[linux-audio-user] update: VST plugins + Linux + recent WINE

[Dave Phillips]

Greetings:

  I'm testing DSSI and libfst VST support using wine-20050725. Here's a 
preliminary report for interested users.

  I rebuilt and reinstalled libfst, jack_fst, dssi, and the dssi-vst 
stuff. Kernel is Demudi's 2.6.12, ALSA 1.0.9b, JACK 0.99.54. Everything 
built without complaint, except for one significant error. Recently WINE 
has altered some syntax and flags for some of its utilities, including 
the winebuild binary. The dssi-vst and libfst stuff (including jack_fst) 
use winebuild in the final stages of the build, and they failed because 
a flag is missing. The fix is to add the -F flag after the --exe 
directive in the appropriate Makefiles. It's only three or four 
instances, and after making the changes the builds proceeded without 
problems.

  First, some notable failures:

    dlphilp at demudi:~/dssi-vst-0.3.1$ ./vsthost 
../vstplugins/vsti/HyperCanvas.dll
    Returning file identifiers: JANyenIu1TlApftWzNiGT2M0
    DSSI_PATH not set, defaulting to 
/home/dlphilp/.dssi:/usr/local/lib/dssi:/usr/lib/dssi
    RemoteVSTClient: executing 
/usr/local/lib/dssi/dssi-vst/dssi-vst-server -g 
../vstplugins/vsti/HyperCanvas.dll,JANyenIu1TlApftWzNiGT2M0
    DSSI VST plugin server v0.96
    Copyright (c) 2004 Chris Cannam - Fervent Software
    Loading "../vstplugins/vsti/HyperCanvas.dll"...
    VST_PATH not set, defaulting to 
/home/dlphilp/vst:/usr/local/lib/vst:/usr/lib/vst
    fixme:midi:OSS_MidiInit Synthesizer support MIDI in. Not supported 
yet (please report)
    dssi-vst-server[1]: found in 
/home/dlphilp/vst/../vstplugins/vsti/HyperCanvas.dll
    done
    Testing VST compatibility...
    dssi-vst-server[1]: VST entrypoint "main" found
    Plugin server timed out on startup: No such device or address
    vsthost: bailing out
    Terminated

    dlphilp at demudi:~$ jack_fst vstplugins/vsti/HyperCanvas.dll
    fixme:midi:OSS_MidiInit Synthesizer support MIDI in. Not supported 
yet (please report)
    HyperCanvas could not be instantiated
    ------> [At this point an error dialog appears that says "Not 
supported CPU" followed by garbage characters. - DP]
    can't instantiate plugin vstplugins/vsti/HyperCanvas.dll

    dlphilp at demudi:~$ jack_fst vstplugins/Crystal.dll         
    Segmentation fault

    All other plugins that I tried failed with jack_fst, with the same 
segmentation fault.

  I was able to run and test Oberon-4, Crystal, PM4, Pro-52, Mercury-1, 
and AdditiveSynth with dssi-vst's vsthost. I'm not at my home machine, 
so I have just a few plugins to test, but so far I'm inclined to agree 
with Paul Davis and simply recommend the dssi-vst package for running 
VSTs with the most recent WINEs.

  I'd really like to get HyperCanvas working under dssi-vst. Any tips or 
suggestions from you VST mavens out there ?

Best,

dp