Apply VST audio effect/plugin to audio-file

Question

This is my first question after leeching over here for some time.. So spare me.

I need to apply the iZotope Vinyl VST effect to some audio files via CLI or C++ (so language doesn't really matter), it has to work on a Mac or on a Unix based system. I've researched all over the webs and can't find any working solution.

I've tried using MissWatson, a command line utility, this works but my result audio files are silent...

./MissWatson -plugin=Vinyl -input-file="/Users/Sjaq/Desktop/test.wav" -output-file="/Users/Sjaq/Downloads/MissWatson-v1.0-mac/res.wav" -parameter=1:0.6,2:0.6,11:0.4

Then I tried using the Steinberg VST SDK by creating a host application, starting from the vstvalidator provided by the SDK. But when I try to load the VST I get this error:

2010-12-01 16:57:40.774 vstvalidator[4654:903] Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Vinyl.vst/Contents/MacOS/Vinyl: dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Vinyl.vst/Contents/MacOS/Vinyl, 262): no suitable image found. Did find: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Vinyl.vst/Contents/MacOS/Vinyl: no matching architecture in universal wrapper

And I don't know what to do. I'm pretty new to C++ and and made a few apps without any issues, but this time I've hit a dead end.

I've read about pyvst but it seems to need a DLL for the VST so that didn't work either.

Answer 1

I'm the author of MissWatson, and as you probably noticed on the webpage, I unfortunately was required to close-source the code, so I can't really ask you for more diagnostic information, since I wouldn't be able to patch MissWatson if it's a bug there. However, I would recommend running MissWatson with the -verbose switch and perhaps logging that output to file if that floods your terminal. You might find something in that output which helps you to diagnose the problem.

Anyways, as for the error in your VST host, I have a feeling that you are compiling your app as a 64-bit executable and trying to load a 32-bit plugin. Since hardly any VST/AU plugins (and also sequencers, for that matter) have made the leap to 64-bit, you'd be better off just compiling your app as a 32-bit x86 binary.

By default, the "debug" configuration in Xcode only builds your app for the native architecture of your machine to save time during compilation. I would advise that you disable this feature in your project's build settings and always build with the architectures you plan to ship with. This will prevent weird cross-architecture types of errors like the one you saw above.

Edit: I have since started a new command-line VST host to replace MissWatson which is called MrsWatson. You should try using this tool instead.