Every producer and sound engineer has some of their favorite tools to expand the capabilities of their digital workstation. DAW environments come standard with effect plugins. These instruments allow you to change and enrich sounds. With their help, most of the musical compositions are created today. Modern digital tools for making music have completely changed the way we make music.
These instruments are commonly known as VSTs, which inherited their name from Steinberg’s Virtual Studio Technology. Depending on the selected workstation and operating system, sound plugins can exist and be provided in a variety of formats.
In the case of Windows, the most popular solution is the VST plugin format, which works in Cubase, FL Studio, Ableton Live, Studio One, Reason, Reaper and others. Apple also uses the named solution in its systems.
New releases of Avid Pro Tools use a solution called AAX (Avid Audio eXtension). This is another priority plugin format that only works with Avid software. All plugins are available in two popular formats – VST and AU. But far from all of the existing systems are available with AAX technology.
Many software developers for musicians who want to enter the musician software market often provide their first products for free – mostly to appear in the minds of consumers or to show themselves to potential employers. As is usually the case, the vast majority of these free tools are not very functional, but some real gems can be found among them.
On the other hand, companies that already have a strong position in the market from time to time provide those of their products that they will not develop further, or that are simplified versions of consumer products, in order to demonstrate some of their potential and encourage them to buy full versions, often with an interesting discount. Therefore, you can purchase effective plugins either at a promotional price or even get them for free at all.
AAX technology is typically used on 64-bit systems. This provides additional benefits in the form of stable operation of the operating system, since the entire load will be distributed proportionally between the resources of the computer. And this, in turn, will ensure high performance of the musical equipment and the fulfillment of all assigned tasks.
