Speaking with my music hat on rather than my development hat, I have never really trusted AUs. → LINK
VST3 versions of Brainworx Black Box and Izotope Plasma crackles and glitches, AU versions don’t → LINK
AJ from AJlabs has confirmed that VPROM VST3 crashes because the VST3 version was compiled with an older SDK, and that the upcoming VProm3 will have the latest version of VST3. In the meantime VST2 works and is solid. (source)
Being on a MAC for so long I never thought of using a VST plug-in. So everything I do is using AU format. Never had a problem. However I understand now that you can use a VST format plug-in on a MAC and the main advantage is being able to also use on Windows systems.
New plugin developers cannot procure a VST2 license, so they’re bound to VST3 for building plugins.
A drawback of VST3 is that some MIDI-messages cannot be transmitted or received by plugins (MIDI clock for example). Steinberg deems these kind of messages to be processed by the host. Luckily GP has a rather good position, because of the MIDI → widget → parameter route.
i generally use VST3 mainly for compatibility reasons.
It tends to be supported on most DAWS and is cross platform so it would be easier transitioning from Mac to PC if needed.
Some DAWS probably will drop VST2 at some point but there are still some old goodies on that that havent made it to 3.0 yet.
Performance/stability depends on the specific plugin and the person/people doing the coding.
Sometimes a VST2 will be more stable especially if the developer just transitioned recently to VST3 and is working out bugs. But usually after awhile bugs usually gets sorted out with VST3 as most manufacturers make it a somewhat priority.
Id guess over time the VST3 probably will get more stable but it depends alot on the coder.
Generally speaking though i would just pick 1 and if specific plugins give you a problem, try a different version. That said problems can be rare with either format but someone who has been consistently hurt on one format will probably develop an aversion to it.
I suggest reading this thread in the Steinberg developer forum concerning MIDI support, or lack thereof, in the VST3 specification before you go all-in on VST3s.
(My comments are always rather long. Sorry. Skip to tl:dr for the conclusion)
Originally Steinberg visioned no support for CC and some other MIDI messages. Basically just notes. Their point of view was that VST3 plugins are not meant for processing MIDI. So CCs should be handled by the host and the plugin should provide a parameter to which the host can bind the CC. Same principle applies for CC’s originating from the plugin.
Pitchbends enter the plugin in VST3 using a separate interface (iMidiMapping). This requires support from the host also.
Meanwhile, Steinberg reluctantly added support for CC, but to make the developers feel their stance, they called it ‘legacy’.
A possible issue with this is that the order of messages is not necessarily maintained between the two interfaces.
Although I can go somewhat along with Steinbergs’ view, it seems to me the real problem for the developers is that VST2 licenses are not available anymore, VST3 is a bit of a mess when it comes to processing MIDI and there is no generic alternative: there is no widely accepted plugin format for plain processing MIDI (apart from playing instruments). So GP has scriptlets (which I like, but that’s not the point), Reaper has jsfx, other hosts will have their own mechanisms (or not!), but that’s all not generic. Another thing is that it is impossible to make a living out of writing scripts for these mechanisms, because it’s literally open source. Yet another thing is that a separate plugin format exclusively for MIDI doesn’t have possibility to sync audio and MIDI.
Tl:dr
From a users’ perspective: If a VST3 does the job you want it to do: use it if you want. But be careful mixing VST2 and VST3 plugins from the same developer. Sometimes they bite each other. Luckily, if a developer has published VST2 plugins, he obviously has a license for that and there’s a good chance that all his plugin are available as VST2.
That’s what I can make of it for now.
Edit: Changed bad grammar to slightly better grammar (I think).
No, that specific VST may have problems but in general VSTs work fine. My entire setup is mostly just VST and I only use VST3 if there is no VST available
I do not use Rosetta,no. I gotta make it clear that
I use vst3 not vst. Most of the plugins I’m using do not even support vst any more. Including Mario Nieto plugins.
I think for audio processing, VST and VST3 do not differ much. For a developer the main difference is the processing of incoming MIDI messages and transmitting MIDI messages (if needed). For both plugin types the audio processing comes down to calling one particular function by the host. No additional processing is needed that would explain why a VST3 would cause crackling and a VST wouldn’t. Of course a developer could do all kinds of desirable and undesirable things
