Can you use VST-plug ins in more than one DAW

I

iamx12

New member
Hello dear all,

First introduce myself and my experience with recording.
I am new to recording, DAW and that stuff. I use Studio One 4 (SO4) prime (free version) now for more than a half year. In the beginning for midi-control. I play guitar and use a MIDI-controllable pedal.

Now I have started to write and make my own songs. Just for fun and learning from it to be a better musician. And I like it!!! At the moment I have already/or just only recorded four songs. Just me as keyboard, bass and guitar player and use some drums from the loopsamples. Use midi and presets from SO4 prime to make synth sounds ect. And now I have also recorded some vocals.

And there is the problem. I can't sing :) Autotune would be nice to try to fix something and just have fun to play with it. But to try I would like to try the trials of Melodyne and Antares. But I was wondering...

The question
Studio One 4 prime does not allow useing VST plug ins but I would like to use Studio One 4 as main DAW. I am thinking of buying the Studio One 4 professional but it is maybe a bit expensive to start with it while I am still in the great learning phase. And before buying the SO4 professional I would like to test a lot first like autotune VST. I know the SO4 professional version comes with Melodyne so I would like to test the trial version of Melodyne first.

I also heard good things about Ableton Live as DAW, certainly as second DAW to combine the strenghts of both DAWs. To test Ableton Live I was thinking of buying some hardware which comes mostly I mine region with Ableton Live. And this DAW allows VST plugins. But I was wondering/affraid if I use Ableton Live for the plugins like Antares trial, could I use the plugin later in Studio One 4 Prime/Professional also? Or do I need to buy new licenses than?

And is it possible to use SO4 as main DAW but use Ableton to record vocals and do there the stuff I would like and than import it to SO4? Ableton will probably come also with other sounds than SO4 so maybe I would also like to use some midi-presets from there to use them in SO4. Is this possible/easy done?

Materials I use
It is now me, my laptop (Windows 10, 64 bit, i7-processor, 16 GB RAM) and a guitar/keyboard.
For my recording audio-interface I now use Line 6 Helix (full)floorboard. It works as a USB-audiointerface (ASIO protocols).
Studio One 4 prime which I would like to upgrade to professional
Really cheap keyboard which also can send out MIDI. Use a USB-midi-cable (that cheap one for $ 10)

Hope you people can help me out :)
 
I find it hard to believe that a free version of a DAW would not support VST plug ins. But there you go. You learn something new each day. Studio One Prime doesn't, and you need to buy an add-on to enable VST support.

Yes . . .once you install a plugin, you could use it in Ableton, and also use it in Studio One Pro.

You can also record a track in Ableton using the plug in, export it, and load it into Studio oNe to do other stuff.

However,that's a cumbersome way of working.

I'd instead download the trial of Reaper, which is uncrippled and will support VSts, and do everything in the one DAW. After the trial period has expired, you can continue to use Reaper uncrippled. You just get a nag screen that makes you wait a bit.
 
The trouble with audio software is that it's split into feature sets that grow, but the entire thing has a quite personal attraction to the user. Years ago there were DAW wars. Cubase users, Logic users and the rest. Then it grew and the acceptable list got much bigger as new ones came out. Now there's so many I doubt anyone has used them all. What happens is you get comfy. I suspect that once you used Abbleton you would initially hate it, but if you persevere, you would not want to go back. I am a cubase user. I will not change because I like it and it does what I want. I accept it may not be the best, but I don't know. My friend has just been given a work MacBook with logic on it and he hated it but after two weeks now loves it.

I suspect that using two divert apps will really annoy. I suspect also that Abbleton and reaper will win. If recording is serious to you, you need to experiment. If yours is annoying you already because it cannot handle vsti plugins, then it's not a serious platform to get comfy with. Get comfy with something more mainstream. It will be more complex and harder to use, but that's a positive thing. There are now probably 8 well known apps for music recording. I seriously doubt any are rubbish, and all have happy users. Down load a demo of them all and try them out. Discount the ones that need you to search YouTube straight away for basic features.

On your auto tune point. Auto tune does not turn a bad singer into a good one. If you can't sing, it end there. If you have little pitching issues, or perhaps have poor pitch perception, auto tune does not help because you won't be able to assess the results. This is common. If you sing an A, and get an Ab. Can you hear this as you singing flat, or singing wrong? Be different. Some people can detect sharp or flat but find pitching the right one difficult, but others just have no perception of which it is. Auto tune can fail badly without a good ear listening to what it does. It's worth a single singing lesson for a professional opinion on what your problem is and how successful lessons could be improving it. Auto tune and the cover versions some software now gives you are amazing tools, if and only if, you have the ear to control what they do.
 
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