VST3 support - how is it going?

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  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro
    edited June 2022


    Much appreciated, it is so bad not having PDC nowadays, so many latent plugins (in the Soundwide family no less)

  • Trevor Meier
    Trevor Meier Member Posts: 69 Advisor

    Just to decode that a bit: “in the coming months” means that 1-12 months from now, NI will let us know of its plans once they’ve worked out their priorities. So most likely it will be some months after that before VST3 support is released as a beta, and then typically 1-3 months after that as a mainstream release. So if you’re anxiously awaiting VST3 support, best to look elsewhere for now.

  • Matt_NI
    Matt_NI Administrator Posts: 1,106 admin
    edited June 2022

    I think you might be reading too much into it. I'm just sharing what's happening and there isn't a precise timeline now. We'll share an update on our plans soon and then you'll see more about how, what and when.

  • Trevor Meier
    Trevor Meier Member Posts: 69 Advisor

    I hope so! But my experience so far with NI since becoming a Maschine/Reaktor user a year ago has been: high hopes (such a cool workflow!), ah but I can’t do this one key thing (Google search: users have been requesting it for many years), find NI staff forum posts saying “we hear you”, and then status quo continues for months, years and even beyond a decade while other products innovate past NI. I’m very hopeful there will be a new pattern in this relationship, but I remain skeptical until the release cadence goes up dramatically.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 2,772 Expert

    @Trevor Meier

    Just to decode that a bit: “in the coming months” means that 1-12 months from now, ....

    You are rather pesimistic....

    NI already works on VST3. There is bunch of VST3 plugins already and Maschine is able host VST3 plugins (so far, only NI ones).

    Updating priorities and roadmaps may mean, and possibly also means, that NI has planned to release VST3 and native AS at the same time, which would cost NI less than two separate releases. VST3 may already be ready and waiting for AS native to be completed....

    Updating roadmap may mean, make two separate releases and spend more on human resources.... For example, or anything else.

  • Kymeia
    Kymeia Member Posts: 3,605 Expert
    edited June 2022

    Hi Matt

    sorry but while I was supportive of the decision to start working on VST3 support with NI's own plugins first because that made a lot of sense from a development POV, if I'm reading this right it sounds like the plan is to limit VST3 support to just the developers who are 'NKS Partners'? However there are many plugins that are now VST3 only from independent developers who are unlikely to even want to be NKS partners (I am thinking for example of Plasmonic by Rhizomatic which I really want to be able to control using my S Series keyboard) so I hope that is not correct.

    (btw I think it does answer the question about Neutron 4 though as iZotope are NKS partners and I would not be at all surprised to see Neutron 4 being one of the first non NI VST3 plugins to be trialled for use in KK and Maschine)

  • August Alchemy
    August Alchemy Member Posts: 21 Member

    Huh? I've been using Izotope since the second generation of mix and mastering products came out. I haven't had any latency problems even with the Dynamic products.

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro
    edited June 2022
  • Vagus
    Vagus Member Posts: 403 Pro

    Correct. If you want to use any 3rd Part VST3s, you can do that now with VSTshell. I've been using it for over a year now, and the only issue I've had is slight latency on loading Equator 2 presets (even from user presets). We're talking somewhere in the range of 0.5 seconds - 1 second.

    Aside from that, I've had ZERO issues with any VST3 product through VSTShell. But I'd rather it was a beta feature I could use now through KK for instance, than having to fiddle a workaround.

    To give you an idea, the number of VST3 only releases is getting longer. Steinberg no longer issues licenses for VST2. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and I'm sat here having to learn KSP rather then code a VST instrument, because NI doesn't support VST3 as standard.

    I've said it before, but it might actually be easier to build an alternative to KK - it might be quicker, but it just wouldn't have Kontakt Player and Reactor player features. It really isn't rocket science.

  • tempsperdu
    tempsperdu Member Posts: 292 Pro

    I use VST Shell, and it seems OK on the plugins it can actually see, but only Unify so far seems to have seen all my VST3 plugins, both Meta Plugin, Image Line's Minihost Modular, and VST Shell all seem to not see some. Boost and Claro so far seem to be the most problematic.

    It completely baffles me that both NI and any of its users find the current state of play in any way acceptable.

  • Trevor Meier
    Trevor Meier Member Posts: 69 Advisor

    Exactly, I agree with you. So if it takes two 1.x point releases, based on the current cadence that’s at least six months away from final release. Not being pessimistic, just realistic. If full VST3 support for all third-party plugins was imminent, we would be hearing about it.

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro

    It is doubtful support for all 3rd party VST3 will happen anyway, every time staff mention it, they are very very clear, NKS VST3.

    A silly decision, yes, but it is what it is.

  • tempsperdu
    tempsperdu Member Posts: 292 Pro

    Now if they were thinking of moving over to CLAP, then it might seem like there was actually some development going on, but it looks like that happens in other companies now.............


  • Reefius
    Reefius Member Posts: 244 Pro

    Knowing NI, it will take another 10 years or so before CLAP is supported. Sad but true.

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