34 thoughts on “Free App Lets You Run Windows VST’s In Your Mac DAW”

    1. Using Sierra 10.12.6, the most reliable way I have found running Windows 32bit VST Effects bridged to a Mac DAW is with 3 bits of software other than your DAW.
      1. Use Crossover / Wine Bottler / Wine Stable etc to run a free program called vsthostx86 which you can download from here:
      http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm
      2. Download both Mac and Windows version of a free plugin called Wormhole2 by Plasq from here (This is 32bit) and install it to your DAW VST plugins directory:
      https://code.google.com/archive/p/wormhole2/downloads
      3. If your DAW is 64 bit, you will need Sound Radix 32 Lives to bridge Wormhole2 to 64bit (This is paid software, but it is well worth its price)
      4. Start your DAW. Pro Tools, Studio One, Cubase etc.
      5. Instantiate 2 x Wormhole inserts on your desired Track or Buss. One as a send and one as a receive. Name them accordingly. On the first instance of wormhole2, under the “direct” section on the GUI, assign it to “Start”. On the second instance of wormhole2, under the “direct” section of the GUI, assign it to “end”.
      6. Run vsthostx86 and insert wormhole2.dll after “Engine Input”. Then add your desired Windows vst.dll plugin after that and then add another instance of wormhole2.dll in the chain before closing the signal path to “Engine Output”.
      6. Make sure that the first instance on the wormhole2 plugins in both your DAW and in vsthostx86 are assigned to Send using the “Chooser” dropdown in that plugin GUI and the second instance is assigned to “Receive” using the Chooser dropdown in the Wormhole2 plugin GUI.
      7. In vsthostx86, make sure the first instance of wormhole2 is assigned to “end” in the “direct” section and tick “playthrough” and “sync”. And on the second instance of wormhole2, assign “direct” to “start” and tick “sync”.
      8. Make sure that vsthostx86 is set to the same sample rate as your DAW project. You’ll find that under Devices>Wave>Sample Rate.
      9. When you Bounce to Disk in your DAW, make sure you do in in Realtime so there are no sound issues.

      This method works flawlessly for me every time.
      Good luck.

      1. Hey,

        I’ve tried this method many times but Logic never loads my plugin. I’m not able to access the plugin and use my midi controller. What do you suggest?

        Thanks!
        Jacobie

  3. Isn’t it easier to emulate a whole PC or even buy one? It only costs 1/2 of a Mac Mini with double of memory and processing power. Monitor and printer included.

      1. Don’t forget about windows bloat.
        To run that windows VST dll gives you over 10 times the choice in VSTs and there are very neat ones.

    2. Alright, find me a 300$ i5, 4GB Ram, 500GB hard drive, intel HD4000 computer with 64 bit windows(all brand new)+ printer + monitor!

      2. The current Mac Mini costs 629€@Apple Store. Very easy to match, even with an SSD, 24′ Monitor and printer. The PC itself with I5 3330 (3Ghz Quad), 8GB Ram, 120GB SSD, Mikro-ATX MB, Modular-PSU and Case is 425€. Only quality components and no cheap crap. The ideal Hackintosh if you like to and quite expandable with anything you like.

      1. The only one that looked very interesting this year was orchestra one.

        There are surely some good Windows-only VSTs, but I haven’t seen anything that is worth kludging around with.

        Still – kudos to the developer. This will probably be useful to people, especially if they’ve been jealous of the freeware that’s available for Windows.

      2. there are hundreds of vst plugs for PC but very few for Mac ! end of debate KVR falls short with available vst plugs for Mac

  10. Great news! I often check Music Radar’s updates on new and free VSTs. Needless to say it featured most of the time Windows only products, as there seems to be an increasing interest for Windows from the developers (big and small). So I’m happy I can run some interesting VSTs like Illformed’s Glitch or ToneByte’s Bleep.

  11. “No good windows plugs”‘ are you people crazy? This will be worth using for the G-sonique plugins alone, and I’m sure there’s plenty of others I can’t remember. Of course we’d all prefer if developers would make proper cross platform versions, but this will be helpful in the meantime until some of these smaller developers can hire an OSX coder.

    1. “I’m sure there’s plenty of others I can’t remember. ”

      Exactly – there are a lot of PC-only VSTs, but not a lot that are very memorable.

  12. Quick, someone sample the sound of people’s panties getting in a knot! Dubstep is crying out for that! There are a few things I would like to at least demo, such as a few of H. G. Fortune’s cool synths, but so much is cross-platform now, this app doesn’t pass the cost/benefit analysis for me. If you know enough about synth programming, you don’t have to pile things up. Between the easily-tweaked player-libraries of several types and powerhouse plugs like MiniMonsta, you can cover pretty much Everything readily. I can live without this one and I don’t use Bootcamp, either; Windows has cooties. I would not fault anyone who took the plunge if it fired their imagination. I simply wonder why a Mac user would feel the need.

  16. I switched to mac after spending thousands on daw programs for my windows computers that crashed all the time, i have bought several macs since. windows are throw away operating systems , it costs too much for the os , upgrade your mac os, or buy a whole new windows computer to upgrade… HMMMM… which one costs more in the long run….??

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