If you want to use Windows VST plugins on Linux (for example in REAPER), here’s a general roadmap:
Programs you’ll need
Wine: a Windows compatibility layer that allows Windows programs to run on Linux.
Yabridge: a wrapper that converts Windows VST2/VST3 plugins into Linux .so files so Linux DAWs like REAPER can use them.
General setup workflow
1. Install Wine for your distro.
On Debian/Ubuntu/Mint-based systems, you can use the official WineHQ repositories.
Make sure to enable 32-bit support (dpkg –add-architecture i386) if required.
Exact commands may vary depending on your Linux distro.
2. Install Yabridge
Download the latest tarball from Yabridge GitHub
Extract it to a folder, e.g., ~/yabridge.
This folder contains libyabridge-chainloader-vst2.so and libyabridge-chainloader-vst3.so.
3. Place your Windows VSTs under Wine
Copy or install your Windows VSTs into Wine’s C:/Program Files or C:/Program Files (x86) directories.
Example: ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/ for VST3 plugins.
4. Tell Yabridge where your chainloader and plugins are
Use the YABRIDGE_HOME environment variable and/or yabridgectl set path=… to point to the chainloader folder.
Add your VST folders and run yabridgectl sync to generate Linux .so wrappers.
5. Configure your DAW
Add the folder where Yabridge generated the .so files to your DAW’s VST scan path.
Rescan plugins.
Tweaks & notes
Paths and commands may differ depending on your Linux distro. Some users need to tweak paths, escape spaces, or adjust permissions.
Some plugins may need extra Wine dependencies (DLLs or redistributables).
32-bit vs 64-bit: make sure Wine architecture matches your VST plugin (32-bit plugins need 32-bit Wine).
AI tools can help generate the exact command sequence for your distro and environment. For example, you can prompt an AI with:
“Generate the terminal commands to install Wine, Yabridge, and set up a Windows VST folder for Linux Mint 22.2, assuming the VSTs are copy-pasted.”
This is the general guideline — once you have Wine and Yabridge working, the rest is mostly just pointing paths and syncing plugins.
This is a rough visual idea of the setup:
And the final result: EasyAmp open in Reaper in Linux Mint
