What plugin format(s) do you use currently?

[pdxindy]

I use CLAP plugins 80% of the time... the other 20% is VST3/VST2 when there isn't a CLAP version available.

[IvyBirds]

VST3 because it's the only format that makes any sense. It's fully open sourced and runs perfectly in every host I have any desire to use and is more CPU efficient

[legendCNCD]

Lets see that CLAP later on...

[CandelaAudio]

I wish JUCE had better integration and support for CLAP. So far I run into quite a few issues when developing CLAP versions.

Thanks for this really useful info. I considered supporting CLAP, but in this case I'll still wait with paying for upgrading my JUCE license.
What kind of issues did you experience?
Will things get better with upcoming JUCE versions?
When do you think JUCE intergation might work relieably?

Thank you in advance

I think for the more 'standard' plugins, the clap JUCE extensions may work fine, but for more 'advanced' features it's not quite production ready in my opinion. For example I had a bit of nightmare with implementing plugin hosting either with CLAP as a host or CLAP as a client. Much more buggy than VST3, in my opinion.

[Tubeman]

Lets see that CLAP later on...

It seems some people are CLAPping.

[mixyguy2]

Almost entirely VST2. VST3 is a classic case of people chasing it because it's newer, illogically thinking that means better. It offers little if anything for about 99.9% of users.

It's also a 'classic case' of the developer discontinued VST2 almost 20 years ago, and its time to move on regardless of what armchair devs think the spec does and doesn't deliver..

VST2 was not "discontinued 20 yrs ago." VST3 has been around about as long, but VST2 has continued to this day...Steinberg stopped "supporting" it about 10-12 yrs ago, but it's still alive and well.

It's only time to move on for fools who think "newer is better" and chase the so-called latest/greatest without any thinking behind it.

That's like saying Win 11 is better than Win 10. It isn't of course, but 11 is bigger than 10, so it must be better. All hail the Spinal Tap mentality.

[eLawnMust]

Almost entirely VST2. VST3 is a classic case of people chasing it because it's newer, illogically thinking that means better. It offers little if anything for about 99.9% of users.

Quite the case... For me all 32bit VST1/2 (VST1 for old Fruity 2.7) Also have about 580 GUI-less plugs use many of them...

No DX-DXi in the poll... This woulda been they way to go & forget VST3 as DX is a much superior architecture... But you have to know what you are doin' to code in DX not just any dill dough can do it... DX scanning always very fast & if there's a problem it's always with the host not the plug but scanning hundreds takes like a second or two...

Reaper can still use DX plugs if you enable the feature in prefs... I still have alotta Cakewalk stuff so DX a big plus...

[Gam456]

exclusively VST3 x64

[legendCNCD]

exclusively VST3 x64

Yup, Mix&Match does not work well, at least in Ableton and some plugins, so dropped VST2 completely when moved to Live 12. Battery4 VST2 is one of those

[IvyBirds]

Almost entirely VST2. VST3 is a classic case of people chasing it because it's newer, illogically thinking that means better. It offers little if anything for about 99.9% of users.

It's also a 'classic case' of the developer discontinued VST2 almost 20 years ago, and its time to move on regardless of what armchair devs think the spec does and doesn't deliver..

VST2 was not "discontinued 20 yrs ago." VST3 has been around about as long, but VST2 has continued to this day...Steinberg stopped "supporting" it about 10-12 yrs ago, but it's still alive and well.

It's only time to move on for fools who think "newer is better" and chase the so-called latest/greatest without any thinking behind it.

That's like saying Win 11 is better than Win 10. It isn't of course, but 11 is bigger than 10, so it must be better. All hail the Spinal Tap mentality.

Windows 11 is better than 10 especially for MIDI based musicians however. Don't know about you but native MIDI 2.0 support and the ability to name MIDI ports whatever you wish and share them simultaneously between applications and loop MIDI around internally between apps sure seems like an improvement to me,

Always amazes me how people think older is always better, even when it's clearly not

[BONES]

I don't care at all, I'll install whatever formats are offered. I install VST 2 versions to maintain compatibility with Orion but there is only a VST 3 version, then I'll install that. Studio Pro supports CLAP now (I didn't notice when it happened but it's there) but I see no reason to bother with it at this time. But if something was only offered in CLAP format, I'd install it. IT really doesn't matter to me at all.

The argument that VST 2 is better than, or even preferable to, VST 3 is nonsense. There is no reason at all to stick with one or the other. They both get the job done but surely it makes sense to use the newest, most recently updated version of anything, if only because it's likely to be around for longer. Beyond that, why would you care?

[Tubeman]

The argument that VST 2 is better than, or even preferable to, VST 3 is nonsense. There is no reason at all to stick with one or the other. They both get the job done but surely it makes sense to use the newest, most recently updated version of anything, if only because it's likely to be around for longer. Beyond that, why would you care?

Who has made the argument that VST2 is better than VST3?

[BONES]

mixguy2 has inferred it repeatedly.

[mothra]

VST2 was not "discontinued 20 yrs ago." VST3 has been around about as long, but VST2 has continued to this day...Steinberg stopped "supporting" it about 10-12 yrs ago, but it's still alive and well.

It's only time to move on for fools who think "newer is better" and chase the so-called latest/greatest without any thinking behind it.

That's like saying Win 11 is better than Win 10. It isn't of course, but 11 is bigger than 10, so it must be better. All hail the Spinal Tap mentality.

Of course it's not quite 20, VST3 was released in 2008, we've got another 2 years for its anniversary.

The VST2 SDK was shut down and development stopped altogether in 2012/2013. They didn't just stop supporting it, they shut if off completely and told everyone then it was time to move on. Now we're at 13 years, is that better?

They should have never killed Apple Basic, it was the BEST programming language ever!!

[kvotchin]

CLAP, VST3 and VST2, in order of preference, and the same order applies to how many of each I actually use.

* Oh, and Reaper native plugins, but I suspect you (OP) aren’t interested in that side of things.