Native vst vs au formats

[fawudd]

I have always avoided using au plugins, and have stuck with VST. I just installed the native M1 Reaper, and I am creating a folder of M1 Native plugins. Along the way, I discovered that although a VST3 may not be native, the au version runs fine without the x64 add-on. It seems to be true for all the vendors that I tested. Is it preferable to run the au vs the bridged VST ?

What is the downside?

Thanks

[nepenthe]

Originally Posted by fawudd

I have always avoided using au plugins, and have stuck with VST. I just installed the native M1 Reaper, and I am creating a folder of M1 Native plugins. Along the way, I discovered that although a VST3 may not be native, the au version runs fine without the x64 add-on. It seems to be true for all the vendors that I tested. Is it preferable to run the au vs the bridged VST ?

What is the downside?

Thanks

I did notice that when using Soothe 2, if I'm using the VST version the spacebar won't start/stop playback while viewing the plugin window. But when using the AU version the spacebar works as expected. Otherwise I'm not sure. I did hear a couple years ago that VST is preferred over AU when possible, but I'm not sure if this still holds up in the world of ARM Macs. It would be great to hear from someone more knowledgable about the subject. But there is one example of bridged AU on M1 working better than VST.

[Tale]

VST would be better if you ever plan to switch to Windows, and maybe also to Linux.

[mlprod]

The (non native) AU plugins are also being run in rosetta, just in a different way. Reaper not losing focus is def an advantage, but VST(3) is the main standard being cross platform and all that.