VST

I have spent a few months now practicing with a few VST’s mostly free actually only dexed. It’s pretty easy to work with after learning the basics of synths, sure I can’ make anything great but I feel like a baby learning to crawl since I am a c programmer and not a musician at all.

This question that I have been wondering about is why are there so many VST especially ones with pretty hefty price tags.

Are the main differences just the preset sounds they make? I mean if you have a subtractive synth with the typical filters, ADSR nobs why so many different VST and so many prices?

It seems a lot is sold on features and samples but scratching all that, I mean great music was created with simple instruments like the early Moog synths which can be easily replicated in a mobile phone these days.

I would be quite interested to hear the comments on this. Obviously, in a pro environment, things like stability,ease of use, etc go a long way. Also high quality samples and presets and useful features. It seems though that what we think of as good sounds or samples are what we’ve been conditioned to like by the music that we’ve lived with… I believe Dexed is an emulation of the DX7.
Classic sounds but aren’t they really kind of ugly but they became ingrained in our conciousness in the 80’s. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree. I kind of agree that there’s a glut of vst synths. At least in Windows. If you were playing a gig 20 years ago you probably only had one synth and you probably had to make most of your own patches. I have the feeling that too many choices cause players to fiddle endlessly with sounds and it detracts from making music.
Sorry if a got a liitle bit away from the topic.

@CraigPid, based on your reply it seems like my hunch was right. I am sure that a lot of these tools that are being sold is just repackaging of old tools to a new audience. A lot of amazing music was created with a lot less complex tools… I think if more people made their own patches electronic music would have more unique sounds and a wider range or songs and styles.

I’m not sure I exactly understand your question(s), but here are some possible answers:

VST is a format that has been around for a long time (now on version 3 or something), so its almost de-facto standard. Apple came up with their AU format, but that is only for OSX. Most other common plugin formats are specific to a certain DAW like renoise, so developers try to target as large a market as possible (often they have VST and AU formats).
In linux there was the ladspa format, then DSSI, and now also LV2. These are all open standards, and cross platform, but haven’t received much attention outside of linux, though with cross platform programs like audacity some exposure to ladspa came to windows. ladspa was a bit limited since it was designed to be so simple, and I think DSSI had some limitations as well that made it not really take off (or maybe it was just bad marketing). LV2, the newest of these open standards, is extensible. Its still advancing, but is already quite stable, extremely capable and is my personal choice when developing plugins. There are some politics involved so various developers will have varied opinions about these formats. I’m not sure of the exact timeline of what pre-dates what, but I think in the commercial world, VST was the only viable format for quite some time (it was also the best marketed), so its difficult to disrupt the industry’s de-facto standard.

As for why there are so many plugins and so many different developers, its pretty fun to make audio plugins. Its a bit of a dream job to be making money writing audio software, and something a lot of people can do on the side to try to make extra money. All of these are trying to reach as large a market as possible and VST is more or less the most universally supported format. The developers are of varied experience and qualifications to do so, but charge whatever they think they could sell it for (or for larger companies, what their marketing dept. thinks they can). Some of the developers have very valuable experience and are able to create very high quality plugins with a great user experience. Some of these sell them for a very reasonable price (overtoneDSP comes to mind). Some just try to hype up their mediocre product and sell it for a killing. So I’d say with plugins you don’t always get what you pay for. Thats why I like open source plugins that you can try before you donate. :slight_smile:
There’s surely shared code within one companies plugins, but I’m sure there are also tons of different implementations, and small details can make a big difference (good or ill). Often an old implementation is too limited so they will rewrite one aspect or another for a future version or a new plugin, but I’d be surprised if any company were making exact copies with just a new look and selling it as a different product. Customers would catch on pretty quick. Bad business.

Anyhow, this is an interesting conversation, sorry I don’t have more hard facts and dates, but thats what I think/understand.

it seems that it’s mainly a matter of choice affected by marketing. I’d still like to hear the experience of some long time musicians, patch makers, etc. But for now I will just stick to the basics and make original sounds and go from there.

Looks like my boatload of VST plug-ins won’t likely work because they are all in Windows. Is that right? If so, where can I find suitable plug-ins?

Windows VST plugin support: http://www.manual.ardour.org/working-with-plugins/windows-vst-support/


Getting Plugins: http://www.manual.ardour.org/working-with-plugins/getting-plugins/


Working with Plugins: http://www.manual.ardour.org/working-with-plugins/

There are native VST plugins for linux as well.

Most of U-he’s software Synths and plugins are available as Linux VST for example.
The do not mention the fact on the website but they do support Linux VST.

Its because they are officially still beta: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=424953

@sonnie I know, my point was just to highlight the fact and give one good example that besides LADSPA, DSSI and LV2 we do have VST
That was not mentioned in the above discussion.