KVR Audio

leeleema · Post by **leeleema** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:40 pm

In recent weeks, Ableton has been crashing for me, a lot. I thought it may be because I switched to using VST3 plug-ins in one of my templates. So I removed them and hey presto, no more crashes. I then purged all vst3 plug-ins from my system. Maybe it's an Ableton issue (scanning the vst3 folder when starting up is off by default) or working alongside vst2 plug-ins in the same project, but the vst3s were definitely the source of my DAW instability. I understand the history of vst 2/3 i.e. new developers have to use the new standard while older ones do not but just wondering why older developers bother at all? The vst3s causing the issue were from long-standing reputable developers. Just wondering what everyone else's experience are of them?

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:43 pm

"Ableton VST3 support - a bit rubbish?" should rather be the title of the topic then. I never had issues with crashing with VST3's in the hosts I used (Cubase, Studio One, Reaper). And I use VST3's a lot (actually solely use VST3's when developers offer them).

Erisian · Post by **Erisian** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:49 pm

Never had a problem in Reaper or Cakewalk By Bandlab.

fese · Post by **fese** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:49 pm

Not having problems with VST3 in general with cubase 10 either - maybe Abletons implementation isn’t yet up to par. Didn’t they just introduce VST3 support rather recently?

leeleema · Post by **leeleema** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:06 pm

Interesting so far. I only have recent experience of Ableton, but certainly from the way the 'default' scanning of the vst3 folder is set to off, perhaps you guys are on to something. I can't change the title of the post unfortunately but I guess it still stands as I didn't know otherwise at the time, hence the post. I wonder if 'no vst3 problems' are widespread or as intimated, perhaps specifically an Ableton issue?

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:08 pm

leeleema wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:06 pm I can't change the title of the post unfortunately

No worries. I just wanted to emphasize that I though that this is not a general VST3 problem, but might have to do with Ableton. I wouldn't know, I only ever had Live Lite installed, to test it occasionally.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:20 pm

Everything I've plugged into Cubase 10.5 is VST3. Not perfectly crash-free but it's as stable as anything. It's maybe 3 plugins as I plug everything into VE Pro. It won't use VST3, but I connect to it as it. Oh, I use Cubase's' Frequency, as VST3. I prefer the turn off VST3 processing when not in use' feature, basically.
VST3 for VE Pro means up to 48 MIDI ports in an instance.

pekbro · Post by **pekbro** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:29 pm

I've not noticed any problems with VST 3 in Live, though I tend only use VST 3 where there is no
alternative. Still a lot of them get installed and scanned by live, before I remember to remove
them.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:42 pm

Is VST 2 versus VST 3 the new 32 bit versus 64 bit ?

I tend to only use VST 2 plugins more out of habit than anything. Unless of course there is only a VST 3 version which will occur more and more as time goes on just like 64 bit only plugins will occur more and more as time goes on.

My DAWs can use 2 or 3 so to be honest I don't really give it much thought.....

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:05 am

IN FL so far not that good.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:16 am

No crashes with vst3 and Live 10 here.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Tue Aug 11, 2020 2:42 am

It probably depends on which VST3 plugins are in use. I suppose it's possible some are more stable than others.

Perhaps if the OP were to list the VST3 plugins he was using others could test them to see if they get the same results.

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:05 am

I mean...has VST3 been buggy over the years? You betcha! Anecdotally, I'd say it was a really bad start and just recently VST3 plugins (on the whole) seem much more stable than prior years. Feels like developers have learned some best practices, and the JUCE framework that's quite popular has gotten some updates to improve VST3.

That said, I still favor VST2 whenever I have the option, and will generally keep using the VST2 version exclusively unless it proves less reliable than the VST3, which is rare but starting to happen.

As to the OP's issue: my guess? You probably had one or two dodgy VST3 plugins you were using regularly that were crashing Ableton for whatever reason, and your other 99 VST3 plugins were probably fine. But switching everything to VST2 of course fixed the issue. Doesn't mean VST3 sucks (I still kind of think this personally), but rather that you had at least some dodgy plugins, or a DAW that doesn't play well with some VST3 plugins, and VST2 fixed your issues. Does that mean VST2 is better? Well, it works right?

pascual · Post by **pascual** » Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:39 pm

Mine has been crashing a lot. And taking super long to load. Not sure if its the vst3's, but it's recent and suspicious. And yes, just recently started using 3.
Ableton 10, Mojave 10.14, 2018 mbp

HcDoom · Post by **HcDoom** » Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:42 pm

Never ever had a crash with VST3 plugin in Presonus Studio One.

vst3 - a bit rubbish?