Steinberg have produced 3 AU compatible plugins that are compatible with Logic and Live but why don’t we have an option to have AU plugins in Cubase…?
Cubasis on iPad works with AU’s so why Cubase Pro on desktop can’t. load them in…
Mind you - Logic can’t load VSTs… WTF
(I’m not Steinberg)
There are probably a couple of reasons. First of all, Steinberg invented VST, so it’s kind of obvious that they will focus on their own standard, which they know inside out and which they can also control.
Then, Cubase and Nuendo are cross-platform and have many users on Windows. AU does not exist on Windows, so that could lead to potential problems sharing projects.
It does work in iOS and iPadOS, but that is probably just because it has to, thanks to Apple’s walled garden.
And yeah, as you mentioned, Logic cannot load VSTs. What do you want to say with that?
What AU plugin are you missing in Cubase?
When Apple bought Logic, they were reluctant to let Steinberg control a key technology used in that product, so they created AU.
That’s not correct. The AU specification was already in MacOS X 10.0. This was before Apple acquired Emagic.
Arne, are you sure? I believe the AU API was introduced in OSX 10.2.
Anyway, the point is that Apple created AU because they were not willing to let Steinberg control what they considered to be an important technology in their products.
True that. I bought Logic Platinum in 2000 or 2001, and Apple bought it a year or two after that. I think my Logic 5.5 update was the first Apple branded one. I was however running the beta of Mac OS X in like 1999 when we got it at work, and the first release was in the beginning of 2001. The first thing Apple did was tell PC users to get lost, and you can bet they kept VST out because they wanted more control over their own product.
Funny enough, I can remember hanging out a lot of the OSXAudio forums, and literally watched Urs Heckmann get excited about the ‘new’ AU tech and saw him develop the first AU plugins heh.
Strictly speaking, the first AU plugins came from Apple 
. Logic 5.4, the first proper AU host, came out in October 2002. There were a number of 3rd party Audio Units launched at that time, including the greenoak effects, but it would be hard to say what was first.
Looking at my notes, I released the AU version of Crystal close to the time Logic 5.4 was released. There’s a good chance it was the first 3rd party AU softsynth, but I couldn’t say for sure…Urs had a freeware synth back then too, but I think it was just the two of us doing 3rd party AU softsynths in those early days.
The question remains: Why can’t Cubase use AU plugins. I bet Reaper can!
I guess for the same reason why Logic does not support VST.
And why does nobody ask for AAX support?
I seem to recall using Logic 5.5 on Windows? I think it was the last windows version.
Back to the original question…apparently unknown to Steinberg and Mac users there’s another big operating system out there- Desktop Operating System Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats
That’s right, it’s the same answer for all three. Steinberg, Apple, and Avid have their own plugin platforms for strategic reasons and don’t want to be dependent on the others.
Almost everybody else supports both VST and AU. AAX however, has licensing issues that prevent hosts other than PT from supporting it.
CLAP theoretically could become a universal platform, but there is so much inertia behind the others that it’s probably destined to remain a fringe technology.
I was trolling, hence the troll emoji.
I think it’s a not-very-well-thought-out question.
That’s right.
The EMagic acquisition by Apple, the announcement of the AU API (which was released in OSX 10.2), the first AU version of Logic, and the last major Windows version of Logic, all happened in 2002.
LOL maybe 6.0 was it? I have no idea where my 5 box is, but I still have my big 5-6 upgrade box on the shelf downstairs next to my Logic 7, EXS24, SoundDiver and Cubase VST24 boxes. Somewhere around here I still the original Absynth retail box, Recycle and Peak too haha.
I had no idea you were around these parts, but man, Crystal was frigging AWESOME. While still switching back and forth from OS 9 to OS X to get used to the ‘new way’ I got a lot of mileage out of that thing in the early days!! It had crazy mutating before Absynth even came along!! I can remember Urs being all giddy about all the new stuff you could do with the AU API, and here were are 20 some years later and he wants to rewrite the whole book again with CLAP hehe.
To this day, there is still a lot of Crystal in Omnisphere.
I hear there’s a lot of crystal on the streets 
The AU (Version 1.0) API was already in OSX 10.0. See availability here: AudioUnitInitialize(_:) | Apple Developer Documentation
Or directly from the header:
extern OSStatus AudioUnitInitialize(AudioUnit inUnit) API_AVAILABLE(macos(10.0), ios(2.0), watchos(2.0), tvos(9.0));
AU version 2 was released with OSX 10.2 together with Logic.
Just to get these facts right 
Sort of . The first practical AU implementation was announced in the summer of 2002 and released in OSX 10.2. But, I’ll grant you the technical point you’re making .
That’s not really the point though. The question was: why does Apple use AU instead of VST? The answer remains: because Apple wasn’t willing to let Steinberg control a key technology in Apple products. The same answer in reverse answers the question of why Cubase doesn’t support AU.
P.S. Another interesting historical note is that Arne and I are members of a rare combination in the digital audio software world: we’re both parts of a brother pair who work together.
Not that this is true but…
let’s say dev PerryPluginMaker makes his FareakinBestCompressorOnMars in both vst and au formats (as many/most 3rd parties do).
And let’s say he has a set of vst user issues that come in from time to time. And an entirely different set of au user issues that come in from time to time.
I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with that. Esp if vst was my preferred dev focus anyway