- On Microsoft Windows, the default audio subsystem is not efficient enough for most music work. For this reason, Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH developed an alternative audio subsystem called ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), which is primarily an approach for writing software drivers for compatible aftermarket audio interfaces, and use of these ASIO drivers has become standard practice for.
- Search results showing free plugin host VST Plugins, VST3 Plugins, Audio Units Plugins (AU), AAX Plugins and Rack Extension Plugins for Windows and MacOS. The results are sorted by most popular with KVR members (Data from MyKVR 'Favorites' Group).
On Microsoft Windows, the default audio subsystem is not efficient enough for most music work. For this reason, Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH developed an alternative audio subsystem called ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), which is primarily an approach for writing software drivers for compatible aftermarket audio interfaces, and use of these ASIO drivers has become standard practice for all Windows DAWs and other VST hosts.
Since the mid-2000s, however, the audio-output interfaces built into nearly all recent PCs are actually efficient enough for music work, and German programmer Michael Tippach developed a generic ASIO driver called ASIO4ALL which can also be used with Windows DAWs.
Vst Instrument Host
You should be using an ASIO sound driver with any Windows DAW. If you have a good external audio interface, it will have come with its own ASIO driver. Otherwise, get ASIO4ALL and use that.
Advanced Audio Plugin Host. Element is a modular AU/VST audio plugin host. Connect plugins to create power effects racks and instruments. Load graphs on the fly for quick access to your sounds. Integrates with your existing hardware via standard protocols such as MIDI.
Vst Host Program
As I write this (December 2017), the NetVST plugins are limited to not more than 2048 samples per buffer. If you are using ASIO, the driver will typically default to 512-sample buffers, which will be fine. Otherwise, your DAW may default to using a very large buffer size such as 4410, which will overwhelm the NetVST plugins and result in a crash. It's therefore very important to set up your DAW and/or sound driver to use a buffer size less than 2048—preferably 512 or even 256 if your system will support it, and on most PCs this requires use of an ASIO driver.
- VSTHost and SaviHost (Hermann Seib)
- Studio One (PreSonus)
On Microsoft Windows, the default audio subsystem is not efficient enough for most music work. For this reason, Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH developed an alternative audio subsystem called ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), which is primarily an approach for writing software drivers for compatible aftermarket audio interfaces, and use of these ASIO drivers has become standard practice for all Windows DAWs and other VST hosts.
Since the mid-2000s, however, the audio-output interfaces built into nearly all recent PCs are actually efficient enough for music work, and German programmer Michael Tippach developed a generic ASIO driver called ASIO4ALL which can also be used with Windows DAWs.
You should be using an ASIO sound driver with any Windows DAW. If you have a good external audio interface, it will have come with its own ASIO driver. Otherwise, get ASIO4ALL and use that.
As I write this (December 2017), the NetVST plugins are limited to not more than 2048 samples per buffer. If you are using ASIO, the driver will typically default to 512-sample buffers, which will be fine. Otherwise, your DAW may default to using a very large buffer size such as 4410, which will overwhelm the NetVST plugins and result in a crash. It's therefore very important to set up your DAW and/or sound driver to use a buffer size less than 2048—preferably 512 or even 256 if your system will support it, and on most PCs this requires use of an ASIO driver.
- VSTHost and SaviHost (Hermann Seib)
- Studio One (PreSonus)