What’s the oldest VSTi you still use today ?

[ChristopherWD]

I've been using the PPG Wave 2 plugin a lot more lately and that was originally released in 2000. It still sounds great. I also have the 3.V which is a bit newer but I kinda prefer the simplicity of 2...

S-YXG50 (1997)
B4 II (2000)
Edirol Virtual Sound Canvas (2000)
Spektral Delay (2001)
Pro-53 (2002)
Synth1 (2002)
VAZ Modular 3 (2004)
QuadraSID (2005?) - I should purge it from the system, chipsounds C64 is accurate, this one is not
Oatmeal (2006)
SQ8L (2007)
Zebra 2 (2007) although I got it way later

Huh, I didn't realize S-YXG50 went back that far. I recall they also released software which even had the VL and vocal synth engines back in the day, but I was never able to try it. You'd probably need an old PC at this point too...

[EvilDragon]

Yeah that is S-YXG100 PVL, it only works on Windows 98, because it's made as a VxD driver, which was removed in Win XP onwards.

[LourivalFranco]

GSi MrRay73
Not the MKII version

[McLilith]

Yeah that is S-YXG100 PVL, it only works on Windows 98, because it's made as a VxD driver, which was removed in Win XP onwards.

Is it still possible to build a Win98 system?

I've actually considered doing that to run some old legacy software and hardware.

[EvilDragon]

Sure is, there's people still doing this to run ancient stuff...

[kmonkey]

Yeah that is S-YXG100 PVL, it only works on Windows 98, because it's made as a VxD driver, which was removed in Win XP onwards.

Is it still possible to build a Win98 system?

I've actually considered doing that to run some old legacy software and hardware.

I was running WindowsXP on virtual machine while being at Windows 10 - just to be able to run aksys AKAI visual editor for my hardware sampler alongside my DAW at the time (Ableton Live) . And it worked perfectly. Yes, people run this stuff.

[frag]

Yeah that is S-YXG100 PVL, it only works on Windows 98, because it's made as a VxD driver, which was removed in Win XP onwards.

Is it still possible to build a Win98 system?

I've actually considered doing that to run some old legacy software and hardware.

Good question.

One way would be virtualization, you need Linux or Windows Server for PCI passthrough, then you can assign PCI slots to Win98 VM and connect your devices. Particularly audio interface with ASIO drivers. Best way is to use USB PCIe card and then USB adapters for any old hardware, there are tons of such adapters on AliExpress. I think that's better than building physical Win98 PC, doesn't waste space, no old components etc.

And if the plugin runs on Win7, one can even integrate it in the latest Win11 x64 DAW thanks to fantastic AudioGridder. Get a powerful CPU, install Win7 VM, install AudioGridder on host and guest and that's it. It was surprisingly stable when I tried it on old i7, imagine what 7950X/9950X does. 99% of realtime ASIO performance with AudioGridder and VM - without PCI passthrough or dedicated hardware! Beautiful.
Too bad this S-YXG100 PVL runs on Win98 only. If one could run it somehow on Win7, it could be used together with latest VST3 plugins, including offline audio render and everything.

Back to the topic...

Synoptic Probe - anyone remember this? Standalone, no VST, no ASIO, but I loved its sound. It was "fat" and "warm" compared to other stuff in 1998. I still have it installed on old machine.

[Cathoderay]

i still use SQ8L. I have Arturia's version of the SQ80 as well but i still like that old plugin.

[zag4139@comcast.net]

Checkout all of Tubeohm stuff many gems in there. The developer is running an awesome Christmas sale basic selling all 14 for the price of one. Lots of good patch banks here on KVR too.

[Dirk Diggler]

I still use the 32bit only Ellotronix, viva la Frippertronics!

I'll also add Mobius looper still gets some love here.

[Jbravo]

Synth1 I use about 90% of the time for sounds, despite all the other synths I've bought over the years which I thought would unleash a new world of creativity. I tend to only use others if I need something specific and requires a specific architecture to create that sound

[Dunbar]

Is it still possible to build a Win98 system?

Not a "new" bare metal system. You'll need old hardware for Win98.

I'm currently running three Win98 systems, with a fourth one planed.

[Dunbar]

Synoptic Probe - anyone remember this?

Yes! I recall the synth had a built in sequencer in a tabbed GUI? (and sounded good). I haven't touched it since DX and VST instruments became available.

[buffalo roam]

Alchemy, which I understand predate's Logic Pro's takeover of it. Every time I return to it and spend time diving more deeply into it, I wonder why I bother with other synths. Highly complex, and it sounds great.

[hma]

I think it`s Betabugs` moneo, made in 2005, still using it often, cool utility plugin.

edit: realized it`s about instruments, then it`s SQ8L, 2007