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(RESOLVED) Plug-in Manager painfully slow since 2018.11 update


Ben Chase

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Anyone else seeing this? I did purchase a number of new plugins around Black Friday, but it now takes 2+ minutes to load/change plug-in categories, which seems disproportionate to the amount by which my plug-in collection grew.

Edited by Ben Chase
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The plug-in manager like the VST scanner is a separate program from the DAW. It is shared by all versions of SONAR and CbB installed. It may be instructive to know which OS is running. If a virus scanner running and if turning off the virus scanner makes a difference.

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I think some of it may depend on the plug-in if the PIM has to check verification, like whether a dongle is connected. I've also noticed that suites with both stereo and mono plug-ins double the number of plug-ins PIM has to parse, even if you never use one of the flavors. It's worth taking the time to exclude plug-ins that aren't relevant, especially if during the plug-in scan, CbB takes a long time "finding" a particular plug-in.

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I don't think the plug-in manager reads anything other than the registry and layout files. VST plug-in validation and gathering data about them is the domain of the VST scanner. The exclude list is handy for reducing the number of plug-ins the DAW uses to build the dynamic "Sort by" layouts.

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6 minutes ago, scook said:

I don't think the plug-in manager reads anything other than the registry and layout files. Plug-in validation is the domain of the VST scanner. The exclude list are handy to reduce the number of plug-ins the DAW uses to build the dynamic "Sort by" layouts.

For me it takes around 4 seconds to display 324 VST 2 effects, but clicking on VST3 instruments takes 8 seconds for only 7 VSTi's.

Clicking on the DirectX effects comes back almost instantly.

To my mind it must be doing more than that behind the scenes. 

Then again, it might just be inefficient code. For example, you can see the scroll bar handle shrink as the VST2 effects populate, almost as if it's responding to WM_PAINT messages as each list item is added (rather than refreshing the GUI after the list has been populated).

This wouldn't explain the 8 seconds for 7 VST3 instruments tho.

For me it's not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying when it repopulates everything every time you alter the plugin options.

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Thanks for the responses. "Glad" to know I'm not alone.

Regarding Craig's feedback, I use Waves and UAD plugins, both of which come with multiple instances of most, if not all, of their plugins. I also use a number of plugins that require an iLok. That said, those things were true prior to a month and a half ago when I started experiencing the extreme slowness, so, although I don't doubt that they contribute to slowing things down, it seems unlikely to me that they're the entirety of the explanation.

Also, I don't know that the 2018.11 update was the culprit. The fact that not everyone is experiencing it seems to suggest that there are other variables. I wish these things were easier to pinpoint.

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On 1/6/2019 at 5:33 AM, msmcleod said:

Then again, it might just be inefficient code. For example, you can see the scroll bar handle shrink as the VST2 effects populate, almost as if it's responding to WM_PAINT messages as each list item is added (rather than refreshing the GUI after the list has been populated).

I, too, wish there were some CWnd::SetRedraw(FALSE) calls for filling up those listboxes.   ?  

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Plugin Manager is not really being maintained these days and it hasn't been updated in a very long time.  We plan to ultimately depreciate it from Cakewalk. Its only provided for legacy reasons.

The only reason you need to ever use it today is for creating plugin layouts. Everything else and more can be done much more efficiently directly within the Cakewalk plugin browser tab, including scanning from preferences.

What is the reason you still use plugin manager?

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1 minute ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Plugin Manager is not really being maintained these days and it hasn't been updated in a very long time. The only reason you need to ever use it is for creating plugin layouts. Everything else can be done from within the Cakewalk application, including scanning from preferences.

What is the reason you still use plugin manager?

I used to use it to switch 32 bit plugins to use JBridge instead of bit-bridge, and exclude certain problem plugins.

Nowadays I find it quicker to edit the registry directly.

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Some software install, idk how to call it, filters maybe, probably in dx plugin form. They can show up in Cakewalk and can easily crash it. I use plugin manager to exclude them. I prefer to use plugin manager for that over poking in the registry manually.

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Just now, Ben Chase said:

Hi, Noel. Thanks for the response. I use custom layouts to be able to name and organize plugins the way I want them.

Sure thats fine but I assume thats that's something you do very occasionally right? Once you make a layout you don't need plugin manager anymore.

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4 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Plugin Manager is not really being maintained these days and it hasn't been updated in a very long time.  We plan to ultimately depreciate it from Cakewalk. Its only provided for legacy reasons.

The only reason you need to ever use it today is for creating plugin layouts. Everything else and more can be done much more efficiently directly within the Cakewalk plugin browser tab, including scanning from preferences.

What is the reason you still use plugin manager?

I am not a coder but Why not to get rid of most part of legacy code that it is not maintained? 

Edited by Alex H.
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