Question

Inside Bitwig Studio, there's an option available to users to change the default "Prefer VST 3 over VST 2" behavior which gives a much more comfortable & adjustable workflow & choice to the user. Really missing this extra level of control inside S1.

I'll explain :

* Some manufacturers take advantage of the "VST 3 can replace VST 2" feature when coding their plug-ins.
* If they do use this feature, only the VST 3 plug-in will be available in S1 when a VST 3 version of the plug-in is installed.
* In latest S1 v5, the only available options accessible in "Preferences/Advanced/Services" is to enable/disable full vst 2.4 or full VST 3 support ( that means filtering all plug-ins availability & use by type = choosing to use VST3 or not but for ALL plug-ins ).
* If VST 3 support is enable in S1 Preferences and the Plug-in manufacturer took advantage of the "VST 3 can replace VST2" tag, then only the VST 3 Plug-in version will be available inside S1 and eventually ( depending on Plug-in feature & coding ) the VST 3 Plug-in will automatically replace the VST 2.4 when re-opening an older project saved with the VST 2.4

* In the end S1 users have NO CONTROL and NO CHOICE to decide to use VST 2.4 in such scenario.
* In case of issues with re-opening older projects and/or plug-in names and Plug-in ID issues, users have no other choice than to remove / uninstall or prevent the VST 3 installation to avoid running into those problems and be able to use the VST 2.4 plug-ins.
This is not very user friendly and does not offer efficient enough workflow options for the end users.

Other hosts like Bitwig Studio ( example pic above ) or FL Studio for example are offering an option to take control and advanatge of that feature in a net & end user friendly enable/disable extra option.

Can we please have the same ease of control over this parameter inside S1 v5 ?
Not only will it be a great improvement but it also makes sense since it should not be up to the end-user to have to care about installing VST 3 or not in first place but simply being able to decide with ease to take advantage of both plug-ins formats.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Don't forget Notion 6 only uses VST2 (VST3 came out in 2008 - I don't understand why Notion is still incompatible with it at this point). So you have to remove VST3s for those VIs by changing the the file's extension, disable able all VST3's (so most plugins, since they've been around for thirteen years) or you have set every synth back up (which defeats the point of the "Send to Studio One" function.) So I completely agree that would be a useful function.

Answer 2

Did you ever get an answer on this from PreSonus? I've been trying to get some VST2 plugins visible, like you noted same as how Bitwig gives you this option.