Remove unused VSTis from project?

[Leander]

Hey!

I tested some VSTis and chose the ones I want to use, then saved the project. However, every time I load the project, the unused VSTis are loaded although they are not used in the project.

Is there a way to remove unused VSTis? e.g. I had EZ Bass and Modo Bass in my project because I wanted to test something...then I removed Modo Bass some days ago, saved the project, worked on the piano, saved it again etc., but several saves later, Modo Bass is still shown in the list of loaded instruments.

[Amberwolf]

Synth Rack should show all your synths, you can then either select one and delete it, or right click on it and choose delete from the menu.

The tracks created during insertion, if any, will still be there until you manually delete them. 

[Leander]

Thanks. Do you mean the track view? The VSTis I want to remove are no longer there, but loading the save file always mentions them.

[57Gregy]

21 hours ago, Leander said:

Hey!

I tested some VSTis and chose the ones I want to use, then saved the project. However, every time I load the project, the unused VSTis are loaded although they are not used in the project.

Is there a way to remove unused VSTis? e.g. I had EZ Bass and Modo Bass in my project because I wanted to test something...then I removed Modo Bass some days ago, saved the project, worked on the piano, saved it again etc., but several saves later, Modo Bass is still shown in the list of loaded instruments.

1. How are you inserting the synths?
2. How are you removing the synths?

[Amberwolf]

49 minutes ago, Leander said:

Thanks. Do you mean the track view? The VSTis I want to remove are no longer there, but loading the save file always mentions them.

No, Synth Rack, as originally stated.  

 

 

[Leander]

I insert a synth via "New synth" vs. new audio track or new midi track....then I replace it by right-clicking the icon and selecting a new synth...

[Kurre]

This is not a situation i've experienced but i would think that "save as" would save only the things that is in the tracks at the moment of saving. Thus clean the project from deleted plugins.

[pwalpwal]

5 hours ago, Kurre said:

This is not a situation i've experienced but i would think that "save as" would save only the things that is in the tracks at the moment of saving. Thus clean the project from deleted plugins.

i think save as only leaves out the audio wavs? @Leander it might be worth sending the bad project file to support@cakewalk.com

[Kurre]

My thoughts is about how plugin names still can be associated with a project after being removed and the project saved after that.

After checking up, it should be "save a copy as" which direct you to a new folder or "save as" to a new folder. Use the default "Copy all audio with Project", a new Audio sub-directory is created with a copy of only the audio files currently used in the project ( if you don't have this checked, the copied wav files will go in your Global Audio Folder ).

The thing here is the audio. From an msmcleod post:

Quote

Why do this?  Well, your original project folder will contain wav files for all the discarded takes, any edited files in your undo history etc.  I guess it's useful to have them if you really need them, but they will start to take up disk space. Using Save As gives you a clean project with only the wav files in use.

Maybe the audio produced by a plugin, which now are left there in the audio folder, has some link to the plugin name?

As they are not currently used they and their link would be gone.

.

I hope i'm right about this because i can't come up with any other logical solution.🙂

 

[pwalpwal]

maybe it's the "history" for undo?

[Amberwolf]

4 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

i think save as only leaves out the audio wavs? @Leander it might be worth sending the bad project file to support@cakewalk.com

SaveAs doesn't leave anything out.  All it does is let you not save over the top of your existing project file (which is what Save does). 

You can still do the exact same thing in SaveAs if you don't change the filename; it'll overwrite the existing file.

 

If you want SaveAs to leave stuff out of your actual project, you would need to remove that stuff from the project first, right there in CbB / Sonar / etc.

 

You can use SaveAs to "move" the project to a different folder and copy all the *relevant* audio files to it, leaving the original project and folder(s) intact, but that's a separate thing, and it still doesn't remove anything from the actual project. 

 

 

To solve the issue of this specific thread's topic, the synth rack view is used to remove synths entirely from the project.  If there's anywhere else to do that, I don't know what it is. 

If you don't have an icon or button in your toolbars to open Synth Rack then it should still be available via the Views menu.  Or perhaps you have a workspace setup that excludes that view (if workspaces can do that sort of thing; I don't know). 

Edited February 1 by Amberwolf

[Amberwolf]

3 hours ago, Kurre said:

Maybe the audio produced by a plugin, which now are left there in the audio folder, has some link to the plugin name?

As they are not currently used they and their link would be gone.

The audio files don't have any links with what created them.  They're just audio files. 

All the "links" to things are inside the project file.  To remove those, you have to remove the things themselves from the project.

For fx bin plugins, that means removing them from the fx bins in tracks and busses.

for synths, that means removing them from the synth rack.

(unless they were inserted as fx in bins, in which case they should be completely removed by removing them from the fx bins, even though they *also* show up in the synth rack they don't have to be removed from there). 

[Amberwolf]

On 1/30/2025 at 5:46 PM, Leander said:

 but several saves later, Modo Bass is still shown in the list of loaded instruments.

Where do you see this list?

Synth rack has a list of loaded instruments, so, if that's where you see them, you could also remove them from there.  

[Kurre]

Ok. instead of guessing what the topic starter mean i'll describe what i do. And as him i don't use the synth rack.

Starting a new project with a couple of audio tracks and a couple of midi tracks. From the plugin tab of cakewalks browser i'll drag and drop a VSTi to a midi track and make a note pattern for it in the prv. Then save the project and as it is the first save i name the project and put it in the default project folder. I'll do another midi track with VSTi number 2 and it's pattern and do a save.

Now the relevant part: I'm not happy with number2 and want to replace it with another VSTi. I move the note pattern to an empty midi track and delete the number 2 track and do a save. DragnDrop VSTi number 3, route number 2's pattern to it and find out it's no good. I delete the number 3 track and make a save. And so on..

A VSTi need a track. If i want it gone i delete the track with the VSTi in it.

Never any problem. You don't have to reuse tracks, there are plenty of them to go.👍

Edited February 1 by Kurre

[Amberwolf]

If it works, it works.    I guess the version youre using either deletes the unused synth automatically in those cases, or else they're still in the project (visible only in the synthrack)?    

What I'm using is so old that's not a feature; it's not surprising that they would have eventually added it though.  (in mine, the only thing that would remove them outside the synthrack is to undo the insertion, which would also undo all the things I did between the insertion and that moment, which would not usually be wanted). 

 

 

Either way...based on other posts google finds about modern CbB, then unless I am completely confused (always possible) the synthrack does still exist, and could still be able to be used to remove synths (whether you're using them or not  ).  

 

 

[Leander]

Where is the synth rack? I just add tracks, either audio or midi...and insert synths...and if I don't like a synth, I right-click the icon and choose "replace".
I am always in track view.

[OutrageProductions]

<Views><Synth Rack View> OR [Alt+9]. It will pop up in the Browser at the right side (default) of the Track View screen.

[Sock Monkey]

14 hours ago, Leander said:

Where is the synth rack? I just add tracks, either audio or midi...and insert synths...and if I don't like a synth, I right-click the icon and choose "replace".
I am always in track view.

You are actually doing it the most efficient way. A lot of users never progressed from the old system. 
I haven’t used the synth rack or browser in years. I normally have the Browser view closed so the add track is more convenient. 

The thing is you can insert synths at least 6 different ways! 

The way you word “But loading the save file always mentions them” makes me think that you are talking about the plug ins scanner notification? 

Edited February 2 by Sock Monkey

[Kurre]

On 1/31/2025 at 1:46 AM, Leander said:

Hey!

I tested some VSTis and chose the ones I want to use, then saved the project. However, every time I load the project, the unused VSTis are loaded although they are not used in the project.

Is there a way to remove unused VSTis? e.g. I had EZ Bass and Modo Bass in my project because I wanted to test something...then I removed Modo Bass some days ago, saved the project, worked on the piano, saved it again etc., but several saves later, Modo Bass is still shown in the list of loaded instruments.

Is that list in the "input or output menu" ?

I vaguely remember a bug i found years ago where it didn't clean up the items in the input or output menu of the miditrack, despite  they was removed and never used again. It kept on adding VSTi's and never deleted them.

It probably never was fixed.

Edited February 2 by Kurre

[Leander]

15 hours ago, OutrageProductions said:

<Views><Synth Rack View> OR [Alt+9]. It will pop up in the Browser at the right side (default) of the Track View screen.

Thanks, found it. Yes, there were some unused synths there. Moreover, the names are this and that, but if you move your mouse over them, sometimes different names are displayed...which is a display bug.