Is an audio effect a VST? SOLVED

[J_R]

Please correct me if I understand the following wrong.

Each Audio Effect is a .adv entity.
A .adv (“dotadv”) entity is not a VST. It is not a VST2 or VST3 entity.

When I posted “Where are the plugins?”, which received no replies, I mentioned I could not find in my Ableton browser: Tube Screamer, Autowah, Pedal Comp(ressor), Pedal Phaser, Pedal Chorus, or Analog Delay. I have no idea if any other Audio Effects are also missing (because there is no way of finding out which Audio Effects one should have if one installed the Live10 Suite or the Live11 Suite. I assumed each of these would be a .adv file which would appear when Audio Effects was clicked.

If you've installed Live10 or Live11, do you have these audio effects?
Were they included in the audio effects with your version or did you have to buy them separately?

I also assumed that when one installed a version of Live, that with that installation came a (fairly large) number of entities which appear in the Browser Content Pane (e.g., .adv files) whenever a Category in the Browser Sidebar is activated (clicked).

When I sent the same post to Ableton tech support, their reply directed me to the Knowledge Base Article: VST/AU plug-in doesn't appear in Live's Browser and Using VST plug-ins on Windows

Finally it ended by suggesting I do all the following:
1. Make sure you've installed the plug-in to the correct location
2. Turn the plug-in folder off and on again
3. Make sure you've installed the correct bit-depth (32-bit or 64-bit)
4. Make sure the plug-in is supported on your Operating System
5. Make sure the plug-in is supported by Live
6. Update Live
7. Update the plug-in
8. Make sure you have installed your Waves plugins correctly
9. Install the VST files directly to the destination folder (Windows only)
10. Don't move the standalone versions after installing (Windows only)
11. Use Admin rights (Windows only)

An amazing amount of work to do when you don’t even know where the plug-in is.

I’m very appreciative Ableton tech support went through all this effort but it now makes me wonder:

a. Are the “plug-ins” I think are missing, not plug-ins at all but actually VSTs?
b. Instead of assuming that what came up, correctly installed, when I opened Live, maybe it should not have happened and that I neglected to install dozens of VSTs?

If that’s the case, how do I delete everything in the Browser; find all the VST’s promised with Live11; confirm that I have them all; and go about installing them?

Hardware Configuration:
* DAW: Ableton Live 11.1 Suite
* Audio Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
......- Microphone connected to Scarlett (XLR)
......- Guitar connected to Scarlett (1/4” phono)
* Output to stereo amplifier (to speakers)
* System: Windows 10 (3 monitors)
* MIDI Controllers:
......- AKAI Professional APC mini (to control tracks and clips)

[Rivanni]

VST and AU plugins are always shown in the Plugin section of Live's browser, no matter what type of plugin it is.
The categories Audio Effects, Midi Effects and Instruments only contain Ableton's own devices (which are not VSTs/plugins) . So you won't see for example audio effect VST plugins in here.

I'm not sure what you mean by VSTs promised with Live because Live does not ship with any VST.

I recommended you read the section about Plugins in the Live manual.

[J_R]

Thank you!
So my suspicions, and readings in the Live Manual, are confirmed. VST has nothing to do with

The categories Audio Effects, Midi Effects and Instruments

and these categories

only contain Ableton's own devices

And so it makes no sense that in response to the tech support question (posted in the forum as "Where are the plugins?" that I should be told to go into all sorts of VST-related machinations.

What still remains to be discovered is:
1) Are the Audio Effects (I believe) Tube Screamer, Autowah, Pedal Comp(ressor), Pedal Phaser, Pedal Chorus, or Analog Delay, effects that are supplied with either Live 10 or Live 11? (This should be a no brainer, if someone with either Live 10 Suite or Live 11 would check their browser and report back.)

2) If they are supposed to be included with Live10 and/or Live11 how do I get them?

3) How can I access a full list of Effects and Instruments provided by Ableton with my (Live 10 Suite and) Live 11 suite so that I know if I am missing any other effects?

Has no one else wondered this?

[cids]

Hi, so the effects you're mentioning are not part of Ableton Live (any version), so my question is - why do you think they should be there as they are very specific by name?

"1) Are the Audio Effects (I believe) Tube Screamer, Autowah, Pedal Comp(ressor), Pedal Phaser, Pedal Chorus, or Analog Delay, effects that are supplied with either Live 10 or Live 11? (This should be a no brainer, if someone with either Live 10 Suite or Live 11 would check their browser and report back.)"

And for your second question, please have a look at the manual:

https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/live- ... reference/

[Mark Williams]

https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/

[yur2die4]

I think the audio effects he is mentioning are probably presets of native audio effects and/or effects racks. But I am not at my computer to confirm.

Also, those presets might be from a specific version of Live or maybe even a pack.

I’d suggest doing a Search of the audio effects which would narrow down the devices in the browser. Then expand each device to see if those fx presets are in them.

[cids]

Can't find any presets with these names

[Terrorbeat]

That's probably because he just RENAMED the plugins he was using.

[yur2die4]

Are you searching both Live 10 and Live 11?

[cids]

No only L11

[J_R]

Thank you all!

(From my previous topic Where are the plugins?)

How to Get a Good Guitar Tone with Ableton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcpW7Ftcn7k, is a well structured and clearly explained video exploring Ableton guitar effects and describing how they affect the sound of the electric guitar when placed into racks, manipulated, and/or re-ordered. The video claims to use only effects, racks, etc. available within an Ableton 10 or 11 Suite.

Later in the only reply to that topic, I suggested that the person might have renamed one of the audio effects. I just never imagined he would have renamed them all. Can anyone imagine why someone would rename so many devices, especially after saying they were in the included effects that came with Live10 and Live11. Is this something one might do just to save a particular setting?

I looked in the manual (I always do.) but again, I just looked up (all) the names and not getting any hits made the assumption something was amiss. (I did not know there was a place in the manual covering all the Ableton inclusions.)

Can one inadvertently delete an Ableton supplied Audio effect and if so, how does one get it back?

I will now search through all the Ableton provided effects (pics in the Manual) and report back my findings.
Thanks again!

[cids]

So, one of the first things mentioned is that all of the racks (group of Ableton effects) are available to download if you check the comments under the YouTube video… so there you are!

[Rivanni]

The video claims to use only effects, racks, etc. available within an Ableton 10 or 11 Suite.

When something like this is said, it means that no third-party plugins or Max for Live devices were used, only devices included in Live (so-called native devices).
But such a claim is not to say that the person did not create their own presets and racks using the native Live devices.

[cids]

Correct

[J_R]

In order to look into this problem (and before posting on this forum) I ordered the racks mentioned.

From inspecting Chapter 23, Live Audio Effect Reference from the manual, I realize that the renamings are simply effects (often, but not always, renamed versions of a similarly named effect (i.e., Pedal Phaser is from A’s Phaser yet, Analog Delay is from A’s Echo).

To wit:
1. The Tube Screamer is actually the Ableton Pedal 24.30
2. The Autowah and Envelope Follower are actually the Ableton Auto Filter 24.2
3. The Pedal Comp(ressor) is actually the Ableton Auto Filter 24.2
4. The Pedal Phaser is actually the Ableton Phaser 24.31 (The original Ableton Phaser [“no longer part of the Core Library”] has apparently been superseded by Live11’s Phaser-Flanger)
5. The Pedal Chorus is actually the Ableton Chorus 24.7 (The original Ableton Chorus [“no longer part of the Core Library”] has apparently been superseded by Live11’s Chorus-Ensemble)
6. The Analog Delay seems to actually be the Ableton Echo 24.14