VST2 to VST3 migration strategy.

[SHall1000]

Thinking it might be time to switch. Really don’t want to have both installed for space reasons but can’t bear the thought of abandoning old projects or having to print them all and leave them uneditable in the future. What has been/will be your approach?

[vurt]

little boats

[chk071]

Thinking it might be time to switch. Really don’t want to have both installed for space reasons but can’t bear the thought of abandoning old projects or having to print them all and leave them uneditable in the future. What has benn will be your approach?

Unless your DAW doesn't support VST2 anymore (there is no such DAW at the moment), I wouldn't see much point in switching. For the time being, and for your old projects, you can just go on using what you're using.

[antic604]

Thinking it might be time to switch. Really don’t want to have both installed for space reasons but can’t bear the thought of abandoning old projects or having to print them all and leave them uneditable in the future. What has benn will be your approach?

For "space reasons"? Usually VSTs themselves are very small, like between 5-50MB it's the sound libraries / samples / graphical assets (f**ing Arturia! ) that come with them that can get huge, but they're shared between plugin formats.

Don't sweat it.

[vurt]

Thinking it might be time to switch. Really don’t want to have both installed for space reasons but can’t bear the thought of abandoning old projects or having to print them all and leave them uneditable in the future. What has benn will be your approach?

For "space reasons"? Usually VSTs themselves are very small, like between 5-50MB it's the sound libraries / samples / graphical assets (f**ing Arturia! ) that come with them that can get huge, but they're shared between plugin formats.

Don't sweat it.

this, plus, it's not like years ago, space can be added for a very reasonable cost these days.

[SHall1000]

Thinking it might be time to switch. Really don’t want to have both installed for space reasons but can’t bear the thought of abandoning old projects or having to print them all and leave them uneditable in the future. What has benn will be your approach?

For "space reasons"? Usually VSTs themselves are very small, like between 5-50MB it's the sound libraries / samples / graphical assets (f**ing Arturia! ) that come with them that can get huge, but they're shared between plugin formats.

I hadn’t twigged that one. It was Arturia I had in mind mainly when worrying about space.

[thecontrolcentre]

I usually install both, as on occasion the VST3 version doesn't work properly in my DAW.
PA stuff is particularly bad for this.

[chk071]

Thinking it might be time to switch. Really don’t want to have both installed for space reasons but can’t bear the thought of abandoning old projects or having to print them all and leave them uneditable in the future. What has benn will be your approach?

For "space reasons"? Usually VSTs themselves are very small, like between 5-50MB it's the sound libraries / samples / graphical assets (f**ing Arturia! ) that come with them that can get huge, but they're shared between plugin formats.

I hadn’t twigged that one. It was Arturia I had in mind mainly when worrying about space.

It's not the DLL's which are that big though. It's the support files. So, pretty much no difference whether you additonally install the VST2's or not.

[AGIGA]

I gradually started to migrate to VST3 about 3 years ago. Now it's allmost all VST3 with some exeptions (Soundtoys, Toneboosters V3 (SibalanceV3..V4 just isn't the same..), Black Rooster Audio (VPRE-73), Kush (Omega TWK), Plug and Mix, AIR, Meter Plugs(Perception), RothAir).
It keeps the plugin browser clean and tidy and I don't accidentally load the VST2 Version instead of the VST3 version any more.

A cool feature in Reaper since v5.985 which helped a lot with older Projects:
VST: support migration of supported VST2s to VST3 at project load (with user notification)

[chk071]

I should start omitting VST2's on installation as well. I exclusively use VST3 anyway, whenever I have both VST2 and VST3 installed.

[dionenoid]

I use around 80% vst3 nowadays. From some stuff i still keep the vst2 versions around, but mostly i only have the vst3 versions installed.

Whatever you do, always commit to audio. Disk space is not an issue nowadays anyways. In stead of spending 50 bucks on a new plugin, spend 50 bucks on an extra HD and you have a few GB to spare.

And it's so simple to save a new version of a project with everything being audio, so in the cases where you cannot go back (which happens a lot with older plugins anyway) you'll always have the audio.

[pixel85]

Print multitrack audio of your older projects (+ eventually midi file). It's the best thing you can do to have 100% bullet-proof backup.
It will survive different OS, different CPU architectures, different plugin versions/architecture, different DAW versions and all possible combinations of those (that can also lead to unfixable crashes, that can forbid you from opening the project).

Also, no pain with the installation of old plugins when you're opening old projects with plugins that you're not using anymore. I wish I would start to do it earlier. For example, now I have to install around 100 old plugins to print multi-tracks of old projects (to give it to a studio that will do new mix and mastering). Not ideal if you like to keep your PC tidy

[jancivil]

What has been/will be your approach?

Vienna Ensemble Pro, which only does VST as VST2.4 (on Mac, supports that and AU both). So, I'm not real worried.

[donkey tugger]

In time honoured fashion, I'll start worrying about it the day before.

[syntonica]

I'll just accidentally throw away my old projects that weren't backed up.

Oh, wait... I already did that...

As previously discussed, keep both versions, 2 and 3. At most, the extras will take up about 1Gb, unless you're a hoarder, then 2-3Gb. If you're crunched for internal disk space, there's lots of other low-hanging fruit you can choose from before raiding your music stores.