VST3 audio plugin format is now MIT (forums.steinberg.net)

Article summary

Steinberg Media Technologies has released the VST 3.8 SDK, which includes a new licensing model for VST 3 under the MIT license, making it open source. The update also includes support for MIDI 2.0, Wayland on Linux, and a new Task Concurrency API. The VST 3 Plug-In SDK is available for download, and the company offers support and resources for developers. This change is expected to have a significant impact on the audio plugin development community.

Main themes

• VST 3 licensing
• MIDI 2.0 support
• Wayland on Linux
• Audio plugin development
• Open source software
• CLAP plugin format

What commenters say

• The change to the MIT license will simplify the development process for plugin developers and allow for more community-driven projects.
• The VST 3 API is overly complex and difficult to implement, especially compared to the CLAP plugin format.
• The use of COM-like interfaces in VST 3 is a bad model for real-time audio plugins and host support, leading to increased complexity and testing difficulties.
• CLAP is a better plugin format than VST 3 due to its simpler design and more efficient handling of MIDI data.
• The VST 3 parameter queue system is inefficient and requires plugins to treat parameters in a specific way, leading to performance issues.
• The adoption of CLAP is growing, but it is still unclear whether popular plugins will provide CLAP versions in the near future.
• The VST 3 linear interpolation code is not widely used or well-implemented, and its benefits are disputed among developers.
• The decision to base VST 3 on the Windows Component Object Model was a mistake, and it has led to unnecessary complexity and difficulties in the API.