VST
More info
- Creator
- Steinberg
- Released
- 1996
- Type
- Plugin interface
- Successor
- VST3 (2008)
Virtual Studio Technology — Steinberg's interface that lets audio effects and software instruments from anyone run inside any DAW.
Steinberg introduced VST with Cubase in 1996 and added VSTi for instruments in 1999. The spec was simple enough for hobbyists to write their own effects, which spawned an entire economy of free and commercial plugins — plus an endless supply of emulations of the same 1960s analogue compressor.
VST3 arrived in 2008 and was better designed, yet developers clung to VST2 for a decade until Steinberg stopped handing out the old SDK in 2018. Rival formats exist: Apple's Audio Units, Avid's AAX for Pro Tools, and the open LV2 and CLAP. Most vendors therefore build all of them from one codebase and hope nothing diverges.