Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Eloheim
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:38 am

Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by Eloheim » Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:26 am

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to arrange and catagorize your 3rd party plugs directory other than by just moving the "physical" dll's around in your vst folder? Like a labeling system similar to "Album, Artist, Genre," in mp3's would be awsome.

You could label each vst either instrument or effect, the name of the creator company, and most importantly maybe, what its used for, like bass, guitar FX, reverb, etc. I know you can copy your dll's to a new folder and set live to use that, but that scares the hell out of me because of upgrading your plugs, having all the files synced, compatibility between projects/host seq programs, etc.

Instrument racks are great but I dont wanna have to load all my reverb plugins all the time obviously. Actually, can you browse the contents on instrument racks?? I'm just thinking of this now, because if you can, you could obviously create a rack with all your reverb plugs, then go into it (in the live brand plugins browser) and then just open it up like a folder and take out what you want! Then you could have as many different racks (groups) of plugs that you want without taking up any additional space, causing all those syncing problems, etc. I really hope you can, heh.

If this way doesn't work, maybe it would be possible to program, like "fake," dll's that are actually just SHORTCUTS to the real dll files? See what i mean? Then you could copy and paste the shortcuts into as many different folders/groups as you want (without increasing space, etc.) and live could browse them in the normal 3rd party plug folder, and of course when you loaded one it would automatically refer live to the actually dll file!


Peace

friend_kami
Posts: 2255
Joined: Mon May 29, 2006 10:10 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by friend_kami » Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:00 pm

Eloheim wrote:Can anyone tell me if it's possible to arrange and catagorize your 3rd party plugs directory other than by just moving the "physical" dll's around in your vst folder? Like a labeling system similar to "Album, Artist, Genre," in mp3's would be awsome.

You could label each vst either instrument or effect, the name of the creator company, and most importantly maybe, what its used for, like bass, guitar FX, reverb, etc. I know you can copy your dll's to a new folder and set live to use that, but that scares the hell out of me because of upgrading your plugs, having all the files synced, compatibility between projects/host seq programs, etc.

Instrument racks are great but I dont wanna have to load all my reverb plugins all the time obviously. Actually, can you browse the contents on instrument racks?? I'm just thinking of this now, because if you can, you could obviously create a rack with all your reverb plugs, then go into it (in the live brand plugins browser) and then just open it up like a folder and take out what you want! Then you could have as many different racks (groups) of plugs that you want without taking up any additional space, causing all those syncing problems, etc. I really hope you can, heh.

If this way doesn't work, maybe it would be possible to program, like "fake," dll's that are actually just SHORTCUTS to the real dll files? See what i mean? Then you could copy and paste the shortcuts into as many different folders/groups as you want (without increasing space, etc.) and live could browse them in the normal 3rd party plug folder, and of course when you loaded one it would automatically refer live to the actually dll file!


Peace
you can just make shortcuts to the folders/dll files and sort them that way, thats what i do and it works perfectly.

bieke
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by bieke » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:00 am

hey, I'm a total Ableton nOOb
:oops:
I've been recording everything with a crusty 4-track for decades and only recently got my first lappie and decided to buy Ableton Live Suite, I'm having a blast ... also, past couple of days I've been looking into 3rd party freebie plugins, installed some, decided to keep some, in fact quite some, all of them working fine
so I ended up with a cluttered VstPlugin folder and a looooong list in Live, wondering if I could reorganize this list without messing up the functionality. Then stumbled upon this thread, so my noobish question is :

can I just make a new folder, add subfolders and put shortcuts to the dll files or folders from my cluttered VstPlugin folder into the new folder and then go to Preferences and set this new folder with the shortcuts as the default VST folder ? easypeasy ?

thanks !

qbas
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 11:44 am

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by qbas » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:23 am

I would like to share my current approach to big vst folder with freebies and commercials. I have three folders inside vst folder : (like in Live) Instrument, MIDI and FX.
I put plugins into separate folders that has name like their websites.
Example: FM8 is in folder native-instruments.com in folder Instrument.
Of course FM8 comes with effect carnation also, but I leaved it in Instrument (at least for now) because I'm mostly using it as instrument, and always is possible to add shortcut into FX folder – but again less is better, I don’t need multiplication.

I try to have only these plugins that I feel that it is absolutely necessary to keep. It must be unique or amazing somehow. Less is better, only the best one pieces. I hope somebody will enjoy to read this.

bieke
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by bieke » Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:12 am

yeah, that makes sense, but I want to experimetn and try out a vast array of plug-ins and will eventually get rid of those that are of no interest to me. But for now, to even getting around to experimenting, I would like to rearrange these, make groups (subfolders), so that triggered my question.
I already made a handwritten matrix and sorted out all the categories and arranged the plugins on paper
now I want to check and make sure before I migrate this into Ableton.
I might just as well do a little test first and see if it works, but wanted to ask here first.

Any other workaround methods or alternatives to arranging VSTs ?

EpikureeR
Posts: 104
Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:58 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by EpikureeR » Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:29 am

just make a folder structure in ur vst-plugins folder

bieke
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by bieke » Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:47 am

EpikureeR wrote:just make a folder structure in ur vst-plugins folder
hmmm, I tried that yesterday with one plugin (Omaha synth plugin) and it didn't show up in Ableton
so I was reluctant to go ahead and follow that route
but would it work as well ? just adding subfolders in that cluttered VstPlugin folder and dragging all the dll files and/or VST plugin folders in place ?

Khazul
Posts: 3185
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:19 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by Khazul » Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:52 am

I think it can only cope with one folder level - very annoying for some plugins that want to install a folder hierachy (RP verb, RP-delay etc).
Nothing to see here - move along!

bieke
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by bieke » Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:45 pm

Khazul wrote:I think it can only cope with one folder level - very annoying for some plugins that want to install a folder hierachy (RP verb, RP-delay etc).
hmmm, strange. I'm using Void, a free synth VST plugin and it installed itself with an exe into that VstPlugin folder and it shows up in Ableton in a separate folder with a subfolder that holds the actual dll.
Now contemplating to experiment a little and find out what works ...
I copied the whole folder and put it away safely so I can still switch back in case I mess things up
I'm very good at that
:roll:

still welcoming every tip, hint or advice you experienced folks can give me
I'm really liking this whole DAW thing so far, it's a giant leap from my crusty 4-track to Ableton though
8O

Khazul
Posts: 3185
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:19 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by Khazul » Wed Jan 12, 2011 1:27 pm

OK specific example:

The default install for RP-Verb and RP-Delay is as follows:
...\VSTplugins\Rob Papen\RP-Delay\RP-Delay.dll
...\VSTplugins\Rob Papen\RP-Verb\RP-Verb.dll
(ie > 1 subfolder level)

This doesnt work with live - it cant see RP-Delay.dll and RP-Verb.dll

Change it to
...\VSTplugins\RP-Delay\RP-Delay.dll
...\VSTplugins\RP-Verb\RP-Verb.dll
(ie = 1 subfolder level)

This works.

Maybe its because there is a space in the folder name - who knows - either way - Im guessing its something else thats fine on other windows DAWs, but not in Live.
Nothing to see here - move along!

glitchrock-buddha
Posts: 4357
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:29 am
Location: The Ableton Live Forum

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:09 am

You could also save the plug-ins to their own rack and organize however you want in Live's library. I do that to keep them organized but also because I like to save my device parameter configuration (which parameters are visible to automation and what order they're in).
Professional Shark Jumper.

bieke
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by bieke » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:02 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:You could also save the plug-ins to their own rack and organize however you want in Live's library. I do that to keep them organized but also because I like to save my device parameter configuration (which parameters are visible to automation and what order they're in).

Interesting, although I don't fully understand what you mean by that
:roll:
I'm still learning
I did ran a test yesterday
created a new VST folder
added 2 levels of subfolders and copied a shortcut from the cluttered VST folder into the organized folder
then did a VST scan in Live with the new folder as default and it worked
I have been mainly installing synth and effect plugins so far and now moving onto recording and mastering plugins
and my plan is to place the synth plugins in subfolders such as :
Analog, virtual Analog, Mono/Poly, Modular, FM Synth, Bass Synth, Subtractive Synth, Organs, Strings, etc.

Bagatell
Posts: 620
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Sierra Nevada, Spain

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by Bagatell » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:15 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:You could also save the plug-ins to their own rack and organize however you want in Live's library. I do that to keep them organized but also because I like to save my device parameter configuration (which parameters are visible to automation and what order they're in).
I'm doing the same. I'm also trying to open Live with a set rather than a default template so that I'm not constantly building racks.

Simbosan
Posts: 301
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:35 am
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Contact:

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by Simbosan » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:39 am

I use up to 3 folders without any problem whatsoever. Not sure what your issue is

S
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bieke
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Aranging 3rd Party Plug-In Directory

Post by bieke » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:21 am

Simbosan wrote:I use up to 3 folders without any problem whatsoever. Not sure what your issue is

S
well, i just had a looooooooooooong list of plugins and been wanting to rearrange these, so I came here to ask for a good way to do this, spent a good part of the evening to sort things out with shortcuts and it works like a charm
thanks

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