AxeTwoDriver-DAW

Use an Axe-Fx II in your DAW on current Windows.
The companion to AxeTwoDriver: a small library, in pure Rust, that presents the unit to ASIO hosts.

Important

Status: experimental. Used in one DAW on one Axe-Fx II XL: it opens and plays cleanly. Recording, other hosts and long sessions are untested. 64-bit hosts only.

What it is

AxeTwoDriver talks to the unit over USB without a kernel driver. This library sits on top of it and implements the driver interface that DAWs use, so the unit shows up in the DAW's audio device list as AxeTwoDriver.

Channels	4 in, 2 out
Sample rate	48 kHz (the unit's clock is fixed)
Sample format	32-bit integer
Buffer sizes	64 to 4096 frames, powers of two; 256 preferred
Hosts	64-bit

The buffer size suggested to hosts and the USB streaming mode come from AxeTwoDriver's control panel, which the host's control-panel button opens. Not there yet: more than one program at a time, and 32-bit hosts.

Install

The AxeTwoDriver download includes this library and its installer registers it (install guide). To do it by hand instead:

1. Set up the unit with AxeTwoDriver first. axetwo status should end with Audio: ready.

2. Put axetwo_daw.dll in a folder where it can stay, then register it from an administrator prompt:

   regsvr32 "C:\path\to\axetwo_daw.dll"

3. In your DAW, choose AxeTwoDriver as the audio device.

To remove it: regsvr32 /u "C:\path\to\axetwo_daw.dll", then delete the file.

Build and try it

You need Rust 1.95 or newer and a checkout of AxeTwoDriver next to this one (../AxeTwoDriver).

cargo build --release
cargo run --example host -- 3        # loads the library and streams silence for 3 s, twice
cargo run --example host -- 3 -30    # the same, playing a quiet 440 Hz tone

The example host needs no registration; it loads the library straight from the build folder.

Why this is a separate project

The driver interface this library implements is defined by Steinberg's ASIO SDK. The SDK is offered under a proprietary licence or the GNU General Public License version 3; this project uses the GPLv3 option, so this repository is GPLv3. AxeTwoDriver itself stays MIT-licensed and knows nothing about this interface, so other front ends can build on it under MIT terms.

src/sdk.rs holds the Rust declarations of the interface, written from the SDK's headers. No file of the SDK is included here.

License and credits

AxeTwoDriver-DAW is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3. Copyright (c) 2026 The AxeTwoDriver contributors. See ATTRIBUTION.md.

_{ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Axe-Fx and Fractal Audio are trademarks of Fractal Audio Systems, LLC. AxeTwoDriver-DAW is an independent, open-source project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by either company; these names are used only to describe what it works with. It comes with no warranty: you use it with your own equipment at your own risk.}