I know i'll be not the first to post or write about this but then see it as a reminder.

Often i read in the sister site "no mac plugin?" but many of mac users don't realise we still can use windows instruments. So here is how I do it.

1) install the latest Wine from the winehq website (dont forget if you dont have already to install Quartz)
2)install Soundflower ch2.
3) install Windows version of Reaper
4) install by example Vecto by Rop papen for windows , or Swam plugins
5) i use Ableton live and in live i activate the IAC Driver standard virtual midi driver of mac as an output (not input or you create feedback)
6) Run Reaper for windows which you will find in /users/yourname/.wine/drive_c/program files/reaper(x64) and setup audio as in picture



7) do the same for midi


in ableton live : create a midi track and an audio track
(make sure you select for input your keyboard and not "all midi " because loopback)




Now you are good to go to run windows plugs on mac recording midi and audio from the instruments in ableton live . Depending of your system you might need to mess with the buffer a bit , but hey life is not always perfect

 

I forgot to mention > in reaper Enable also. Midi & Control on Bus 1 for midi CC

 

although WINE way does work (unlike Parallels or other VM), I still feel Vienna Ensemble Pro server (on Windows host) is cleanest way to get best of both worlds while using MacOS DAW

 

Sure but not everyone wants to mess with two pcs if you understand what i mean

 

Sylenth ? but i am not sure Sylenth has credible release of 64 bit for Windows ?

 

Sylenth 32 works in reaper so yes you are good to go

 

Can you elaborate a little more as to how you got SWAM plugins to run on your Mac? I'm using CodeWeavers Crossover and I keep getting errors during the install

 

If someone packed a solution to run Kontakt 6.2.+ Windows version via wine on mac, that would be useful for those mac users whose system is older than the required minimum for these new Kontakt versions.
I PM-ed jeen regarding to this issue, he said it's possible, but noone has released this solution yet.

 

In theory it's interesting, it's nice to know that it can be done. That said, I hate those cumbersome methods that eat resources and complicate daily life. I don't believe there are plugins that can't be replaced to get a job done. Ok, let's assume that Windows has an absolutely necessary plugin for us: at that point, instead of going crazy with workarounds, it is much more practical (and cheaper) to use a PC for production

 

I tried to install couple versions of Kontakt 6 on new Wineskin Engines for you. Unfortunatelly noone works. I tried WS11WineCX19.0.1, WS9 5.1/5.2/5.3 doesn't work. I tried CrossOver and failed to load the Kontakt.exe. (All test was done on Catalina and these wrappers are the only wrappers which works on macOS 10.15.xx. I have no acces to previous system so I can't test these wrappers on earlier operating systems).
We need to wait for the new Engine from Wine. I am sorry that I can not help you

 

Thanks for your time.
The thing is, this solution for running newer Kontakts isn't necessary on Catalina as it runs those Kontakt versions natively.
We need to test it on macos earlier than 10.12
And I think the easiest would be using kontakt portable.

 

I'll leave these here...

http://netvst.org/blog/hello
and
http://netvst.org/blog/2019/09/unify-commercial-product-with-netvst-built-in

You're welcome;)

 

Oh wow, apparently netvst is from the same guy who is also responsible for programming Unify from pluginguru. Amazing.

 

Yea I've used NetVST before but this is only for .dll plugins, no? Can I use this to install .exe standalone apps as well as plugins?

 

I've managed a similar thing with a plugin called "wormhole", unfortunately had an active internet connection when ive used crossover so they made it a trial version again... gotta try with wine someday

 

I'm sure that a simplified version of this could be made. Something like a wrapper that does this but behind the scenes

 

You can extract the .dll from the installer using wine

Just use "Installation Mode: copy file (Program) and all files in the folder to the App Bundle"

Once it's done, you can right click on the created app and click "Show Package Contents" and find it in the folders

Edit: This doesn't work for everything but you can get around it by installing on windows and copying the dll to your mac

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2020

It's even simpler:
install CrossOver, create a Windows 10 bottle and install Visual C++ 6.0 (it says it's not compatible, but it is)
now you can install the Windows Ableton version and every R2R plugin into the bottle and you have everything running ;)

 

Just doing a quick test this morning but that seemed to work! Thank you very much! I'll test further over the weekend and report back, thanks again!

 

Yes, .dll's only. I tried it but I couldn't open the required port in my router so I couldn't test it.