I've been doing a lot of video work lately in Adobe's PremierePro CS6.  I like Cakewalk's VST audio effects so much better.  When I load Premiere, I notice the Cakewalk plugins loading on the splash screen and they do show up when I browse audio effects and load, but they constantly crash when I go to change settings.
Question: Are VST's supposed to be generic or made for specific applications?  Should I be able to use Boost11, Channel Tools, etc. in PremierePro?

Generally VST plug-ins are made to work with any VST host. There are exceptions. For example, third party plug-ins bundled with SONAR such as the Nomad plug-ins are locked to SONAR. The Cakewalk plug-ins Boost11 and Channel Tools should work in any VST host. I just loaded them into VSTHost and they worked OK.

I use Premiere Pro CS 5.5 with many different VST plugins and they seem to work fine. Cakewalk and other 3rd party plugins.

Yes I can confirm that Boost 11 and Channel tools both work in Reaper.
 
Tried loading Blue Tube Chorus (Nomad Plug) and Breeverb and was told that they will only work in Sonar.
 
So maybe Premiere is not telling you that they will only work in Sonar and just crashes. But if it's Booost 11 and Channel Tools, those should work.

mudgel
I use Premiere Pro CS 5.5 with many different VST plugins and they seem to work fine. Cakewalk and other 3rd party plugins.

That's what I was hoping for.  I'll contact Adobe and see if they have any input.   Thanks.

Could it be a 32-bit vs. 64-bit issue?

FYI - Premiere Pro does not play well with certain VSTs (particularly NI ones), and to bypass VSTs on load requires the creation of a "Blacklist.txt" file in the VST folder. If you Google information on this, you can find more specific ones to target, but the file must be named "Blacklist.txt", be present in the VST folder you are scanning with Premiere Pro, and list the names of the dll files (pathed from there) that you want to exclude. I have not had issues with CW plugins, but also have not used them all. (The Blacklist is for those that cause crash on VST scan inside Premiere Pro.)
 
My current Blacklist.txt contains:
Kontakt 5 8out.dll
Kontakt 5 16out.dll
Kontakt 5.dll
Reaktor5 FX.dll
Reaktor5 FX2x8.dll
Reaktor5 Surround.dll
Reaktor5.dll

I must admit though that I haven't tried using VSTi's in Premiere. I can't really see th need for using VST instruments in a video editor. I'll use an audio editor to create the audio track and then I only need to tweak the audio a little within the video.

I separate out my VST fx from instruments and only load the fx into Vegas 12 or Premiere CS5.5

Plugins sure are getting to be a management nightmare.
RTAS for PT 9 and younger
AAX 32 bit for PT 10
AAX 64 bit for PT11
VST 2 and 3 with 32 and 64 bit version
DX for Sonar and Sony software

All of these can exist on a single PC. Wow!