It seems to me more and more that VST3 format has been a flop for Steinberg and it’s integration into the DAW plugin-world.
VST3 format was first released in 2008, and with it came many changes.
Notably the first major pain-point, and still is to this day: No more folder sorting. This update lost the category sorting that everyone up until that time had been accustomed to. Steinberg changed the format so that the Developer had to designate a category.
I have brought the subject up many times over the years and all I get back is “it is up to the developer to change this setting”.
Now, after 17 years we still have almost ALL the major companies completely ignoring this and we still plugins uncategorized - After 17 years design flaw, ignored and ignored.
Did Steinberg miss the boat on a VSTpacker utility?
I think so. Reason has enormous success with the refill packer utility. All backward compatible and lets users pack samples and presets and midi all in one monolithic format (1 file only). Here, VSTsound files are not available as packers to non-developers.
Losing VST2 format: Still going strong in every DAW out there except Steinberg. Doesn’t make sense. Cut-Your-Foot-Off mentality. Easier, simpler and not-at-all worse in ANY way -despite all the VST3 cheerleaders like “new code sounds better”.
VSTpresets. Now this format is great as it is supported in multiple DAW’s. But why is the sharing and development of .vstpresets
NON-EXISTENT ON THE INTERNET!!! (Steinberg Execs can print this out in large text and post in on the doors to their offices)
Native Instruments NKSF formats have taken over the internet and you can find ALL the factory and user presets you want right and Native Instruments forums.
Here, this thread dedicated to sharing presets, other than myself which is the ONLY person sharing them there, have not gotten a single response in the thread and most people there are confused about the legality of the issue.
Also there is the VST2 to VST3 preset conversion issue. Still, you can find people asking how to convert VST2 presets into VST3 presets. Not possible as Steinberg made the format virtually impossible to decipher, or, if you manage this feat (which nobody has AFAIK) it would only work on a plugin-by-plugin basis. Terrible terrible design philosophy.
Pretty much every plugin maker in my collection has implemented VST3 versions of their plugins. Big companies and small. Some were pretty late, others have been there for a long time.
I currently have over 550 plugins from around 60 companies.
The vast majority seem to be classified just fine into Categories that show up in the VST Plug-in Manager.
Well I could starting naming companies but this is not the point here.
What if almost all is not good enough? I guess it’s hard for me to see something that is broken and try to not care about it.
Also for presets I know most people don’t use the Mediabay or care about converting presets to use the .vstpreset system because they just use the plugins own browser, or using templates for composing so no need to search for new sounds. But many for sure got lost when they realized the only option Steinberg left them is to type 10,000’s of presets alone, manually clicking each one with no shortcut to save… Insanity.
lets hope that VST3 will not become the reason for steinberg to abandon VST2 compatibility in future Cubase versions as there are many VST2 plugins still in use
I still use the TC Powercore plugins in Cubase 12 64bit just fine all with parameter automation too.
It only takes a couple of suites and bundles and you are halfway there. The rest will accumulate over the years.
I can only speak for myself but this is where Cubase’s user plugin collections shine. You can pick the ones you need most for each individual purpose and organize them accordingly. I couldn’t work without this feature. That’s why I always keep a recent copy of my latest plugin collections somewhere safe because you don’t wanna do that again if you can avoid it.
I don’t want to say anything about other people’s preferences but in my opinion the only things you need are a few good eqs and compressors, reverbs and delays and maybe a few other stuff
but not much know your stuff well and use it
and don’t fall in to the trap of this over processed sound that is the next bad thing that happened to music recordings after the loudness wars ., leave some space to imagination .
Yeah, I basically agree - that’s right. Overprocessing usually leads you nowhere.
However, sometimes you want to have a very specific flavour that only one plugin can provide. Other times you are inspired by a plugin by playing around with it which takes you somewhere else.
Nonetheless, I agree. Too many plugins can keep you from making music if you don’t watch out! If in doubt - less is more.
Beer. You know what this is.
Bong. Google it.
Combine the two and you get the username, and what the username seems to have consumed before posting. Hence the original post.
14 days premature? Today is April 1st and the OP reads like a joke.
Disclaimer - I am in the same ballpark as you regarding the number of plugins @Nico5 . And I know that this reveals absolutely nothing about the way we work. How could it?
That’s why I didn’t take @Gregio 's post as an insult cause I think it was adressed to rookies who collect plugins for the sake of collecting not knowing how to use any of them properly.
