View Single Post
Old 08-06-2019, 08:04 AM   #16
audiojunkie
Human being with feelings
 
audiojunkie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 971
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mike@overtonedsp View Post
So, from a plug-in developer point of view - one thing most plug-in developers don't really like is yet another plug-in format (even something with the 'weight' of VST3 has struggled to get adopted).
When a new standard is introduced, it normally means no-one will buy your existing range any more unless you support the new format (even if they don't need it) because, future-proofing. So you have maybe six months of work converting (and testing) everything to a new format which, by definition no-one is using and there is very little support for. You will also be expected to make these new versions available for free for existing users. So its six months or more of unpaid work, to get back to where you started. The only difference being you now have an exponentially growing complexity of testing and maintenance. Possibly the only exception is if the plug-in format brings some essential new capability.
LV2 is not a new format, but as far as I can tell (and I have developed LV2 plug-ins in the past) it does not add anything that you can't do already - at a technical level. It does seem more compatible with open-source licenses than e.g. VST2, but so is VST3.
LV2 is extensible - but so is VST3 (and VST2 if you want to). There's nothing stopping the addition of custom features to VST2 or VST3 (indeed some already exist), if the host supports them (same requirement with LV2).
LV2 often cites its ability to discover plug-ins without loading them as an advantage - but in reality, this simply means that I get a list of LV2 plug-ins in my DAW, all of which seem ok. But, when I load the bad one it will still crash the host, only this time it will do it when I'm in the middle of a session, rather than e.g. having been safely blacklisted at scanning / startup.
LV2 exists to address some very Linux-specific issues. As a plug-in developer, I'm not convinced it brings anything of significant extra advantage at the present time.
This makes sense from a plug-in developer's point of view. I'm not sure from a host developer's point of view or a consumer's point of view.
audiojunkie is online now   Reply With Quote