Ableton Forum

I use VSTs if available and AUs if that's the only alternative, Except for Waves which doesn't support AU in Live, I haven't really noticed any issues. I have never fully succeeded saving and recalling AU presets, but VST presets usually work.

Stromkraft wrote:I use VSTs if available and AUs if that's the only alternative, Except for Waves which doesn't support AU in Live, I haven't really noticed any issues. I have never fully succeed saving and recalling AU presets, but VST presets usually work.

Funny, since this thread was first posted I've mostly switched to VST because of MIDI out being implemented in VSTi and DP getting VST support. VST3 being so widely unsupported doesn't boost my confidence, but VST also allows for presets to work if I ever implement a VSL Ensemble Pro on a PC for extra power in Live.
My main complaint about VSTi's are that there is no real 'area' that VSTi's store presets. With AU they store in user/library/audio/presets, really straightforward. Mostly I'm glad when a plug in manufacture has their own format like U-He etc. that way the preset is platform independent, but again manufacturers tend to toss their own formats all around your drive... NI..

Stromkraft wrote:I use VSTs if available and AUs if that's the only alternative, Except for Waves which doesn't support AU in Live, I haven't really noticed any issues. I have never fully succeed saving and recalling AU presets, but VST presets usually work.

?? Waves AUs work fine for me.

timday wrote:

Stromkraft wrote:I use VSTs if available and AUs if that's the only alternative, Except for Waves which doesn't support AU in Live, I haven't really noticed any issues. I have never fully succeed saving and recalling AU presets, but VST presets usually work.

?? Waves AUs work fine for me.

Just to be safe it would be best to use VST. Waves basically test AU in Logic and DP only. Conversely they don't test VST in DP.
As per this chart..
http://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs/supported-hosts

timday wrote:

Stromkraft wrote:I use VSTs if available and AUs if that's the only alternative, Except for Waves which doesn't support AU in Live, I haven't really noticed any issues. I have never fully succeed saving and recalling AU presets, but VST presets usually work.

?? Waves AUs work fine for me.

Yeah, but if you get any problems you're on your own. Waves do not give support for AU in Live and likely they'll ask you to try the VST version first. They do not guarantee that it will work even if it might. For other aspects I've received great support from Waves, also for Live-specific problems.

Machinesworking wrote: My main complaint about VSTi's are that there is no real 'area' that VSTi's store presets. With AU they store in user/library/audio/presets, really straightforward. Mostly I'm glad when a plug in manufacture has their own format like U-He etc. that way the preset is platform independent, but again manufacturers tend to toss their own formats all around your drive... NI.. :x

Well, have I fought them all. I won.

I now put all my presets — except Ableton Live presets that goes into my User Library — into ~/Library/Audio/Presets sorted under manufacturer/instrument keeping factory and user separate. This makes it easy for me to find presets as I only have one place to look and easy to set up backup too.

But don't get me started on the absolute paths of Reaktor. It hurts too much.

It might not be a consideration for you but if you want your live sets to be compatible with Live running on a PC (assuming the same plugins are available on both machines) then it's necessary to use the VST versions.

I always used to assume that I would only ever use Macs but now I use both a MacBook and desktop PC for production and am very glad that I mostly stuck to using VSTs in my projects.