presets VST3 Presets - .vstpreset support

[André Jacobs]

Would like to request better support for .vstpreset VST3 Presets. Having to manually add them everytime I add a plugin is very time consuming

Workaround could be to have a utility to read the .vstpreset file and then add the preset to the registry as is currently the case.

Thanks for this great software and for making it better with every new update

[Starship Krupa]

As a big user of Plugin Alliance plug-ins, I heartily endorse this request. It is a chore to have to open them from the VST menu then name and save them in Cakewalk's preset manager.

[scook]

On 5/17/2022 at 7:52 PM, Starship Krupa said:

As a big user of Plugin Alliance plug-ins, I heartily endorse this request. It is a chore to have to open them from the VST menu then name and save them in Cakewalk's preset manager.

There are not many manufacturers shipping plug-ins without a preset manager.

It appears that plug-ins originally written for UAD and later released as native plug-ins lack a preset manager. I believe this is because UAD has a built-in preset manager that these plug-ins rely upon, and the developers do not bother to add a preset manager to their native plug-ins.

This used to be the case with Softube and still is the case with most Plugin Alliance.

Plugin Alliance have preset managers for their synths presumably because they are not available as UAD plug-ins. Some developers who sell products through Plugin Alliance have integrated preset managers. I believe those developers do not make UAD plug-ins.

Bettermaker VST3 is an interesting case as it seems to display its presets in the CbB plug-in manager automatically just like VST2. They show up in a section between the MRU and User added presets. The path to the presets is stored in the VST inventory. This seems to be unique to this plug-in. There must be something in the VST3 spec that Bettermaker uses to tell CbB about its presets. I do not write plug-ins and don't know much about the spec but there is definitely something different about this plug-in.

Update: Bettermaker is not the only one. DearVR Pro and several of the Lindell VST3 plug-ins also automatically load in the CbB preset manager.

Last night I played around with a way to automate getting PA VST3 FX plug-in presets into CbB. I came up with an autohotkey script. It's not very pretty and it is not something I would normally share. The script requires some familiarity with autohotkey to adjust xy coordinates based on monitor resolution and font scaling. I run 1920x1080 at 100%. It may also need some tweaking of the wait states. And, if anything goes wrong while adding presets, the fix is a manual process either by removing the presets from the preset manager or blowing the out with regedit. IOW, once the first preset is written, there is no error handling.

That said, the final script has worked on about 75 different PA plug-ins without error.

[Starship Krupa]

6 hours ago, scook said:

Some developers who sell products through Plugin Alliance have integrated preset managers. I believe those developers do not make UAD plug-ins.

That would be Unfiltered Audio, for one.

As you point out, most plug-in manufacturers do have their own preset management systems. As you also say, you have "about 75 PA plug-ins," which is a thing that is shared with most plug-in deal watchers: their discount deals have been so generous (and the plug-ins of such quality) that we have many of them. If I only had a handful, it would be no big deal. Toss up a Disney+ movie on monitor 2 and punch them in.

Another issue with it, and I'm always mindful of the new user, is that like me, people might never even realize that these excellent plug-is come with presets. And of course, new users need presets more than anyone else does.

If you would like a "beta tester" for your script, I'm not afraid to get cozy with regedit. And I run at 1920x1080 100%.