D I S C L A I M E R
**************************
this NOT the OFFICIAL way to run XT2 in linux. this thread is a discussion of running the "windows" version in linux using WINE api (emulation) in an effort to be able to use windows vst's in a linux environment. and while its extremely interesting especially for the linux musician, it's definitely not very easy to pull off and works very differently from wine version to wine verison from distro to distro etc etc etc...IF you try this stuff do so knowing it's very experimental, and is NOT going to produce a 1:1 likeness to running the windows version natively in windows.please understand these concepts before moving on, as i do not want to lead someone on or confuse a linux beginner.
Hello anyone bored enough to read this
For the past few weeks, I have been messing around with wineasio in my current Ubuntu 7.x install. Linux is a hot "buzz" word in places like kvr and others nowadays and now that there is a host that *I* am very comfortable with and excited about is making it's way to the linux platform, I took it upon myself to finish what i breifly had started before XT2 came into the picture (and that is to see if i could ever ditch windows for linux--for good.)
so let's air out some terms and info that everybody may not know about.
WINE -- Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.
(more on this fascinating, and of course controversial subject at the website http://www.winehq.org/ )
wineasio -- is an "ASIO" driver, designed to be used in place of a traditional asio driver in order to use an asio-compatible audioapp through wine in linux (i.e. energy XT 1.4) The original patch written by Robert Reif was updated by drumfix over at JACKLAB to work with more recent wine builds .
well when i first got a wind of this i was trying to see exactly how it would operate, and if it would be a better [temporary] solution than say, loading up vst's throuh dssi or fst etc...my initial finidngs where about what i thought, workable but not very ready for prime time music making. once i got wineasio up nd running with my WINE, i fired up REAPER demo and started loading up free vst .dll's . and pleasantly, they fired up pretty well...i tried some "synthedit vst's" "synthmaker vst's" and some i wasn't sure about, except for the fact they would work as is. Well they all loaded, but REAPER was not like it was in standard windows...slowish gui redraw being the biggest of problems, and after a little fiddling i simply got tired of "minimize-maximize" routines to straighten out the gui--although using beryl helped with this because you can roll windows up like blinds using a the mouse scroll wheel....but still not a go for me....
so next i went with my true windows sequencer, energyXT 1.4 . vst loading was really smooth, and recogniezed the WINE asio driver right away. Unfortunately the same problems arose: poor gui redraw, slow menus, and the sequencer was almost unbearable for me
but at the same time, it DID seem like a better alternative (when in comp view only) to say, using fst or dssi: no longer did i need to use something like LASH to save and load presets, i simply would use energy XT to recall stuff so i guess this wasn't a revelation, but a small improvement for what to me were the best ways to use vst's in linux.well i played around some more and started to try more advanced things, like try some of my commercial synths. from my fst and dssi-host experience, I knew that *IF* you could sucessfully "install" a plugin through WINE, chances are that it would work (highly depending on the age, guis style and copy protection of course). I decided to go with my "big dogs" first. suprisingly a few i was weary about were working! but copy protection and gui stuff still produced nags and lags you wouldnt experience on a windows system. so certainly postivie news but nothing really more than just something to experiment and play around with while booting into linux.
Well I gave the codeweaver's crossover pro (a more advanced commercial-version of wine which includes customer support and great extra features) a try, after a friend in real life who was also the linux person to actually show me linux was more than some sort of DOS thing
. I was VERY skeptical about PAYING for WINE, or at least thats what i FELT like i was doing, until i tried it. the difference is considerable when it came to gui redraw. enrgy XT 1.4 was going though its menus pretty well, and the sequencer comp became useable! this made me very happy so i experimented some more. lots of installers were working for me, and i didnt really run into any problems loading vst's up via the comp view in energy XT 1.4 , even loading Xt within itslef hosting a plug within...well, you get the idea 
then something crazy happened.
I tried XT2 beta.exe using wine asio and i was
to see how well it worked. so smooth, no delays pretty much at all! no seeing how at this point all windows stuff was default opening with "crossover" instead of plain "WINE" i purposely fired up the windows XT2 in WINE with wineasio and still--the *best* performance gui wise of all the hosts that i tried: REAPER, energy XT 1.4, FL Studio (wouldn't really work for me), minihost (wouldn't work for me) or savihost (also wouldnt work for me)--you could barely tell that i was running XT2 thorugh WINE, it felt like i was running the linux version!so using crossover, I threw some of my big dog vst's at it:
--EZdrummer
--Kontakt 2*
--Sylenth1
--Predator
-Minimonsta
-Battery 3
all of those guys, working! unbelievable! addictive drums works. BLUE works. samplitude fx suite, amplitube 2 and jimi hendrix, nomad factory blues tubes bundle, all working
it wasn't until i tried my celemony meoldyne vsti that i got one that genuinely did NOT work. im sure there is more and mileage may vary on all of these.
so whats so great about this? ALL of the aforemntioned plugs work just fine in windows so why bother?????
well....to me, it's a matter of choice. yes my overall findings are: it's not the endall answer to linux VST. as jorgen would put it, the answer is VSTGUI for linux, and of course commercial vst developers catering to the platform. WHEN this happens, none of this WINE stuff would matter. BUT, *IF* you wanted to use wineasio ALOT of vst's work already, and they work well within XT2 beta...which is getting better weekly (in particular im very curious to see how PDC works in wineasio, if at all
). I am rapping up a project i started and while its a little more inconvenient than my normal windows workflow (using beta software, in a non-native environment etc...) incoviniences like for example, having the knowhow or time to gain the knowhow to run things, being extra careful in how you save stuff, knowing everyhing is not going to work etc....is what keeps me from recommending this. as XT2 matures, and linux vst becomes a standard, I am positive that it can only get better. depending on which tools you use for your music, you can make an argument that this method works. Will *I* use wineasio +XT2 for most serious projects? absolutely NOT. Am i now comfortable doing sketches with and using XT2 windows as a "minihost" for windows vst? absolutely YES. to me, this is a big deal. I have already turned to using XP in a vmware player for doing my adobe stuff while in linux, and it works great for that. couple that with what im talking about here for music tasks, and i boot into windows for *very* few things now. I feel like i have the "choice" much more than ever, and *that* is what excites me.what i hope to find out more about:
--what i can do with wine to make even more stuff work (very few vst's i encounter and no i dont have all vsts, actually don't work, so its more of a question what does not work more than what DOES work)
--why XT2 works so well with wine (i think it has to do with how the gui is coded)
but in closing, this is just a report of my findings of wineasio and XT2. when my song is finished (school prevents me from REALLY just knocking it out right now) i will try and post some info of how the project runs and give some more insight of doing full-fledged projects. no, its not he smoothest sytem, and there are bugs, n stuff, but hey, its not like windows vst's always work, within windows right?
the most difficult task will be finding which problems are just program related or specifically to using the wineasio wraparound. i suggest anyone who is trying linux audio with XT2 to give it a try with wineasio. you may be suprised in what you find.whew....
Allen
edits: grammar and such
