Ableton Forum

Hey guys, I thought I would bring this up because I'm sure that nobody has mentioned it before.

If you want to follow along (Win only), download Solo & Tolcbocs from:

http://www.sknote.it/download.htm

1. After installing both in your VST folder of choice group Solo by itself and save it as an instrument rack.

2. Do the same for Tolcbocs as an effect rack.

3. Reload solo from the Instrument Rack preset. Notice that everything loads fine.

4. Delete all other plug-in instances, and try to reload the Tolcbocs effect rack preset. Notice how instead of Tolcbocs, Solo is put in the effect rack instead.

Interesting bug that seems to only happen to VSTs that I think have the same ID.

Now, I bet you're wondering "well that's all well and good... but why doesn't he just load them from the plug-in folder..."

To be honest, I really hate using the VST folder in live. There is no way to easily organize plug-ins from inside Live into types such as filters, virtual analog synths, samplers, etc. It goes purely by the file structure inside your vstplugins folder which for some plugs isn't that flexible.

As a solution I decided to use Live's effects and instrument racks as a way to create presets for all of the instruments/effects that I have and organize them in simple easy to find categories.

However, in doing so I came across this problem that turns out to be a real bugger for various off-brand pluggo effects that all have the same VST ID.

No, I don't want Granny-1, I want zPS Panda!

The same problem occurs in the search panel in the plug-ins folder. If you search for Tolcbocs, you get Solo popping up instead. Rather irritating.

ATA

Hi,

I understand the problem, but I'm not sure we can easlily do anything about plugins sharing the same ID. Have you tried contacting their respective developer?

Regards,
Amaury

I stumbled over a similar problem: when using racks, live seem to use the vst ID to load plugins. This behaviour is not consistent, since live loads all plugins correctly when opening song files...

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68945

To respond to you original issue: You can create sub-folders in your vst-plugins folder and move around your plugin dll's. I did exactly that to sort my plugins into categories, just make sure all files which are need by the plugin are also moved accordingly. I had no problem with any plugin I use, but your milage may vary with different plugins. Just make a copy of the whole vst folder in case somethings screws up and try it..

cheers