Editing Virtual Studio Technology (section)

== VST hosts ==
A VST host is a software application or hardware device that VST plugins run under. The host application presents the plugin UIs and routes [[digital audio]] and [[MIDI]] to and from the plugins.

Examples of VST hosts include media players such as [[JRiver Media Center]] and [[foobar2000]].  

Stand-alone ''dedicated hosts'' provide a host environment for VST plugins rather than use the plugins to extend their own capabilities. These are usually optimized for live performance use, with features like fast song configuration switching.

VST plugins can be hosted in incompatible environments using a translation layer, or [[shim (computing)|shim]]. For example, [[FL Studio]] only supports its own internal plugin architecture, but an available native "wrapper" loads VST plugins, among others. [[FXpansion]] offers a VST-to-RTAS ([[Real Time AudioSuite]]) wrapper that lets VST plugins run in [[Pro Tools]], and a VST-to-[[Audio Units]] wrapper lets VST plugins run in [[Logic Pro]].

=== Hardware ===
Hardware VST hosts can load special versions of VST plugins. These units are portable and usable without a computer, though some of them require a computer for editing. Other hardware options include PCI/PCIe cards designed for audio processing, which take over audio processing from the computer's [[CPU]] and free up [[Random-access memory|RAM]].

Some hardware hosts accept VSTs and VSTis, and either run Windows-compatible music applications like Cubase, Live, Pro Tools, Logic etc., or run their own DAW. Other are VST Hosts only and require a separate DAW application. ''Origin'' from Arturia is a hardware DSP system that houses several VST software synthesizers in one machine, like Jupiter 50/80 from Roland. Using appropriate software, audio data can also be sent over a network, so the main host runs on one computer, and VST plugins on peripheral machines.