Third Party Vsti's

[Neville John Pearson]

What folder should I put third party plugins like Guitar Rig 6, so that Cakewalk will find them?  Thanks, Neville

[Patrick Wichrowski]

16 minutes ago, Neville John Pearson said:

What folder should I put third party plugins like Guitar Rig 6, so that Cakewalk will find them?  Thanks, Neville

 

Any folder that you tell Cakewalk to look

[scook]

4 hours ago, Neville John Pearson said:

What folder should I put third party plugins like Guitar Rig 6

It mostly does not matter but here are some things to consider.

 

The Cakewalk VST scanner will look for plug-in binaries under the paths supplied in Preferences > File > VST Settings

These paths and all the folders under them are scanned based on the frequency drop down in the Scan Options settings in preferences (the same link as above).

As much as possible scan path entries should contain only VST plug-in binaries. Non-VST plug-in binaries with a dll extension can cause problems for the VST scanner.

 

The VST3 specification discusses where to store VST3 binaries but the VST2 was silent on the subject which resulted in several "standards" and confusion on where to store plug-ins.

As a result, in the past most plug-in manufacturers strictly adhered to the VST3 recommendations, installing VST3 binaries in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. Recently the spec was changed to include %appdata%\programs\common\vst3. I have not seen a plug-in install in this folder yet, but I have not been buying a lot of stuff recently.

Here are a few strategies for VST2 installs:

• always forcing the plug-ins into the default CbB scan path,
• add manufacture specific folders to the existing scan path if they don't exist (my favorite),
• forcing the plug-ins to a folder not under "C:\Program Files"
• letting the plug-ins go wherever the installer wants to put them adding to the CbB VST scan path as needed.

Regardless of the method used, DO NOT install VST2 in the VST3 scan paths. CbB skips all files with a dll extension in the VST3 paths because they are by definition not VST3 plug-ins; they are treated as support files.

 

Also, do not add DX plug-ins paths to the scan path. DX plug-in binaries like any other non-VST plug-in dll, may cause the Cakewalk VST scanner to misbehave. FWIW, this includes the "Shared Dxi" folder @Patrick Wichrowski

 

[John Vere]

What I also found was some plug in installers seem to create either a VST folder or in some cases the Steinberg VST folder.  Just pay attention during the install if this happens because Cakewalk has no way of knowing about new folders unless you add them. 
Those are the only other folders for VST 2 that are in my scan path other than Cakewalks folder. So if I install a VST 2 and it defaults to Cakewalk folder I change it to one of the others. I reserve the Cakewalk VST folder for Sonar and Cakewalk stuff.  
  So in answer to you question I use the VST folder found in Program Files mostly.  

[abacab]

14 minutes ago, John Vere said:

So if I install a VST 2 and it defaults to Cakewalk folder I change it to one of the others. I reserve the Cakewalk VST folder for Sonar and Cakewalk stuff.  

Same here. And as you said, some 3rd party installers find that Cakewalk path first and try to use that, unless I point it to my main VST folder.

[scook]

4 hours ago, abacab said:

some 3rd party installers find that Cakewalk path first and try to use that

These 3rd party installers are reading VSTPluginsPath in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VST

Cakewalk updates this registry value during install.

Of course, VSTPluginsPath is not Cakewalk specific. Any program can update the value.

[Patrick Wichrowski]

11 hours ago, scook said:

 

Also, do not add DX plug-ins paths to the scan path. DX plug-in binaries like any other non-VST plug-in dll, may cause the Cakewalk VST scanner to misbehave. FWIW, this includes the "Shared Dxi" folder @Patrick Wichrowski

 

This one (Dreamstation DXi2) need to be forced because of dxishell.