Recommend practice for PatchWork 2.5 in regards to VST2 vs VST3 for stability?

[Amnesia Jones]

Hi Blue Cat Audio and forum!

I was mixing in Ableton 11 with PatchWork 2.5 as a VST3, with mostly VST3 plugins inside Patchwork. Everything was fine until I recalled the session the next day and the session wouldn't load at all with patchwork enabled in my Ableton plugin folder. I pinned it down to some of the VST3's I have not being as stable as their VST2 counterparts inside PatchWork/Live 11. Previous replies from Blue Cat on forum topics have suggested using VST2 plugins if possible.

Also, I've had issues with "Soundspot" branded plugins not saving at all (not just presets) inside patchwork once recalled, even when saving a patchwork preset. (the VST2 versions don't have that issue).

I've reverted back to VST2 with both my plugins and PatchWork. Luckily most of the plugins I use have a VST2 version.

Unfortunately, the automation parameter's in VST2's when assigned to Macros in Ableton are just viewed as 1-127 and the data being controlled isn't as visually integrated. This doesn't affect the VST3 version of PatchWork. From what I've read this is the one and only change VST3 has over VST2 for my workflow so far. Now the questions...

Is it recommended to run the VST3 version of PatchWork with VST2 plugins?

Is it more stable to run the same plugin type in the same plugin version of PatchWork (AU, VST2, VST3)? Is there any difference?

Which version of Patchwork is it recommended to use in Ableton Live 11 specifically? VST or VST3?

Are there any other advantages of Patchwork running as VST3 vs VST2 in general?

Thanks!

Ableton Live Standard 11.0.2
macOS Mojave 10.14.6

[Blue Cat Audio]

We still recommend VST2 over VST3 when possible.

The VST3 specification has a couple of issues that make it more difficult to implement, and while it has been here for a while, for many hosts and plug-ins, the VST2 version is still much more stable. The VST3 implementation of Live 11 is actually known to cause random crashes upon plug-in load (they are aware of it and will hopefully find a fix for that).

You can read our VST2 vs VST3 plug-in formats article for more information.

[Amnesia Jones]

Thanks for the info and the article which I just read. So I gather the answer is to stay with the VST2 version of PatchWork and VST2's plugins within PatchWork in Live 11?

Can the host DAW actually tell what brand of plugins and/or versions (AU/VST/VST3) of them are running are inside of Patchwork? Or can it only see the Patchwork plugin itself?

Also as asked:

"Is it more stable to run the same plugin type in the same plugin version of PatchWork (AU, VST2, VST3)?"
i.e running VST2 PatchWork with only VST2 plugins, vs a mix of AU, VST2 or VST3?

My main concern with regards to AU was cross-platform adaptability if I transitioned to Windows or inevitably have to use one in the future, but that's got me thinking:

Are Patchwork presets saved on macOS able to be opened by the Windows Patchwork version, if all the same plugins used in the preset are available on the system?

Thanks for your help.

[Blue Cat Audio]

The idea is simply to stick to VST2 as much as possible. You can mix plug-in types with PatchWork, that's fine. Stability depends on each individual plug-in (some work better as AU, some others as VST - it might be different from host to host).

If you load AUs, your presets will indeed not work on Windows. It is recommended to use VST and VST3 instead if you want the presets to be compatible with Windows.

[Amnesia Jones]

Thanks for your help.