Where do I Install? SOLVED!!!

[Bobby Thistle]

Happy Saturday all!!!

I have quickly outgrown the plugins/vst's that are included in Cakewalk by BandLab and so I pulled the trigger on SampleTank Custom Shop.  After doing a lot of research I decided that this will suit my needs - and then some.  Kontakt was totally out of the question because of cost.  I also don't need the kazillion sounds that it has in order to do what I'm gonna do musically.

Being a total newb at working with vst's and plugins, I want to make sure that I don't make a mess when I install it.  This is my question... where do I install it?  Do I need to put it somewhere in Cakewalk?  Or do I just install it as another program in C/ program files/SampleTank?  If so, how do I access it from within Cakewalk once it is installed?

So sorry for this maybe being a dopey question but as stated, this is a first for me and I want to get the installation right the first time.

All help is much appreciated!!!

Edited March 27, 2019 by Oscar Myer

[siordanescu]

Normally, in....  C/Program Files/Cakewalk/VST Plugins...

Edited March 23, 2019 by siordanescu

[Shayne White]

VST2 and VST3 plugins install differently. VST2 installers let you choose where to place your plugins; I simply have all my mine in C:\VST. You have to manually tell Cakewalk where to look for VST2 plugins you install via the Plugin Manager. VST3, on the other hand, is automatic -- all VST3 plugins will install into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 no matter what. Again I'd recommend going into the Plugin Manager (it's in the Utilities Menu I think?) to make sure Cakewalk is searching in that folder.

[siordanescu]

VST3 is installed by default in: C/Program Files/Common Files/VST3.

[HIBI]

I think you can install the huge sound files to anywhere you like that drive should have enough free capacity.

[Bill Phillips]

I have a separate Resources drive and use separate 64-bit & 32-bit 3rd-Party VST folders. Example "3rd-Party VST/64-bit/Sample Tank" for the Sample Tank VSTs. 

[Bobby Thistle]

I phoned Sweetwater, where I bought ST4, and the tech showed me how to get them installed.  I'm glad that I did call because there were a few system options that had to be changed.  I would never have found them on my own.  He then did a couple of installs while I watched him doing it and then had me do a few while he watched, just to make sure I had the gist of it.  He even opened up Cakewalk to make sure that everything was showing up properly.  (they did/do)

I am really throwing flowers to Zach and Tyler over at Sweetwater... without them I would still not have my software up and running.

Thanks to everyone here who responded to my question.  Very much appreciated!!!

[abacab]

Basically the SampleTank ".exe",  and related files, get installed in "C:\Program Files\IK Multimedia\SampleTank".

The VST2 and VST3 plugins should get placed in your default VST2 and VST3 plugin folders. These will need to be scanned by your DAW to pickup the plugins.

The instrument sample content can be placed anywhere, but a fast internal drive is recommended. SampleTank will look for this in the ST content folder path assigned for content at install time.

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by abacab

[Bobby Thistle]

Hi abacab... thanks for your reply.

Yes, as you say,  once I was shown how to install the samples they automatically put themselves in the SampleTank folder on "C:\Program Files\IK Multimedia\SampleTank". .  Easy stuff.  I'm going to have to have a better look within SampleTank itself because I'm thinking that I may not have found all of the instruments and samples.  I just haven't had a lot of time to mess around with it.

So far, as much as I can tell, the only problem I'm having is the way it will crash without warning at times.  I know this is being caused by SampleTank because once I have a sound in Cakewalk and I shut down SampleTank there hasn't been even one crash.  But there were a few crashes when I was running SampleTank as a stand alone.  I'm pretty sure that my computer is equipped to handle running ST4...

Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz

Installed RAM 16GB

I'm thinking that at some point down the line I'm going to get another faster internal HD and use it just for my music... Only SampleTank and Cakewalk, VSTs, etc. will be installed on it.

After reading and watching others who are using SampleTank 4, there have been a few who are experiencing this "crash" syndrome as well.  Oh well... we'll get it sorted.

 

 

[abacab]

SampleTank 4 has been a crash fest for many people, even with robust systems.  IK is working on patch v4.0.4 right now.

You can open a ticket with support from your IK user account.

Logged issues are listed at: SampleTank 4 Status

[Starship Krupa]

For those who know how to set Windows Environment Variables, a time-saving trick is to make one called VST_PATH that is set to your VST2 directory.

Most plug-in installers will look for this variable and plug it into the dialogs as the default instead of the "Program Files\Steinberg\Vstplugins\Whatever" that I would otherwise need to delete and type in the actual path of my VST2 folder.

If you're as much of a free plug-in 'ho as I am, and/or you ever need to rebuild your DAW system, it is a very nice thing to have in place. I install both the VST3 and VST2 versions of all plug-ins, if they have such, because I've found that some hosts play better with one or the other

I'm not going to post full instructions on how to set environment variables, because it's just south of regedit as far as being able to cause trouble if you don't know what you're doing and mess something up. If you know, you can do it, if you don't, it's a good excuse to learn how.