Ableton Forum

I decided to finally set up another user called "Audio" on my system so I could just log-out from my regular user and back in as "Audio" to reduce overhead and organize things. Kinda like "Extension Manager" in OS 9 used to do. So I had to re-register Live again and move my MIDI config stuff and VST plug-ins to the main Library/Audio/ directory. But then some of the plug-ins didn't show up in Live anymore. They worked OK in Spark and Peak (Except that Peak almost always crashes when turning off 3rd-party plug-ins - but that's another story)...

I figured it was a permissions problem so I ran Disk Utility to fix permissions (logged-in as root) but that didn't work. I tried changing the owner/permissions from the Get Info window for that directory. No dice. I ended up having to reinstall all my 3rd-party plug-ins. I also found that if you can't get the plug-ins to show up when they are in the directory:
Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/

You can try installing them first in:
Users/~yourname/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/

Then direct Live to look there. If it sees them, then drag the plug-ins to the main VST Plug-ins folder and update Live to look there. The problem with all of this is that now when I log in as my normal user I can't get Live to recognize any of the plug-ins I reinstalled. Why is Live so picky about the permissions for VST plug-ins?

Hallo utm,

Live is not at all picky about the permissions, but Mac OS X is. Mac OS X is a multi user operating system and if you don't take care about the right permissions, you get trouble.

You should install only there plugins in /Users/"Audio"/Libraray/Audio/Plug-Ins that the "Audio" user want to use. The access to the Users home directory is limited and other users normaly can't access these plugins.

Plugins for all Users should be installed in /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/Vst. But you have to make sure that these Plugins all have the right permissions! There are several pitfalls you have to avoid. Live can't help you with that, because it is part of the OS.

frank

Thank you for your reply. I have done exactly as you suggested and my plug-ins are installed in the main VST directory for all users:
/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/Vst

The strange behavior is that Live does not "see" all of the plug-ins in that directory though all my other audio apps that support VST plug-ins do (Spark, Peak). For good measure, I did set the permissions to complete read & write access for all for the main VST directory and enclosed files. But I don't think that made any difference.

Anyway it's not a big deal. I only thought Live seemed "picky" because the other programs had no problem with the relocated VST plug-ins.

I am sure the problem doesn't have to do with permissions. But Live doesn't accept all Plugins. Synths and Plugins without or more than mono/stereo inputs/outputs (in all combinations) are not supported for now.

frank

The funny thing is that all the plug-ins used to work fine when I had everything in my old user library. The problems happened when I moved them to the main library, loged-in as "Audio" and told Live to look in the main directory for the VST plug-ins. At first none worked. When I re-installed them loged-in as Audio, they became available again.

I know there are many incompatible plug-ins but these do work. I've used them before. They just ceased to work after I shuffled things around when I created this new log-in. OS X can be so... odd

Oh, i understand. That is indead strange.

So let me verify:

a) there are several plugins, that are not recognized by Live in the /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST folder, but the same plugins _are_ recognized when they are in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST? Does Live recognize any of these plugins or just refuses to recognize even one?

b) And using the Plugins don't work with Live from Peak and Spark with the same user and in the same location works?

c) Do you mind to do the following?
open the Terminal and type:
ls -alR /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST > ~/Desktop/PluginReport.txt
then a PluginReport.txt file should be created at your Desktop. Please do this from the Audio user and if that fails, try the Admin user. Note that the second letter after the "-a" is a lower case L.
This creates a list of all files in your VST folder with the according permission. Can you please send this file to me via email? Then i look into it.

frank

I've been watching this forum wondering if someone would bring to light why version 2.x and above hates almost every plugin other than it's own at random times, and with random plugins.

I've followed evey bit of advice, and finally, only because I have a project that I really want to get finished, I completely reinstalled my system, applied the updates, installed my audio apps/plugins, and then Live. First launch, such and such plugin failed to load, such and such plugin failed to load, then crash goes the program.

But version 1.5.2 is humming right along chewing 'em up like nobody's business, as well as Peak and Cubase SX.

I really wanted to shell out the $$ and get the benefits of the upgrade (I've been playing with the demo of 2 & tried out a friends thinking maybe the demo was bad) but this is rediculous.

I've never heard of a company (other than microsoft) putting out such a piece of shit and calling it a program.

Live has so much potential, but unless you guys get it together and fix this release now, and hold future releases until they are really ready, there's gonna be alot more like me breaking out the Cubase manual to figure that mother out. And EVERY plugin works, without bringing down that program.

I assume you're using OS X. The problem I described was apparently a permissions problem. I don't know whether you have a multi-user setup - if so, that could be the problem. The other thing is 98% of VST plug-ins are incompatible with Live under OS X because they need to be Carbonized. (Maybe not 98% - I don't know what the figures are.) You are using OS X compatible versions right? (Not Mach-0, Live doesn't support that yet.) Remove all the plug-ins for now. Try downloading a certified OS X compatible plug-in and see if that works (MDA or Destoy FX). If it does, then add new plug-ins one-at-a-time. If you have instability, it's probably one of the effects and you should be able to figure out which one.

I don't have any fancy set-up but I can get Live to work reliably under OS X with loads of VST plug-ins. I would hardly call it the names you have.

Why did you reinstall the system if you thought the application was the problem? Did Live actually give you a message that certain VST plug-ins failed to load or were they just not there?

BTW: Your copy of Peak doesn't suddenly crash every time you turn-off a VST effect?

Hello Utm,

I tested a bit and it seems that if you change your VST path it may be necessary in some cases to trash the Live "Preferences.cfg" file from
here: ~user/library/preferences/Ableton/Live 2.03
Then, after restarting Live and selecting the new path from the Preferences menue the Plug-ins should show up in the browser as usual.

Best,
Ch.Kleine