Instruments • Re: Future of CM instruments?

CLAP doesn't have a long term track record like VST has, and it's not supported by a lot of DAWs

Only because CLAP is the newer format and so naturally, hasn't been around for as as long as VST3 has (I'm willing to bet CLAP support will outlive VST3 support).

The current adoption rate of CLAP support from third parties and DAWs is already much faster than it was for VST3. So a fairly safe prediction that CLAP will continue to increase its current support into the future.

As for DAW support, CLAP is currently supported by: Bitwig, Reaper, FL Studio and Studio One. The only major (non-proprietary format) DAW remaining is Ableton Live. Which will undoubtedly follow.

Companies can easily abandon it [CLAP] at any time and just not bother with it

You mean, like when Steinberg decided to discontinue VST? That's the reason why CLAP was created to begin with. To prevent the same issues from recurring again in the future, when Steinberg inevitably decide to discontinue VST3 for a future VST4 replacement.

It's not really accurate at all to say that CLAP has any longevity, it might but then again it might not, in any case it's a riskier move compared with VST

There's no risk.

And if you're a Cubase user, there's no threat. You'll still get your VST3 versions. It's just that the rest of us will be using CLAP instead.

I predict CLAP will begin to overtake VST3 as the primary industry standard audio plugin format within the next few years. Especially once JUCE v9 (with native CLAP support) is released. From that point onwards, VST3 support will become largely a "legacy" format to many users whose DAWs do support CLAP.

Statistics: Posted by MrJubbly — Wed Jan 08, 2025 8:15 pm

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