Multiple VST folders

[kapdad]

VST3s should always be installed in the pre-defined system folder.

This is totally made up.

[kapdad]

However ... I'm not clear (and cannot locate in the manual) the details of the three choices in Options => Preferences => Plug-Ins:

• VST2 Plug-In Custom Folder - will a VST3 on this path be recognized?

• VST3 Plug-In System Folders - What are the system folders locations, according to Live? Maybe just C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 ... or something else?? Also ... will a VST2 on this path be recognized?

• VST3 Plug-In Custom Folder - will a VST2 on this path be recognized?

It just bogles my mind sometimes why they have to make it so hard when it should be brain dead easy: "Add all the folders you want us to crawl for vsts". jfc

[Clint Goss]

... why they have to make it so hard ...

Not sure what the other DAWs were doing in the early 2000's (early Live development), but maybe nobody had thought of the simple "list of folders" system for locating VSTs.

The Live GUI feels like other GUIs of that era - such as Kontakt - which still retain the GUI style and quirks of their early days.

[MallorcaMalle]

VST3s should always be installed in the pre-defined system folder.

This is totally made up.

The VST3 format has a dedicated installation path all VST3 plug-ins MUST COMPLY with. All your VST3 plug-ins should be installed there:
For windows this is: C:>Programs>Common Files>VST3

All VST3 installers you buy will install the VST3s there by default.
DAWs will look there by default.

Source: https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-u ... on-Windows

[Clint Goss]

Well, I've got 489 VSTs and I need to specify 9 top-level search directories, which I do for Reaper, Cantabile, CbB, etc. They do seem to work, even though they're not installed in the approved place ...

> this is: C:>Programs>Common Files>VST3
-------------^^^^^^--- Should be /Program Files/?

Even for x32 VST3's, which tend to wind up in C:/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/VST3? (I have 9 such VSTs).

[102455]

The shortcuts thing is useful. Cheers for the tip.

[Clint Goss]

> The shortcuts thing is useful.

I am actually using Junctions, which are different from Shortcuts. Junctions happen at a lower (file system) level, where Shortcuts are a Windows thing and funky in a lot of ways.

I have had great success with Junctions to manage 1TB of "displaced" files (primarily because of the Dropbox restriction to have all cloud-based files in one folder) ... been doing this for about 4 years and never had an issue.