diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 2fd4577d..7241f537 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ wine_threads_dep = declare_dependency(link_args : '-lpthread')
 xcb_dep = dependency('xcb')
 
 dl_dep = declare_dependency(link_args : '-ldl')
+rt_dep = declare_dependency(link_args : '-lrt')
 
 wine_ole32_dep = declare_dependency(link_args : '-lole32')
 # The SDK includes a comment pragma that would link to this on MSVC
@@ -313,6 +314,7 @@ vst2_plugin_sources = [
   'src/common/configuration.cpp',
   'src/common/logging/common.cpp',
   'src/common/logging/vst2.cpp',
+  'src/common/audio-shm.cpp',
   'src/common/plugins.cpp',
   'src/common/utils.cpp',
   'src/plugin/bridges/vst2.cpp',
@@ -381,6 +383,7 @@ vst3_plugin_sources = [
   'src/common/serialization/vst3/plugin-proxy.cpp',
   'src/common/serialization/vst3/plugin-factory-proxy.cpp',
   'src/common/serialization/vst3/process-data.cpp',
+  'src/common/audio-shm.cpp',
   'src/common/configuration.cpp',
   'src/common/plugins.cpp',
   'src/common/utils.cpp',
@@ -400,6 +403,7 @@ host_common_sources = [
   'src/common/configuration.cpp',
   'src/common/logging/common.cpp',
   'src/common/logging/vst2.cpp',
+  'src/common/audio-shm.cpp',
   'src/common/plugins.cpp',
   'src/common/utils.cpp',
   'src/wine-host/bridges/common.cpp',
@@ -506,6 +510,7 @@ shared_library(
     boost_filesystem_dep,
     bitsery_dep,
     dl_dep,
+    rt_dep,
     threads_dep,
     tomlplusplus_dep,
   ],
@@ -526,6 +531,7 @@ if with_vst3
       bitsery_dep,
       dl_dep,
       function2_dep,
+      rt_dep,
       threads_dep,
       tomlplusplus_dep,
       vst3_sdk_native_dep,
@@ -543,6 +549,7 @@ host_64bit_deps = [
   boost_filesystem_dep,
   bitsery_dep,
   function2_dep,
+  rt_dep,
   tomlplusplus_dep,
   wine_threads_dep,
   xcb_dep,
@@ -605,6 +612,7 @@ if with_bitbridge
     boost_filesystem_32bit_dep,
     bitsery_dep,
     function2_dep,
+    rt_dep,
     tomlplusplus_dep,
     wine_threads_dep,
     xcb_32bit_dep,
diff --git a/src/common/audio-shm.cpp b/src/common/audio-shm.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9e7d7a77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/common/audio-shm.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+// yabridge: a Wine VST bridge
+// Copyright (C) 2020-2021 Robbert van der Helm
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+#include "audio-shm.h"
+
+AudioShmBuffer::AudioShmBuffer(const Config& config)
+    : config(config),
+      shm(boost::interprocess::open_or_create,
+          config.name.c_str(),
+          boost::interprocess::read_write) {
+    shm.truncate(config.size);
+    buffer = boost::interprocess::mapped_region(
+        shm, boost::interprocess::read_write, 0, config.size);
+}
+
+AudioShmBuffer::~AudioShmBuffer() noexcept {
+    // If either side drops this object then the buffer should always be
+    // removed, so we'll do it on both sides to reduce the chance that we leak
+    // shared memory
+    boost::interprocess::shared_memory_object::remove(config.name.c_str());
+}
diff --git a/src/common/audio-shm.h b/src/common/audio-shm.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2728c3c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/common/audio-shm.h
@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+// yabridge: a Wine VST bridge
+// Copyright (C) 2020-2021 Robbert van der Helm
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <vector>
+
+#ifdef __WINE__
+#include "../wine-host/boost-fix.h"
+#endif
+#include <boost/interprocess/mapped_region.hpp>
+#include <boost/interprocess/shared_memory_object.hpp>
+
+/**
+ * A shared memory object that allows audio buffers to be shared between the
+ * native plugin and the Wine plugin host. This is intended as an optimization,
+ * and it is used alongside yabridge's usual socket based messages. Normally
+ * audio buffers would have to be copied from the host to the native plugin,
+ * sent to the Wine plugin host, and then copied to a buffer on the Wine plugin
+ * host side for them to be processed by the plugin. The results then have to be
+ * sent back to the native plugin, where they finally have to be copied back to
+ * the host's buffers. While this wouldn't be an issue for small amounts of
+ * data, it also increases the overhead of bridging plugins considerably since
+ * there's not much else going on. So to prevent unnecessary copies, we'll
+ * communicate the audio buffer data through shared memory objects so we can
+ * reduce all of the operations described above to one copy from the host to the
+ * shared memory region, and another copy from the shared memory region back to
+ * the host. And since we're still using messages alongside this, we also don't
+ * need any locks.
+ *
+ * This approach introduces a few additional moving parts that we'd rather not
+ * have to deal with, but the benefits likely outweigh the costs. The buffer is
+ * set up on the Wine side after the VST2 or VST3 plugin has finished preparing
+ * for audio processing. The configuration (e.g. name, and dimensions) for this
+ * shared memory object are then sent back to the plugin so the plugin can map
+ * the same shared memory region.
+ */
+class AudioShmBuffer {
+   public:
+    /**
+     * The parameters needed for creating, configuring and connecting to a
+     * shared audio buffer object. This is done on the Wine plugin host. For
+     * this we need to know the plugin's bus/channel configuration, whether the
+     * host is going to ask the plugin to process 32-bit or 64-bit floating
+     * point audio, and the maximum size of the samples per audio buffer. The
+     * bus/channel configuration can be queried directly from the plugin. For
+     * VST2 plugins the other information is passed before the call to
+     * `effMainsChanged` through `effSetProcessPrecision` and `effSetBlockSize`,
+     * which would thus need to be kept track of. For VST3 plugins this is all
+     * sent as part of the `Steinberg::Vst::ProcessSetup` object.
+     */
+    struct Config {
+        /**
+         * The unique identifier for this shared memory object. The backing file
+         * will be created in `/dev/shm` by the operating system.
+         */
+        std::string name;
+
+        /**
+         * The size of the shared memory object. This should be large enough to
+         * hold all input and output buffers.
+         */
+        uint32_t size;
+
+        /**
+         * Offsets **in samples** within the shared memory object for an input
+         * audio channel, indexed by `[bus][channel]`. For VST2 plugins the bus
+         * will always be 0. This can be used later to retrieve a pointer to the
+         * audio channel.
+         */
+        std::vector<std::vector<uint32_t>> input_offsets;
+        /**
+         * Offsets **in samples** within the shared memory object for an output
+         * audio channel, indexed by `[bus][channel]`. For VST2 plugins the bus
+         * will always be 0. This can be used later to retrieve a pointer to the
+         * audio channel.
+         */
+        std::vector<std::vector<uint32_t>> output_offsets;
+
+        template <typename S>
+        void serialize(S& s) {
+            s.text1b(name, 1024);
+            s.value4b(size);
+            s.container(input_offsets, 8192, [](S& s, auto& offsets) {
+                s.container4b(offsets, 8192);
+            });
+            s.container(output_offsets, 8192, [](S& s, auto& offsets) {
+                s.container4b(offsets, 8192);
+            });
+        }
+    };
+
+    /**
+     * Connect to or create the shared memory object and map it to this
+     * process's memory. The configuration is created on the Wine side using the
+     * process described in `Config`'s docstring.
+     */
+    AudioShmBuffer(const Config& config);
+
+    /**
+     * Destroy the shared memory object. Either side dropping the object will
+     * cause the object to get destroyed in an effort to avoid memory leaks
+     * caused by crashing plugins or hosts.
+     */
+    ~AudioShmBuffer() noexcept;
+
+    /**
+     * Get a pointer to the part of the buffer where this input audio channel is
+     * stored in.
+     */
+    template <typename T>
+    T* input_channel_ptr(const uint32_t bus, const uint32_t channel) {
+        return reinterpret_cast<T*>(buffer.get_address()) +
+               config.input_offsets[bus][channel];
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Get a pointer to the part of the buffer where this output audio channel
+     * is stored in.
+     */
+    template <typename T>
+    T* output_channel_ptr(const uint32_t bus, const uint32_t channel) {
+        return reinterpret_cast<T*>(buffer.get_address()) +
+               config.output_offsets[bus][channel];
+    }
+
+    const Config config;
+
+   private:
+    boost::interprocess::shared_memory_object shm;
+    boost::interprocess::mapped_region buffer;
+};
diff --git a/src/wine-host/boost-fix.h b/src/wine-host/boost-fix.h
index 3a948cab..6e50caf0 100644
--- a/src/wine-host/boost-fix.h
+++ b/src/wine-host/boost-fix.h
@@ -34,13 +34,15 @@
 #undef _WIN64
 
 // This would be the minimal include needed to get Boost to work. The commented
-// out include below is the actual header that would cause compile errors if not
+// out includes are the actual header that would cause compile errors if not
 // included here, but including headers from the detail directory directly
 // didn't sound like a great idea.
 
 #include <boost/predef.h>
 #include <boost/asio/basic_socket_streambuf.hpp>
+#include <boost/interprocess/mapped_region.hpp>
 // #include <boost/asio/detail/timer_queue_ptime.hpp>
+// #include <boost/interprocess/detail/workaround.hpp>
 
 #pragma pop_macro("WIN32")
 #pragma pop_macro("_WIN32")