Plugin-Manager

[jlgrimes]

What do u think about this?

I'm sort of undecided on the idea of plug-ins having jpegs.

On one hand it makes stuff look prettier. On the other hand if you have a very large list of plug-ins, it can make it even harder to view everything on one screen, that said I'm all for them building/expanding on the Collections concept. It is a very efficient way of organizing files you use often.

I would think some good thought would need to happen here. I use Studio One and FL Studio, both have plugin managers but I actually like Ableton's "no management approach". It is much quicker for me IMO. But it could just be "user-error" on my part in the other DAWs.

FL Studio's browser is overly complex and confusing, In Ableton I instantly see my plugins and not some New and/or Installed, generator, or effect names that confuse the hell out of me (and putting effects in two places and none of the plug-in menus populate by default).

Studio One is a bit better though and fairly similar to Ableton but even it can be annoying searching for a plugin as if you spell the name wrong (Example Pro C2 doesn't find anything, but you Pro C-2 does, go figure).

I would like being able to associate a key word with a Plugin and/or Collection. That could really speed up finding things.


One thing I forgot about is a free program you can install with Live, (Live Enhancement Suite). I believe it has a sort of "Crude" Plugin manager that allows you to have plugins oncall with a simple key command.

[Straticah]

I think you already posted the same thing in two other threads.

thats exactly what i did!

[Straticah]

What do u think about this?

I'm sort of undecided on the idea of plug-ins having jpegs.

On one hand it makes stuff look prettier. On the other hand if you have a very large list of plug-ins, it can make it even harder to view everything on one screen, that said I'm all for them building/expanding on the Collections concept. It is a very efficient way of organizing files you use often.

I would think some good thought would need to happen here. I use Studio One and FL Studio, both have plugin managers but I actually like Ableton's "no management approach". It is much quicker for me IMO. But it could just be "user-error" on my part in the other DAWs.

FL Studio's browser is overly complex and confusing, In Ableton I instantly see my plugins and not some New and/or Installed, generator, or effect names that confuse the hell out of me (and putting effects in two places and none of the plug-in menus populate by default).

Studio One is a bit better though and fairly similar to Ableton but even it can be annoying searching for a plugin as if you spell the name wrong (Example Pro C2 doesn't find anything, but you Pro C-2 does, go figure).

I would like being able to associate a key word with a Plugin and/or Collection. That could really speed up finding things.


One thing I forgot about is a free program you can install with Live, (Live Enhancement Suite). I believe it has a sort of "Crude" Plugin manager that allows you to have plugins oncall with a simple key command.

I also agree with u there in some parts, thats why i think you should have both options. I like Software where u dont have to use your keyboard. I prefer when everything is all accessible and visual structured with an extremely fast workflow. Ableton feels like a console to me where u type in things and things happen. I never liked this approach from a UI design perspective since its not a script based daw.

Alo software that i use on daily bases are blender3d, photoshop, Reason Studio and adobe xD

[Machinesworking]

More than a plug in manager like you all mention, I would love a plug in manager that allowed me to select which plug ins to use in Live. DP11 gets this mostly right with their method, on PC we deal with VST2 and 3, on Mac we add in AU. This means unless you intentionally do not instal all three versions, (you're somehow that rare bird where there are no VST3 only plug ins you want, no VST2 plug ins or AU only you want), you get two or three versions of a plug in in the browser. In DP I deselect the plugin formats per plug in I'm not using, and in the rare case that a plug in format is buggy, (with VST3 this can be pretty often), I can select another format.

Specific use cases, Reason Rack is offered only as AU and VST3, the VST3 version is far more capable, so not loading at all the AU version makes sense. There are a few AU only plug ins out there though, and Rosetta isn't going to work with VST in general, so just loading VST3 would be a bad mistake on M1 Macs etc.

[MallorcaMalle]

I.m.o. 3rd party audio effects should go to "Audio Effects" and 3rd party Instruments should go to "Instruments" tab. The Tab "Plug-Ins" is not needed. You can check which individual plugin you like to show up, so VST2 can be hidden if you have also the VST3 version installed. And you can refer them to the respective class in "Audio Effects" like "Reverb", "Delay", etc. which are already there since V11. Also the Colors then can be used for other things to be organized.

[Straticah]

I.m.o. 3rd party audio effects should go to "Audio Effects" and 3rd party Instruments should go to "Instruments" tab. The Tab "Plug-Ins" is not needed. You can check which individual plugin you like to show up, so VST2 can be hidden if you have also the VST3 version installed. And you can refer them to the respective class in "Audio Effects" like "Reverb", "Delay", etc. which are already there since V11. Also the Colors then can be used for other things to be organized.

THIS!!

[jonljacobi]

Yeah, I think the distinction between Live and 3rd party plug-ins isn't necessary or particularly intuitive. That said, I color code the whole deal and limit the number of plugins I use so it's not a major hinderance. So +1 to MallorcaMalle's suggestion.

[DerKastellan]

Please, please give us a way to do our own organization.

VST2 doesn't sort like VST3 and Live's stock effects and instruments are yet another way.

You can even make it a separate folder and keep the old scheme - just allow us to drag stuff over and keep it organized like we want.

[Erdbenutzer]

Its honestly one of the most distracting things being there... Like oh my god. Having to sort through all of the things in so many different ways that hurt.

Which certainly makes it very hard to manage a big collection of M4L Devices and Vsts... or god forbid, use them in a very easy und unified way.
I mean its one of the big selling points of Suite, atleast for me it was. So why not have it neatly integrated.

I would be so damn useful to be able to categorize all of the vsts and M4L devices into categories where I could have all the Delays / Distortions / Multi Fx / Glitchers etc. and just choose from them... Not even talking about anything doing that inside ableton automatically, just having the possibility to do so on my own, in a intuitive and visually pleasing way, to sort through all of my things and being able to access them from one neatly configured browsing situation. I think my mind would shatter of happiness in the first moment.

Sure it would take some time to sort, configure and setting up, with a huge collection, but it would actually be neat then.
And for every new plugin, joining the ring, it would be just a few clicks, and everything comes together neatly.
I mean, this would be such a blessing, I can't really bring myself to actually believe it happen someday cause it would depress me the whole time up to it, of not having it.
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I mean to bring all companies and all M4l people up to the point that they somehow would integrate a tag marker into the software which ableton live would be able to read out and sort everything installed or put into a dedicated folder (hence m4l) automatically and categorize everything... well talking about dreaming big and well to be honest things that wont ever happen. So that can't ever be the road to go.

But making it sortable on the side of ableton via a self built categorizing system, that just links to the places where the stuff is laying and being able to make self built categories in a folder structure which has vsts & m4l combined, holy moly. Then on top the possibility to see what actually hides behind the name, like a small visual gesture to identify (possible to turn of and on in the settings).

To break it up even further -> right clicking on the audio / midi effects window, giving access to this very categories, would just be awfully helpful.
Just being able to browse through all Eqs/Distortions/You name it from a single click and putting it there... oh my god. And not endless folder browsing and remembering every little bit of a plugins name to be a actually able to open it, hence it wont show up with a single mistyped letter.

I can't stress enough, how absolutely gorgeous that would be, and I figure, I might not be the only person thinking like this...