Plugins- long story short

[ddff_lv]

Hi, plugin gurus!

I have absolutely no understanding nor experience with plugins and I wonder if someone can really shortly explain me following:

1) are the plugins the same everywhere- Digidesing desks, Protools, other DAWs and those used in Waves servers or native? I mean, how studio geeks traveling with their iLoks can be sure the plugin will run on my setup?

2) what is the main difference between setups a) laptop with Waves native, DVS and Dante in iLive, b) desktop with PCIe Dante card, Waves native, c) laptop/desktop with Waves native and M-Waves card in iLive, d) Waves SG server and M-waves card. I guess it mainly is latency? Anything else? Where can I see comparison figures? Anyone can say from experience?

3) what else should I know or consider before I open this Pandora box?

Thank you in advance!

ddff

[SteffenR]

keep the box closed… 🙂

they are not the same… and the geeks are not shure…

Dodgydesign uses different plugin formats these days on different hardware
special Venue Versions are required for the older Venue systems,
S3L and S6L use the new AAX Format but I do not know if they still need extra versions
Waves provides plugin versions for the Venues as well…

But waves provides a system called Sound Grid Server wich can host VST plugins from different vendors and will connect with the M-WAVES card. You can build a system with similiar functionality with Dante and Lawo has integrated something similiar in their desks.
The real differenc is the software system that hosts the plugins… but there are different solutions available
Cantabile, Rack Performer or LiveProfessor for example
The Waves System is a closed and working system with support…but expensive

Latency is another problem… but if you use modern hardware then it should work on a custom system.

In my opinion it is not necessary to use Waves, Avid or other general EQ, dynamics or modulation plugins. It is only useful for things that do not exist on the iLive platform (Pitcher, Transient Designer, HighEnd reverbs, Amp Simulators) or HighEnd FX that is much better than the build in…

hope it helps a bit

[ddff_lv]

Steffen, thanks for reply!

I believed there is no single concept in the plugins world, but it turns out to be even more complicated.
I don’t need them for myself, it is just my wish to respond those requests from visiting engineers. They mention ability to use plugins time after time. Mostly ProTools users from studios. So I thought how difficult/expensive would it be to provide that. I’ve installed demo version of Multirack on my MacBook Pro, will test how it works with DVS and what latency time is. But I’m not sure if I want to go deeper.
I also realized, that if someone comes with his iLok USB stick, it holds just licences not plugins themselves. That means I got to have installed every single plugin on the planet so visiting engineer can unlock and use it. Sounds complicated.

ddff

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