues
living inside of the licensing issues created by Steinberg. I am not a
programmer but historically it seems that to use VSTs under Linux has
required someone to write software that is compatible with the
Steinberg SDK. I don't know much about it but here are a coupl eof
links for you to look at if you'd like:

http://ygrabit.steinberg.de/~ygrabit/public_html/index.html
http://www.steinberg.net/532+M52087573ab0.html

   More interesting to me would be a single app that can be used to
host VSTs. This one works well under Windows. There are likely many
others:

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm

   If SaviHost (or another publicly available host) could be made to
load and completely shield the VST from Wine vs. Windows then I would
think that SaviHost under Crossover would work as well as SaviHost
under Windows which would be great.

   In my mind if you worked at the hosting level maybe you wouldn't
have to know anything about the Steinberg SDK. SaviHost is just an app
that holds little VST apps (you don't care what they are) and works in
Wine.

   Please keep in mind that you must make both audio and MIDI
interfaces work or else the VST won't be fully functional.

Hope this helps,
Mark

On 1/16/07, Jeremy White <jwhite at codeweavers.com> wrote:
> Hi Joel,
>
> Can you educate me a bit?  Is there a standard on Mac OS X for
> these plugins?  That is, could you make a single plugin wrapper
> that glued from 'format X' to VST?
>
> One concern I have is that on Linux I didn't feel that the
> standards are all that stable.
>
> We're actually quite good at writing this sort of plugin
> server, and I'm interested in other areas where we could
> provide this functionality.
>
> Before I get your hopes up, I should be brutally honest:
> this is likely to be one of those where I'm intellectually
> interested, but then am unable to make the business case
> for the work required to make it go.
>
> However, we can certainly create an entry for VST plugin
> support in our compatibility center and let folks rally there;
> if we see clear and compelling demand for it in the form
> of pledges, then the business case will be easy <grin>.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jeremy
>
>
> JJB wrote:
> > Dear Crossover developers
> >
> > There has been several rather successful WINE based attempts to  create
> > systems for running windows VST audio plugins, the most  popular audio
> > plugin format, under Linux. Since your system is based  on WINE, I was
> > thinking the following:
> >
> > Would it be possible to build a very limited version of Crossover  that
> > does nothing but run VST plugins? For those of us who have  switched to
> > Mac and just want that functionality, it would be great  if there was a
> > simple install and host that could be used to run all  those thousands
> > and thousands of plugins, many of which are freeware,  on OS X.
> > Currently there are perhaps 15-20  freeware VST plugins for  OS X, lots
> > more commercial ones, but some of the PC vst plugins, even  the free
> > ones are really quite exceptional.
> >
> > The original, now abandoned project was called vstserver, the newer
> > standard appears to be somewhat more complex, but apparently does a
> > better job of running VST plugins: DSSI a standard for Linux audio
> > plugins with a wrapper that allows pc VST plugins to run. Another
> > project that appears to have success in the same area is FST-jack.
> >
> > If any of these could be made to run under OS X, it would be truly
> > wonderful. Even better if it had a GUI on it...
> >
> > Here is the page to look at for overall info: http://
> > ladspavst.linuxaudio.org/?intro=1
> >
> > Sourcecode for vstserver appears to be here: http://www.notam02.no/
> > arkiv/src/
> >
> > Thanks, let me know if there is anything in the works like this,
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > discuss mailing list
> > discuss at crossover.codeweavers.com
> > http://crossover.codeweavers.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
>
>
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