https://forums.steinberg.net/t/vst-3-8-0-sdk-released/1011988

Steinberg has changed the licence for the VST3 SDK to the more permissive MIT licence. This is a significant change from the earlier licensing model and probably owed to CLAP's adoption by DAW and plug-in developers.

Previously, if you wanted to use the VST3 SDK in any capacity in your work (plug-ins, DAWs, standalone hosts, research, etc.), you had to choose between one of two licences.

Proprietary licence: This required a signed agreement with Steinberg and was mandatory if you wanted to distribute closed-source software. It also included a requirement for developers to continuously update to the latest SDK. Meaning developers had to perpetually agree to changes to the terms of the license. Terms which Steinberg had every right to change at their whims.

OR

GPL licence: Requires all works to remain open-source. Unacceptable for most commercial developers.

The new MIT licence removes control of VST3, and more importantly the licensing terms, from Steinberg. Steinberg can no longer terminate VST3 as they did with VST2. They can no longer demand arbitrary yearly fees for the use of VST3 (they never did, but they could have).

Now there are two solid future-proof open formats for plug-ins: CLAP and VST3.

Edit: Also, MIDI 2.0!

 

Can someone translate this for me so I can understand it?

"Preview Wayland support on Linux (originally written and contributed to VST SDK by
PreSonus Software Ltd. and integrated in Studio One Pro 7.2 and higher on Linux)"

 

I think it will bring Native handle for VST in DAW that support Wayland (like Studio one). No wrapping, no bridge, no X11 involved, no latency, no crash => stability

 

Does this mean that Linux will be able to integrate VST support more tightly?

So it’s not Mr. Steinb0rg’s generosity we should thank, but the threat he felt from CLAP

 

Last edited: Oct 22, 2025 at 1:54 PM

What are the qualities you prefer?

 

When VST3 was first new, there were a lot of crashes and errors. VST3 has since become very stable. I haven't had any crashes this year, so I use VST3 because it resizes the GUI. CLAP has now arrived in Studio One, a real improvement; it runs super fast and stable.

 

yes everything will be native on the same graphical (modern) server

The first time i load a CLAP, it was so fast loading that i was thinking it doesn't work

 

Great news :D