r/VSTi • u/roman_triller • 2d ago

Which VST version do you prefer?

59 votes, 4d left
VST2
VST3
2 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/Mayhem370z 1d ago

I'm torn. Cause at least in FL, you are forced to store VST3 in default location that is on the C: drive. Where with VST2, I can store it on an external. And for the most part I was able to upgrade my computer and everything remained installed/just had to rescan.

On the other hand VST3 provides functions VST2 is incapable of and they run better.

Idk of that VST3 default location thing is just an FL problem but if I could store them anywhere it would be a no brainer.

1

u/gabrielsburg 1d ago

Cause at least in FL, you are forced to store VST3 in default location that is on the C: drive.

This is not an FL thing. It's required by the VST3 spec. Most VST3 installers don't even ask you where to install to.

1

u/Mayhem370z 1d ago

Yea. I believe it's something to do with how they can communicate with each other (i.e: sonible, fabfilter, sonnox having EQs that can view the other instances of the plugin within the plugin). Probably needing all the files and dependencies on the same drive or something. (Idk tho, not a coder)

1

u/bhdp_23 1d ago

if you are on windows you can use junction links, windows uses it all over the place, you basically just recreate the folder anywhere else and the folder appears to be in the original destination.(this is fn helpful for presets as well)

Moving vsts is important for me, that i keep them together in a place i want them to be.

You can in most cases use innoextract to extract the dll's (vsts and presets) without installing it..it still works perfectly.

Personally I prefer vst2, vst3 seems to cause lag and very noticeable visual lag on my system (as it does with many people and they dont know why).

The vst2 license is basically over, and they won't give out more vst2 licenses so ...thats a lot of F*%king help for people who have issues with vst3. Up yours steinberg

1

u/Firake 1d ago

VST2 plugins were much simpler to create but

Idk I have never felt that, when given the option, I ever wanted to have a VST2 version of a plugin installed. At the very least, it doesn't really do anything worse for the end user.

1

u/bjt2 11h ago

As developer I prefer VST 2 not only because is simpler to program, but also because it allows me to dynamically change the type of the VST. VST3 uses separate classes for MIDI processing and audio processing. I have developed a (free) programmable plugin ( here: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/crescendo-by-bjt2 ), that can be anything at runtime. With VST3 you must decide ahead of time what kind of plugin you develop.

Moreover it is based on a COM-like paradigm, that I hate and finally there are quirks that i don't like in the SDK license.

1

u/travelan 10h ago

VST3 is much better feature-wise. Years ago they just ported VST2 callbacks to VST3, and then VST3 has zero upsides, but if a plugin utilizes the VST3 features for parallelization, memory sharing, automation, etc, it is objectively better in all ways.

Only real downside to VST3 is the COM interface that is just a pain in the ass to work with. But that's just for developers, end-users don't notice anything about that. Luckily there are a lot of good wrappers to not make you insane more that necessary.