I have been using wine for quite a while, with many applications.
mostly though, i am using wine for VST support via wineASIO. For the most part,
this method works extremely well. many of the plugins i use work
pretty much flawlessly.
the only real exception is that occasionally the VST's GUI will cause
an xrun in jackd. this hardly ever matters, as most of the time i am
not using the GUI's and am usually controlling my VSTi/VST with midi.
however, this week i have upgraded to 1.2rc-7 from 1.2rc-6. Now
several plugins that used to not cause a single xrun, are causing an
xrun when the applications first load, and occasionally
when they are running, unlike before....
i mainly am using the Native Instruments plugins, including Massive,
Battery3 and FM8. Massive NEVER EVER used to cause xruns, now it does
sometimes. Same goes with FM8. Battery does cause xruns, but only when
you select multiple drum cells on th gui. the rest of the time it is
fine. these three apps are all run as standalone, to clarify....
rather than using FST or a VST host.
I do also use SAVIHOST. To wrap my VST - .dll files into .exe - Some
of these plugins are now causing xruns as well, where they didn't
before.
While i do expect the odd xrun to be had, running windows VSTs in
linux. I am surprised to see more happening now, i am not sure how i
could help. but would be more than willing to, in any way i can.
There are many of us linux pro-audio people using Windows VSTs and i
would hate to see apps that have worked smoothly for a long time start
to degrade and no longer be reliable as they have for a long time.
Like i said before i know this has to do with Wine's handling of
Windows graphics, maybe there is some dirty code that needs a little
love,
to play nicer with jack?
anyway,
i just thought i should atleast mention this. it isn't causing me
major issues. Aside from the odd recording that i have to start again,
because of one of these new xruns.... however, clearly something is
happening, as these xruns were not present pre-1.2 i was hoping i
would see improved VST support in wine by now, not regressions. but
"if only by a bit", i would say it's actually getting worse.
(it's too bad Muse Research didn't share any code with Wine, as they
must have fixed GUI related xruns ).
jordan
