What is prefered to be loaded: VST vs. VST3 vs. AU?

Hello Forum,
i´m totally new here. i just registered now.
I just tested out GP this night, and bought it after 40 minutes, lol
I´m from the modularsynth community ( Muff Wiggler forum / same Name there) , but play also Piano.

my Q:
what plugin Format is the prefered one to be loaded ? …VST vs. VST3 vs. AU

my situation:
i run a quite old macmini 2012, the best configuration to be had back then ( a good 2nd hand deal it was ). MacOS 10.13.6 / High sierra

is there any plugin format to prefer for me with Gig Performer over the other,
in regards to stability and CPU cycles consumption ?
…since my mac is not the most powerful one.

or is it equal and just take whats there ?
( i mean most plugins come today in all three formats)

my patches in my host programms in case it counts:
i patch quite complex FX setups, but would usually only use one “VST” instrument as the soundsource

Generally it does not matter.
But in my experience some plugins are more efficient in AU Version, others in VST version.
It really depends on the implementation of the plugin.

But generally: Avoid to use AU and VST version of the same plugin in a gig.
Omnisphere hates that :wink:

1 Like

Ok, i see. So not really something to worry about :wink:
Thank You

I have found that if a plug in crashes in GP (or in any DAW actually) that using an alternative version usually works. An example of this is that some Roland AU plug-ins don’t like GP but the VST versions are fine.

So as has been said by Paul, in many cases it doesn’t matter…until it does :upside_down_face:

1 Like

interesting, and good to know ! Thank you

i used to use the Freeware host H-AU, which is only AU,
so i had no such option there :wink:
Then i moved to bluecats “patchwork” where i never had any crashes,
expept with one plugIn that exists only as a VST ( no other option).
Now GP…:wink:

Thanks @aneve,

I have quite a lot of plugins and selecting them when all of them are shown as 3 versions becomes a bit overwhelming. I’ve now disabled all AU and VST plugins and enabled only the VST3 plugins in the plugin manager. I intend to use VST3 for everything until one of them causes a problem, then change the enable/disable preference for the culprit to an alternative version. Do you find any flaws in this approach?

Sounds a good system to me :+1:

I’ve done similar - VST3 tends to work great for most plugins and gives some nice additional things over AU like enumerated parameters (so a gain dial will show the value as -10dB rather than 0.3467 for example; particularly good for where a widget is assigned to a mode selector or something). Some I run as AU though as the VST3 version of the same plugin for some reason does weird stuff…

1 Like

i also made it a habit now to just load the VST3 version.
i had no problems so far.

how and where do you disable them ?

In the plugin Manager you can disable/enable plugins

2 Likes

ahhh, …now thats cool !
Much Thanks

You can sort by plugin type and select all, except the VST3s in one action.

2 Likes