There are so much bigger issues with Cubase than VST2.
Lazy coding and tying the engine to the elicencer is the issue, this is why Reaper can process 50 Aquas and Cubase only 20 Aquas on the same cpu.
This is the big issue that needs to be adressed.
Also, people invested a lot of money into older plugins that may not even have VST3 availability.
Trust me when i say that other DAWs will offer VST2 for years, some probably for decades.

 

Don't trust you, there will be no more new VST2 plugins or hosts. If they can they will support it for the time being, but "decades" is way too optimistic.

 

There will always be that one daw that will support VST2 just because there will always be people who will use VST2 plugins/VSTs just like tape stayed in some studios.

 

For sure, just like I can still run Logic Audio under Windows. But there will not be no new plugins or hosts I'm afraid, at best updates but I've stopped counting on that.

 

I just discovered what CLAP is (thx @demberto and @Polomo ).
Very cool!, and backed by U-He no less
In CLAP we trust!!! ... not something I'd shout out of context in the street...

 

What exatcly is the problem?
VST2 is outdated - has been for a long time.

With the comments that support the preservation of vst2 one would think that the same people have a passion for horse vehicles?!?

 

Well, maybe not horse drawn vehicles, but rather vintage automobiles.

Corvette 2.4

 

A lot of hate/dislike ratings. But you are not wrong.
In my experience it is same. I usually work with vst2. Less problems. Way less. Vst3 has more bugs, crashes. See no more advanced fearure and performance of vst3 over vst2. No global giantic advantages.
Don't know if it is plugin developers' problems to make vst3 better and less crashy than vst2.... Or sdk are still worse.... So it is too early for me to prove that vst3 is gigantical progress over vst2.....
Slightly more features (useless for me) in a way buggy format.... This is how I see VST3... No more than that..

Take for example recent Hornet Valvola 1.1.0 with fixed vst3 issues.... In my experience, vst2 works perfect as always, and vst3 has no sound. And this vst3 shit is a standard?????????
Not less than 30 percent of vst3 folder I have are more bugs, crashy and shittier. And almost all vst2 are perfectly working well.

 

What is so groundbreaking and modern (not outdated) in vst3? Groundbreaking instability power? Agree.
VST2 is outdated? In what way? You can't make music with this?

 

I'll let my cousins protest on my behalf. Get with the times Lois

 

Read this:
https://www.musicianwave.com/vst2-vst3-differences/

You can also make music with Atari Falcon and other outdated systems.

One can of course have the attitude that one must be against everything new. It's totally ok!
But I think it's pretty obvious that VST3 has some advantages over VST2.

 

I use VST3 when possible. But there are known issues with some companies where VST3 behaves weird. Some freebies are only VST2.
Imo this is not a relevant issue, as this is not a step forward as we are not gaining anything with this, only losing, as i doubt Cubase will magically fly when they drop the support of VST2.
To me it seems like something you do when you have no original ideas, to make it look as if you are doing something important.

 

If you look at the feature set for VST3, it will become obvious that it has more to offer over VST 2.4. Most of the problems stem from developers not coding for available protocols in VST3 or, not updating their software when Steinberg/Yamaha updates teh VST3 specification.

As for Cubase. I would expect it to perform better without the extra code for VST 2.4. I also expect that their plugins will also get the same trimming of VST 2.4 code. This is a lesson Microsoft has not come to grips with. I would also expect other software to improve once full compliance with VST3 is adopted along with 64 bit only coding.

 

The biggest problem for me is that I invested a lot of money into an UAD system and into legit Cubase pro which I use since Apple abandoned Logic Windows. I don't think that UAD will do vst3 versions. They seem to not giving a fuck for Windows users anymore (Luna!)

 

Steinberg stripped support for 32bit plugins with cubase 9 and no major gains were noticed. Dropping Vst2 will not give you anything "more".
My aim is to produce music, fast with no issues. Not supporting some plugins can be an issue. Not my role to defend or argue for the company, or tell companies they should abandon vst2. Why should a company put me in a position like that? No need.

 

If they want to keep & grow their market share, adopting VST3 is the smart play to satisfy Window OS users who prefer or, would like to use UAD hardware/software. Highly surprised they have yet to announce or release a Windows version for Luna.

 

Not mine either. I don't use any Steinberg/Yamaha products other than their VST technology.

I personally, have noticed improvements in performance & stability with VST3 64 bit running in 64 bit software.
Kind of like going from an HDD to a SATA SSD (so to speak).

Companies make decisions all the time that hopefully improve upon existing product which sometimes lead to developing different product to get around constraint issues. Microsoft again as an example, would benefit from such an approach. This is the reason why Apple (love them or hate them), has a superior OS compared to Windows in efficiency & stability.

 

You do not think it is possible that each DAW does things others cannot?
For a start ProTools and Logic before being sold to Apple by EMAGIC all used a dongle.

I tested opening 128 stereo Audio tracks (not mono) and recording activated on every track on every DAW I could get hold of for my own purposes THREE times to make sure the results were similar. The only ones that handled it were Studio One, Cubase, ProTools and Logic. Ableton crawled, Reaper crashed, Fruity Loops crashed - three times running.

The point? Real time recording of the largest task anyone would encounter would be a 128 piece orchestra with individual microphones.
So you can say what you wish about Cubase but there is a reason ProTools, Cubase and Logic still are the most used by major studios. There is a reason they have Reaper - it's free, but it's not their DAW of choice. Reaper, Ableton, Fruity Loops and Studio One all came over a decade after the others and copied what they invented - that's just history whether they improved on them or not.

 

The Differences Between VST 2 and VST 3
By Brian Clark Last Updated: January 6, 2022



The VST standard, developed by Steinberg in 1996, revolutionized music production. VST3 is a free open-source development kit that any developer may utilize. VST3 plugins are supported by almost all current DAWs. The VST3 adds several useful new features compared to VST2.

The VST standard has gone through a few upgrades over time, with the most recent major update being the introduction of VST3. Even though it has been around since 2008, it is only now that developers and users are fully embracing VST3 and beginning to utilize its enhanced features.

There is still some amount of uncertainty about what exactly the difference is between VST3 and the regular VST plugins we’ve all been using. What does VST3 improve? Do I need to switch from VST2? Is VST2 now obsolete? This article attempts to answer these questions and demystify the apparent confusion around VST3.

Contents [show]

VST2 or VST3 – Which One Should You Use?

If you have plugins that come in both VST2 and VST3 versions, it’s recommended to use the VST3 version unless you have a reason not to (e.g. if the VST3 version is causing issues or is buggy).

VST3 is the way forward, and while we will still be seeing a lot of VST 2 for the time being, Steinberg have officially stopped supporting VST2.

However, VST2 is certainly not obsolete just yet. It will likely be a long transition until we’re exclusively using VST3.

Differences Between VST2 and VST3 (New VST3 Additions)
Plugin developers and users have been reluctant to completely phase out VST2 because it has worked well so far and didn’t really have an urgent need to be replaced. But with Steinberg officially stopping support and licensing of VST2 now, many developers are now including VST3 versions of their plugins or providing exclusively VST3 versions like for Celemony’s Melodyne 5.

Some of the most useful improvements in VST3 are as follows:

1. More efficient processing
VST3 is designed so that it only performs processing when there is an audio signal present. This means that CPU resources aren’t wasted during silences, unlike VST2 which would keep processing active regardless of whether there is any actual audio signal at that point in time.

This makes VST3 more resource-efficient and potentially increases the number of plugins you can use in a project without overloading your system.

2. Adaptive input/output
Traditional VST instruments featured a fixed number of inputs and outputs. Separate versions of plugins had to be implemented for stereo and surround sound processing. Multi-output instruments usually took up a large number of channels even if not all of them were being used. This again would lead to the wastage of resources.

VST3 addresses this limitation by allowing plugins to be dynamically adapted to however many inputs or outputs are needed. The same plugin can be put on a stereo channel or a 5.1 channel and it will automatically adapt its channel routing accordingly. This allows for increased flexibility and efficiency.

3. Enhanced MIDI handling

VST3 plugins can provide a dedicated event handler bus, which allows for a wide variety of control and modulation messages beyond traditional simple MIDI messages. In fact, support isn’t only limited to the MIDI protocol, and other future control methods may utilize these functions.

Advanced control of MIDI at a note level is now supported. For example, a particular event like a pitch bend can be associated with a specific note with a unique note ID, so that the modulation is applied to only that note, even in a polyphonic context like playing a chord.

4. Support for multiple MIDI I/O
With VST2, a particular plugin could only be assigned to single MIDI input and output. Now with VST3, plugins can support several MIDI ports at once which can be switched on the fly. This opens up a lot of possibilities while performing music live and allows for more flexible routing.

5. More organized automation parameters
Earlier, trying to find a particular automation parameter could get annoying when having to scroll through potentially hundreds of parameters in a VST2 plugin. Some DAWs provide an option to search for parameters from the list, but VST3 has added the ability to categorize automation parameters within the plug-in itself.

For example, all filter-related parameters can be sorted under the ‘Filter’ category, rhythmic and time-based parameters can have their own category, and so on. This streamlines the automation process and helps keep projects organized.

6. Audio inputs with VST Instruments

We usually associate VST instruments with MIDI input only, but VST3 adds the ability to route audio to plugins, which opens up new possibilities. For example, a synth plugin with an inbuilt vocoder can now take an audio signal as an input as well as the MIDI data for modulation.

This also makes sidechaining and cross-modulation possible independently from the DAW’s built-in capabilities. Sidechaining has been implemented for a long time with VST2, but it usually depended on the DAW’s particular routing capabilities to achieve it.

7. Resizable GUI
A small but significant improvement, this allows for VST3 plugins to be scaled in size as required, to free up or take up screen space as required. Though this seems like quite a small change, it can make working with big crowded sessions much smoother.

8. Sample accurate automation
This means that VST3 can read and write automation data at a very high resolution down to sample level, entailing that automation remains highly accurate even for very rapid and minute changes.

9. Remote control of plugins via VSTXML
With the increasing popularity of portable control surfaces being used in music production and live performance, VSTXML provides enhanced flexibility for remote controlling plugin parameters from various control surfaces.

10. Multilingual support
VST3 uses text in the Unicode (UTF-16) format, which allows for special characters and non-English characters. This means that it is easier to localize plugins in various languages for developers.

Does this mean that VST2 is now obsolete?

Not really. While it is picking up momentum, we are still really in the transition phase between VST2 and VST3. Some plugins whose core functionality depends on features only available in VST3 are developed exclusively for VST3.

An example of this is Melodyne 5, which utilizes the ARA integration standard and hence needs VST3.

However, the vast majority of plugins today feature both VST2 and VST3 versions, with the VST3 version being more or less identical to the VST2 version in terms of features (VST3 specific features must be implemented by the developer).

There were some concerns about the stability of VST3 plugins in the early days of the standard, but these have largely been eliminated since.

To conclude, there are definitely advantages of using VST3 over the good old VST2 standard, but the actual leveraging of these advantages is dependent on individual developers, and the audio world as a whole hasn’t quite utilized the full potential of VST3 yet.

VST2 doesn’t seem to be going away completely any time soon even with no official support from Steinberg, but either way, you don’t need to go scrambling to replace all your old plugins with VST3 versions yet.

Summary
The VST3 standard provides some useful new enhancements, but you must remember that leveraging these features depends on the actual implementation of the plugin by the developer. Therefore not all plugins may support all the extra functionalities presented by VST3.

The VST standard, first introduced by Steinberg in 1996, revolutionized music production as it brought the power of a professional recording studio to personal computers everywhere.

Over the years, the standard has become a mainstay of audio production, though companies like Apple and DigiDesign also use their proprietary standards like AU and RTAS. The VST3 SDK is a free standard that any developer can use. Almost all major DAWs today support VST3 plugins.

 

they want the plug-in developers to stop providing VST2 to users.

and sure, there is also no deeper philosophic reason for that.

MIDI 2.0 would technically work with any instrument and any effect from VST SK 2.1 (1999?) on, (except maybe the multiple ports feature)

i actually wonder what one could add for a v.4., beside some of the things which could have been there already and where nobody understands why it is missing.

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2022