Ableton Forum

Apple weren't trying to corner the market when AU was introduced. The original reason had to do with sloppy VST spec and unstable VSTs on OS9 due to developers not porting to the mac platform cleanly. At this point it's better, but Steinberg notoriously have never documented how to host VSTs for DAW makers, so whenever the specs for VSTplug ins changes Cubase and Nuendo become the most stable DAWs until developers can work out bugs for their hosts. This I would imagine is why VST 3 hasn't been adopted universally. The main reason that mac DAW developers generally choose to work in AU is because of this, that Apple document how to host AU in your DAW and Steinberg do not.
All this is why I have no issue using AUs, anybody who thinks that one is more stable than the other simply hasn't tried them both and found out that it's not a matter of one or the other being more stable. Another reason to use both is because some companies simply decide to make only AU or only VST ports of their plug in.

It's kinda hard to stick to 1 or the other when some developers completely ditched Vst2 and went to VST3.

Since I use a Mac...this occurs, for me personally, with Autotune EFX. Autotune is AAX, VST3, and AU for Mac. Ableton doesn't support VST3 so the only choice I have is AU.

(I was kinda ripped on Autotune anyway. Didn't know until after I bought, it via download, that it requires iLok. Hate that crap. And nobody that sells iLok only plugins plasters it all over the plugin discription. You have to hunt for it. Anyways....apparently now I need to buy a $45 USB dongle to use up 1 of my precious USB ports on my MacBook in order to use a plugin I've "purchased". Fml)

My reasons for VST

• I've learned from these forums to use VSTs with Ableton Live (Unlike in Logic)
• Waves doesn't give active support for AU in Live 9
• I've had minor issues with AUs in Live 8 (had to activate, inactivate and activate again to get sound)
• It's simpler for me to focus on the installation and updating of one set of plug-ins
• In normal use my Live 9.1 doesn't crash (it may do that if I try stuff like messing with Python, drivers or whatever)

All of this makes it a no-brainer to stick with VSTs for me. I have a few AUs though. I haven't discovered any performance differences so if they exist they are negligible in my case.

Stromkraft wrote:My reasons for VST

• Waves doesn't support AU in Live 9

yes they do...

fishmonkey wrote:

Stromkraft wrote:My reasons for VST

• Waves doesn't support AU in Live 9

yes they do...

No, according to recent contacts with Waves Support they don't. It runs, but Waves say "Use VST because we don't support AU". I'll rephrase my point to make this more clear.

huh, did not know that. shows how much i use the few Waves plugins that i have...

it is seriously slack the Waves can't be bothered getting their AU versions to work on Live...

fishmonkey wrote:it is seriously slack the Waves can't be bothered getting their AU versions to work on Live...

I'm not sure why that would be, but the consensus also in these forums in general have previously been that VSTs are better for Live. I can't say I've noticed much differences myself though.

Another odd thing with Waves installation was that I had to toggle VST folder in order for them to get recognized. So far they sound great, so I'm happy.

Do any other DAWs support both formats? Cubase is VST only and Logic AU only for obvious reasons.

What about Reaper, StudioOne, DP?

most of the main DAWs support multiple formats (all the ones you listed certainly do).

one of the reasons why it is sometimes recommended that you use the VST version when AU is also available is because many AU plugins are actually the VST version in an AU wrapper.

I had issues with some VST versions of Fxpansion plugins crashing Ableton so I started using the AU versions. When I did I actually like how my plugins were sorted by manufacturer. I also found out that there is a character limit for VST of 7 characters when exposing parameters inside of a VST. So when using Fusor the names of modulation targets are abbreviated where in AU they are the full name.

So both have their ups and downs but I haven't had any issues with any of my AU versions of plugins but I have with VST so I'm just using AU now for those reasons.

Yes! One thins that's a pain in the ass about AU is if you create a sub-folder inside the folder where the AU's go call "components"[HD>Library>Audio>Plug-ins>components, it disappears in the Ableton. If you do this in the default VST folder, the folders show up, and can be sub-navigated within LIve's browser. Which means that when you install UAD 9.3 and have 100 plugins that are 90% demos, you can organize them by manufacturer, application, type, whatever you want. So you could have a "Reverb folder" or a compressor folder etc. Much better than scrolling though trying to find which version of the 1176 plugins will work for more than 14 days. (very show up under "powered plugins" for me