What are the best reasons to use VST3 over VST2? or should I just use CLAP?

[Aleksey Vaneev]

I think the number of users of reddits of corresponding DAWs is a good indicator...

[kidslow]

• 325,000 r/FL_Studio
• 50,400 r/Reaper
• 42,800 r/abletonlive
• 33,900 r/protools
• 30,700 r/LogicPro
• 30,300 r/GarageBand
• 15,600 r/cubase
• 13,300 r/StudioOne
• 10,300 r/Bitwig
• 8,400 r/audacity (not really a DAW)
• 6,900 r/AdobeAudition
• 1,200 r/Ardour
• 578 r/Tracktion

Probably only useful for back of the envelope proportional community sizes relative to each other. Doesn't take into account if there are multiple communities, nor if there are better non-reddit boards. I just went with the top one Google returned for reddit.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Hah, FLStudio seems over-inflated, just isn't up to normal statistics...

[kidslow]

Maybe your reddit metric isn't so good after all Aleksey? It's very easy to subscribe to a reddit and then never unsubscribe. How many of those are dead reddit accounts or non-active users? I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most popular, but more users than all of the rest combined does seem far fetched.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Maybe your reddit metric isn't so good after all Aleksey? It's very easy to subscribe to a reddit and then never unsubscribe. How many of those are dead reddit accounts or non-active users? I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most popular, but more users than all of the rest combined does seem far fetched.

Like on Twitter, I think reddits can be advertised, so it's likely not fake numbers. Just shows that FLStudio treats Reddit as its native platform.

[EvilDragon]

Hah, FLStudio seems over-inflated, just isn't up to normal statistics...

FL Studio DOES have a shitton of users, and is the most often downloaded DAW of them all.

[kidslow]

Missing from this discussion is Apple's AUv3. They have already firmly established it on iOS. Is now supported by Ableton Live, Logic Pro (and others) on MacOS, and very much seems like the future of Apple's direction with plugins.

[SamDi]

Hah, FLStudio seems over-inflated, just isn't up to normal statistics...

FL Studio DOES have a shitton of users, and is the most often downloaded DAW of them all.

It seems, that a whole bedroom producer generation under 30 is relying on FL Studio more than even on Live or Logic. Since they have a lifetime update license, alone the amount of new users has to finance their development efforts and this business model seems to work out. Which DAW company is able to do it else?

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Like in almost all occupational market niches, the "population" of users rotates like every 5 years. It's not a problem to have the "lifetime updates" policy. The competition is the real problem. Also, from my practice the recent downloads alone are rarely an indicator of actual software's sales and user-base; downloads have elasticity: the more the downloads there are the larger the part of "random" downloads is. From what I've gathered, FL Studio is "aggressively" present on a lot of third-party download sites - that's their model.

[ghettosynth]

Maybe your reddit metric isn't so good after all Aleksey? It's very easy to subscribe to a reddit and then never unsubscribe. How many of those are dead reddit accounts or non-active users? I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most popular, but more users than all of the rest combined does seem far fetched.

We've had a similar discussion on KVR before. The long and short of it is that it's not really a good indicator of market size. You can use google trends as well, but that's not going to be perfect either. It also matters whether or not customers are more or less likely to pay for software. I mean, who cares what format pirates prefer?

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ro%20Tools

On Edit: It looks like Florida Man is way into FLStudio

[EvilDragon]

It seems, that a whole bedroom producer generation under 30 is relying on FL Studio more than even on Live or Logic. Since they have a lifetime update license, alone the amount of new users has to finance their development efforts and this business model seems to work out. Which DAW company is able to do it else?

FL seems way more popular in Europe, Live in the US.

[kidslow]

We've had a similar discussion on KVR before. The long and short of it is that it's not really a good indicator of market size. You can use google trends as well, but that's not going to be perfect either. It also matters whether or not customers are more or less likely to pay for software. I mean, who cares what format pirates prefer?

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ro%20Tools

Seems like it's a decent indicator of relative market share. The Google Trend result sort of confirms that.

No surprise either that Pro Tools would be popular in NY, CA and TN (Nashville), places where there would be more professionals working per capita.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ro%20Tools

On Edit: It looks like Florida Man is way into FLStudio

A more important overall metric here is that the whole market is on a decline... From my own perspective, FL Studio users do not buy third-party plugins that much. And presence of DAW's built-in effects is not a factor, because Reaper and Live have a lot of built-in effects as well. So, I would extrapolate that FL Studio's users are mainly starters not planning to invest into music production much.

[kidslow]

If you look at a 5-year graph the downtrend is not as clear. There is a huge measurable spike in the graph when the pandemic lockdowns started that distorts the overall trend. Over 18 years, clearly Cubase and Pro Tools have lost market share, presumably from the introduction of more competition.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

There is a huge measurable spike in the graph when the pandemic lockdowns started that distorts the overall trend.

That's transient. I see the decline started around the end of 2012...