What is VST, VST3, and AU?

Question

Good afternoon. I have bought and downloaded some iZotope plug-ins to help remove mouth noise from my voiceover recordings, but Audition has loaded all of said plug-ins in three separate areas under "Effects": VST, VST3, and AU. (As in, all the same plug-ins are available for me to use in all three areas.)

Would anyone happen to know what the difference is between those three, and what exactly they are? I have tried to Google which one I should use, but can't make heads or tails of all the technical jargon users post on Reddit and Quora. I'm not too fancy with vocal editing yet, and I'm only trying to get rid of a bit of noise without ruining the quality of the recordings. Is there anyone who could possibly explain the differences between those three?

Thank you so much in advance!

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted Answer

Basically they're different ways of accessing exactly the same plugins - except for AU, which is Mac-only and proprietary. In theory on a Mac, using AU is better because it has lower latency, but you are unlikely to notice the difference in reality. The main obvious differences in the industry-standard VST options is how they are listed in your DAW. In other words, don't worry about it!

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded