Hi I'm Philip and new to this forum,
Having recently purchased a S.E. license I decided to go ahead and create my first basic synth. All went well until I tried exporting it as a VST3 file. The process worked fine however when I try to open it in FL Studio 20, although it sees the plugin it reports an 'Error' but there is no information as to the nature of it. Fortunately I still have the previous version FL studio 12 installed on my PC and it works fine in that.
I also tried it with Reason 10 and Ableton Live 10, and although I set the path location it does not detect it in these DAWs either.
It does work however with the current version of Cubase 9.5 and I can also use it with the standalone app Savihost but not in vPlayer 2.
I purchased a commercial synth Go2 by Rob Papen and that works in all of the above however I notice that this is a .dll VST file whereas the VST file created with SynthEdit has multiple files. I read another thread here that mentions Windows 10 doesn't like hidden files within the .dll file however it seems the commercial software houses are still creating these.
I'm not sure if I'm just barking up the wrong tree here but could this be the reason why the VST3 file I created only works in some DAWs and some standalone apps?
Not being a coder I'm not sure where to go from here. My goal is to create some basic synths for a training course I'm putting together.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Philip

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Thanks for your reply Lee,
That's made it clearer for me.
It's strange how FL Studio 20 seems to have dropped .vst3 support whereas it was available in 12. I wonder if some of the DAW manufacturers are experiencing problems with it.

I have been doing some testing in different hosts and have had overall success with the AU, VST2, and VST3 wrapped or renamed to a .dll . I am however experiencing a little less host compatibility when using VST3 SE build. Some hosts crash when I insert the plugin and plugin tries to open.
This happens on loading of the plugin I have never seen a crash after load up. The thing that is interesting is that most hosts have no problems at all leading one to think that it is the hosts fault which it probably is.. So how do we find out what is exactly going on..
Inside SE there is the debug tool which helps as well as some other diagnostics modules. This is great and tracks down issues inside SE. but what about outside SE. Most DAW's have some sort of reported information about a plugin also a way to monitor performance. This can help determine host compatibility and performance but doesn't really run tests to determine actual plugin problems if present.
I have been using the vst3plugintestHost in the steinberg vst3 SDK and another program tracktion pluginval to test vst3 and have noticed that vst3's from SE pass most 95-98% of the tests!!!. There are a few tests that it does not pass I tried several SE plugs. This is actually not bad because other higher end plugins still fail some of the tests some a lot more.
Before getting into that there is one more app I found useful Resource Hacker. With this I can see most of the SE app configuration much like the AU json and XML. With this I can also edit the version and website of the vst3 etc. To use it I just name the vst3 to dll then after I am done editing name back to vst3. The AU export most of this is already exposed XML and JSON are already easy to edit the same things with sublime.
I have also installed a few more host applications FL20 demo, Tracktion, Garageband, Carla, Audacity, and LMMS. It would be nice to have a some more popular / expensive hosts to test on but I think Reaper, Fl studio and all the free/ donation ones should be enough to test on.
My question to the community is what do you use to test your plugins made with SE?
I will post next some of the stranger things I found about VST3

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Wow, that's some pretty comprehensive stuff. A bit beyond how much diagnosis I do.
I'm just a hobby level developer that wants to deliver a professional/modern feel. I will be stressing potential customers to test the plugins in their system before committing to a purchase because I make these tools for myself first and I'm not looking to supplement my income off of selling VSTs. If it doesn't work in their DAW, that's tough cookies, as long as it works for my needs. I want to go public because I'm hoping the 'Big Vendors' will copy my innovations, so I don't have to keep making them. Also, making plug-ins to a professional standard takes extensive effort and I'm not gonna let that go for free, plus the signature.
With that said, I test in FL Studio, Tracktion Waveform and Cubase Pro. Too bad you missed that 50% sale on Cubase Pro. I got it at that price plus an additional 20% through the cross-grade. Came up to ~$300 + ~$50 for that dongle (CAD).
There was a time when I wanted to figure out how to get 'Note Names' into the FL Studio piano roll or at least see that it was possible. That rabbit hole lead me to a tool call 'Plug-in Consultant':
Plug-in Consultant
This 'tool' shows which VST SDK functions are being addressed at a given time.
I can't remember which VST SDK function it was but I remember it has been present since VST2, many developers just don't use it. :/
Some of the ones that do use it are:
FXpansion's Drums
MIDI Mapper X <Open Source :D
The code from MIDI Mapper X is actually visible on their github and I plan to write a SynthEdit module to bring this function to SynthEdit. It's one of the few I promised myself I will make. I don't see me making it until late next year though.
It will be great for sending a sampler's file names and naming 'key-triggers', additionally naming notes for drums.
Christain Budd made a 'VST Analyser' but it's dated and he was looking for sponsorship to make it VST3 64bit compatible to no avail.
Christian Budd's Private Site - Measurement
I think I used it to look at phase and EQ/Filter responses but then I learned how to use the 'Impulse Response' module in SynthEdit and Elena was kind enough to give us a 'Phase Analyser'.

Way to go on Cubase deal sounds pretty good!!! I ended up getting Intel Core i9-10900X new MB and Ram should help me get this window 10 computer going.
I would say with this plugin consultant, pluginval, and vst3plugintesthost I can really get a good idea of what is happening and ways to improve or fix things. I really like SE and Max Msp for turning ideas into concepts/working prototypes. I would however like to take these concepts and eventually re-make them in JUCE or from scratch. I wanted to get a good windows 10 setup going which won't be long before I start in on some SE modules, JUCE and Visual Studio. I have been reading a bit on C++ and seems pretty tricky but not impossible. After a couple years pass I will most likely have the skill to accomplish higher level programming of multimedia and audio applications. I also like 3D modeling, Pixel art, Animation, and Game making, but I am hooked on midi applications and virtual instruments and spend a fair amount of time on that. Ultimately my goal is hardware instruments/embedded systems and midi controllers. Baby steps..
That aside nice find plugin consultant it is a bit dated but still works with vst 2.4 and is a great suggestion!!! Looks like it is from the same maker of Savihost and vsthost. I will of course add it to the line up of tests. It is not that hard to run all three of these testers I would say it take about 15 minutes or so. Then about another 15min to load and try in the different host programs. I am getting super excited because I finally finished my first plugin AKA the BUFFER HOG lol!! yippy! Just have to make presets and a manual now..

This is not exactly related to vst testing but I have also discovered a few apple AU testing/validating procedures. The link here https://developer.apple.com describes how to validate and test the AUi or AUfx plugin through the terminal auval command and aulab test host application.
It is pretty easy you type in the terminal Example instrument validate: auval -v aumu qSCB wncT
For Instrument AUi
auval -v aumu 'Plugin ID' 'Manufacturer ID'
For FX AUfx
auval -v aufx 'Plugin ID' 'Manufacturer ID'
After this runs through you get a PASS on all tests with a couple warnings.. Overall AU validation successful so that is great. Reading further this procedure has to be completed for each iteration update etc that is released. Wow you have to do a lot more than Steinberg requires. There is also a license agreement for apple that must be snail mailed in.. I also think you have to have a developer ID? In order to distribute any apple software including AU plugins? I am not really sure here but there license agreement is insane 75 page document for apple developer agreement. It says read carefully the following document 75 pages.. Document this is enough for a book all legal jargon that probably means catch 22 for you!!! Also the fun doesn't stop 100 sorry 99 dollars a year for? oh yeah to be a developer Gork?
Ok that aside seems like SE is fine to PASS AU inspection.

Ok so it seems to be a grey area but Apple says it's fine to develop applications without developer account, but you can't get on app store or be installed on iOS like tablet or phone. Xcode can also be used without it but it is limited. I would say that signing the audio unit agreement and following the validation procedure should be enough. For full xcode support/usage developer account is required. I guess it is actually cheaper that visual studio 499 a year but for individual developers the community edition is free to use!!

So far I have been able to use these tools to track down and solve 2 of my issues. The scan tools are nice and can point to some area's that need fixing, to be 100% compliant. This is helpful sure and the plugin consultant shows more of a real time testing were I can see as I use it what is actually being processed while playing.
Along with these tools the optional host apps can also help surface problems. Hosts that are really good tend to have better compatibility and less problems possibly masking a plugin problem. The free or open source daw host that don't can bring problems right to the surface even crash. This is good in a way.., because then you can find the problem and fix it. Hope this helps.

I noticed zebralette also crashes in the same way my plugin would. There is also some major bugs/features with new Mac OS and anything AU VST? not validated does not work!!!! Wow windows might be bringing back some DAW users this is crazy man.
I like both but for the money I think windows machines are pulling ahead, seeing this CPU battle unfold between intel and amd is making Windows/Linux power pc's even cheaper. I can almost bet that the Microsoft app store w/window10etc will be locking down like ios and mac Apple app store. For instance anything made outside of these market places just won't install. This is where both developer and customer get to suffer and pay..
Might have to start using Linux Steinberg is already https://cdm.link/2017/03/steinberg-brings-vst-linux-good-things/
I don't really like how Apple and Microsoft are both pushing there phone OS on desktop. When the day comes where you can't install a program on an OS that didn't come from there market place that's it and I think that day is coming very soon https://cdm.link/2019/09/macos-catalina-will-be-incompatible-with-much-of-your-music-software-heres-what-to-know/