Moving all plugins to one folder?

[Robert Belas]

Hey,

    Over the years, I've accumulated a set of plugins from a variety of vendors that I use regularly. Some of these plugins came with installers, others I manually added, resulting in several plugin folders over two different drives. I'd like to consolidate my plugins to one folder, and know how to do this in Windows. But I wonder, is this having a single plugin folder a 'good practice' for Cakewalk? Moreover, what about those plugins that were installed via their own installer program: any chance that the installer did more than simply copy the plugin to that folder? Do plugin installers commonly add dlls or write to the registry information on directory or folder location?

    Of course, I don't seen any harm in keeping the plugins as they are in various locations on my system, but it would make things neater if they were all in one location.

     I appreciate your thoughts, comment and opinions regarding storing plugins in one directory, and thank you for your time.

[StudioNSFW]

I recall reading about an issue where plugins with the string "VST3" in their name may not get scanned correctly if not in a separate folder.  So a VST2 plugin with VST32 in their name (to denote 32 bit) would not work properly. But I may have read about that in a bug fix document...

[scook]

VST3 plug-ins should always be installed in the paths recommended by the VST spec

• C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3

VST2 plug-ins cannot go in those folders.

Aside from that it does not matter where VST2 plug-ins are located as long as they are in the scan path.

 

There was a problem with the first CbB VST scanner enforcing the VST2 exclusion but the current scanner does not have a problem scanning VST2 plug-ins in folders starting with VST3 except for the two paths mentioned above.

 

There is no standard location for VST2 plug-ins. There are a couple of conventions used to set VST2 install paths. A registry entry is used by a few installers HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VST but most either write their own entry to use as a default for updates or code it into the installer.

 

If a plug-in comes with an installer, the safest way to move it is to uninstall and re-install to the new location.

That said, most VST2 plug-ins can be moved using Windows but some may fail due to config file or registry entries made based on the install path.

Moving folders using directory junctions may be used consolidate the files into one physical location without having to re-install or worry about the potential impact to config files or the registry.

 

 

[Robert Belas]

Thanks. I did not know about the requirement for separate vst3 and vst2 folders. With that now known, I think I'll keep everything where it is, as it isn't causing any problems.