Which VST3 plug-ins work in OBS?
OBS Safe VST3 Host targets Windows VST3 audio effects. It is intentionally not an instrument/MIDI host, and it does not claim universal compatibility with every advanced VST3 topology.
Supported host scope
Real-machine tested examples
During the v0.5.0 qualification line, the project was exercised with real commercial effects including:
- iZotope — Ozone 11, RX 9 Spectral De-noise
- FabFilter — Pro-Q 3, Pro-C 2, Pro-R, Saturn
- Waves — SSL Channel
- Klevgrand — Brusfri
- Neuro Audio — Westwood
- Process Audio — Sugar
Why instrument plug-ins are excluded
VST3 audio effects and instruments share the same broad VST3 audio-module class family. The scanner therefore looks at VST3 subcategory metadata. Plug-ins explicitly marked as Instrument without an Fx role are excluded from the OBS insert-effect list, while normal Fx and hybrid Fx/Instrument classes remain eligible.
This prevents obvious instruments such as synths from confusing users while avoiding an aggressive effect whitelist that could hide legitimate vendor plug-ins with incomplete metadata.
What “supports VST3” means here
It means the product implements a VST3 audio-effect host path inside a native OBS filter workflow. It does not mean every possible VST3 feature is complete. Advanced plug-ins may depend on sidechain buses, unusual channel layouts, Float64 processing, MIDI or vendor-specific lifecycle behavior.
When a plug-in sits inside the current supported audio-effect scope, the project aims to let you discover it, load it in the isolated helper, open its real GUI, process OBS audio and restore state without putting third-party plug-in code directly inside obs64.exe.
How to report a plug-in that does not work
Please include enough detail to make the failure reproducible:
- OBS Studio version
- Windows version
- VST3 product and exact version
- whether the problem is discovery, loading, vendor GUI, DSP or state restore
- the exact filter status message
- relevant
[obs-safe-vst3]OBS log lines