A plugin is an add-on to a piece of software that allows for extended functionality. In the case of Audio Software and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), these plugins are most often instruments to create sound, or effects to process sound.
There are many different plugin types for different DAWs. To familiarize yourself with the plugin types for your DAW, see below.
VST
VST (Virtual Studio Technology) is a plugin standard that was developed by Steinberg in 1996, and remains the most popular plugin type today. VST plugins exist in both 32bit and 64bit varieties, and therefore are supported by a wide variety of DAWs and Operating Systems. You can also run VST plugins outside of a DAW by using an external VST host. We provide only 64bit VST plugins for our software.
File Extension - .dll, .vst
Supported DAWs - Ableton, Audition, Cakewalk, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Studio One, FL Studio, Digital Performer, Bitwig, Mixcraft
Mac File Path
- /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST
Windows File Paths
- C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2
- C:\Program Files\VST Plugins
- C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VST Plugins
- C:\Program Files\Common Files\Steinberg\VST2
- C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VST Plugins
- ...and many others
VST3
VST3 is an update to the VST standard that was released in 2008. With this updated, functionality was added for audio inputs to VST instruments, as well as dynamically adaptable Audio and MIDI in/out channels for surround/multichannel support. VST 3.5 (released in 2011) added note expression which supports polyphonic articulation functionality.
If your DAW supports it, and you have the proper files installed, it is generally beneficial to use the VST3 versions of plugins rather than VST2. The improvements in technology have brought increased performance, stability, and flexibility to this plugin format.
File Extension - .vst3
Supported DAWs - Ableton, Audition, Cakewalk, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Studio One, FL Studio, Digital Performer, Bitwig, Mixcraft
Mac File Path
- /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3
Windows File Path
- C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
Audio Unit (Mac only)
Audio Units (AU) is a Apple designed plugin format released in 2001 that functions similar to the VST format. The major difference is that AU plugins run on a system level with Apples Core Audio, and therefore can (but not always) result in smoother performance on Apple systems using Core Audio.
File Extension - .component
Supported DAWs - Logic Pro, Ableton, Studio One, Reaper, Digital Performer
AAX (Pro Tools only)
AAX (Avid Audio Xtension) is the plugin format developed by Avid for their software Pro Tools in 2011. This was done to create a plugin format that can run DSP (digital signal processing) on external hardware as well as natively on the system, but provides no other benefit. If you do not use Pro Tools, then this plugin format is not relevant.
File Extension - .aaxplugin
Mac File Path
- /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-ins
Windows File Path
- C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-ins