FREE

[cclarry]

UnitedPlugins VoxDucker
with code: VDST
https://unitedplugins.com/VoxDucker

W.A. Production DJFX
with code: DJFXST
https://www.waproduction.com/plugins/view/djfx

[Brian Cadoret]

Thanks Larry have used the VoxDucker code.

Cheers

[kitekrazy1]

odd that VoxDucker is somehow tied to Melda but not part of the Melda installer

[Pat Osterday]

2 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

odd that VoxDucker is somehow tied to Melda but not part of the Melda installer

United Plugins is a partner with Melda and uses their framework and payment system, but separate company.  WA Production is a partner with Melda too. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Pat Osterday

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, Pat Osterday said:

WA Productions is a partner with Melda too

[pedantry]

And also shares the nomenclature of the company name being WA Production rather than "WA Productions." As in MeldaProduction.

The way I remember is that the tools they make are used for "production."

[/pedantry]

I think it will always be a matter of confusion for native English speakers....Melda are my favorite plug-in company and I need a mnemonic to remember that their name contains a verb🙄

[Pat Osterday]

20 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

[pedantry]

And also shares the nomenclature of the company name being WA Production rather than "WA Productions." As in MeldaProduction.

The way I remember is that the tools they make are used for "production."

[/pedantry]

I think it will always be a matter of confusion for native English speakers....Melda are my favorite plug-in company and I need a mnemonic to remember that their name contains a verb🙄

Updated my post for correctness. 😉 

[kitekrazy1]

another install manager - done with these

[Brian Walton]

1 hour ago, kitekrazy1 said:

another install manager - done with these

They used to have individual installers but I think the perspective really depends on how many plugins in the colleciton you own.

The installer is a mirror image of the Melda one and honestly if you own a few of them it actually saves a ton of time with headaches.  I usually hate the extra installer non-sense too, but updating the number of Melda plugins I have without such an installer would be a massive waste of time.  

I've gotten enough United Plugins I'd also say the same.   

[CSistine]

1 hour ago, Brian Walton said:

... and honestly if you own a few of them it actually saves a ton of time with headaches.

Frankly, for me it is exactly the contrary!

The installer programs ...

• give me a lot of additional work to remove all quirks (aax, icons, menu entries, ...) and to move some files to other places, because I don't want to have another location for each vendor (just look at the mess on the VST3 directory, the plugin developers have quite a lot of fantasy!) or because I don't want to have huge sample directories in my drive. 
• and each time I open such a crazy installer program it has to update itself (takes additional time)
• I don't like to install out into the blue, i.e. I want to know whether an update is necessary for me before I execute it (because I want to have my 3 systems synchron and it takes time to run installers on all of them. Also, if you update a bunch of plugins, you risk compatibility issues. )
• They are usually not or only with additional effort runnable on offline systems
• Each installer has it's own workflow and configuration, often not very comprehensible
• Most of the time only 1 or 2 plugins of a vendor have changed, thus the installation manager is a big overhead
• For users that have only 1 or a few plugins of a vendor it is certainly an overhead
• If you have more than 1 system, then most installer managers require internet downloads again and again.
• and so on ...

YMMV, because if you don't care what they do on your system and you leave everything as they have decided, then you maybe right.

[Brian Walton]

18 minutes ago, CSistine said:

Frankly, for me it is exactly the contrary!

The installer programs ...

• give me a lot of additional work to remove all quirks (aax, icons, menu entries, ...) and to move some files to other places, because I don't want to have another location for each vendor (just look at the mess on the VST3 directory, the plugin developers have quite a lot of fantasy!) or because I don't want to have huge sample directories in my drive. 
• and each time I open such a crazy installer program it has to update itself (takes additional time)
• I don't like to install out into the blue, i.e. I want to know whether an update is necessary for me before I execute it (because I want to have my 3 systems synchron and it takes time to run installers on all of them. Also, if you update a bunch of plugins, you risk compatibility issues. )
• They are usually not or only with additional effort runnable on offline systems
• Each installer has it's own workflow and configuration, often not very comprehensible
• Most of the time only 1 or 2 plugins of a vendor have changed, thus the installation manager is a big overhead
• For users that have only 1 or a few plugins of a vendor it is certainly an overhead
• If you have more than 1 system, then most installer managers require internet downloads again and again.
• and so on ...

YMMV, because if you don't care what they do on your system and you leave everything as they have decided, then you maybe right.

I'm speaking only about the Melda and United plugin installers which are very efficient, way more so than updating a few individual ones.

But you can select which to update within the system.  It would be nice to set more individual paths though if you need to break up space.  

As for the extra random installs, I get the feeling that also happens with individual installs as well depending on the manufacture.  

I haven't done a deep dive on meldas method as unlike (waves) it has never given me an issue.

Speaking holistically across brands extra installers are terrible  

Edited 14 hours ago by Brian Walton

[kitekrazy1]

51 minutes ago, CSistine said:

Frankly, for me it is exactly the contrary!

The installer programs ...

• give me a lot of additional work to remove all quirks (aax, icons, menu entries, ...) and to move some files to other places, because I don't want to have another location for each vendor (just look at the mess on the VST3 directory, the plugin developers have quite a lot of fantasy!) or because I don't want to have huge sample directories in my drive. 
• and each time I open such a crazy installer program it has to update itself (takes additional time)
• I don't like to install out into the blue, i.e. I want to know whether an update is necessary for me before I execute it (because I want to have my 3 systems synchron and it takes time to run installers on all of them. Also, if you update a bunch of plugins, you risk compatibility issues. )
• They are usually not or only with additional effort runnable on offline systems
• Each installer has it's own workflow and configuration, often not very comprehensible
• Most of the time only 1 or 2 plugins of a vendor have changed, thus the installation manager is a big overhead
• For users that have only 1 or a few plugins of a vendor it is certainly an overhead
• If you have more than 1 system, then most installer managers require internet downloads again and again.
• and so on ...

YMMV, because if you don't care what they do on your system and you leave everything as they have decided, then you maybe right.

UAD unless they have changed it is part of Windows Startup and you can't disable it.

NA - complete pain in the *****

more than one system - some ISPs have a monthly download allowance

also look at how many of these are on your system

I prefer developers that give you can option so you can archive 

often I prefer to have some control

Edited 14 hours ago by kitekrazy1

[Chaps]

51 minutes ago, kitekrazy1 said:

UAD unless they have changed it is part of Windows Startup and you can't disable it.

UA Connect? You can disable its startup in the Task Manager. You can also stop the Universal Audio Helper Service from starting with Windows.

[Starship Krupa]

Some installer shells I like, many I do not.

I agree with Brian that when the number of plug-ins I have from a manufacturer gets past a certain point, it would be a giant pain in the butt to have to manually check for updates by visiting their websites, then downloading installers for each individual plug-in. For instance, between Kilohearts Essentials and MeldaProduction's FreeFX Bundle, both of which I consider mandatory, there are over 70 plug-ins. That would be a tedious task, I don't know how long it would take me. Even conservatively allowing just one minute to download and install one plug-in, that would be over an hour.

I also have more IK Multimedia T Racks modules than I would care to install individually.

With a good installer shell, it takes a matter of minutes. It's just not practical to have individual standalone installers when your line includes a bundle of 35 freebies that everyone who deals with your company will probably want to install.

The best ones are Kilohearts in first place, followed closely by MeldaProduction/United, then iZotope. Kilohearts gets the nod because it doesn't even install itself, it's a standalone executable. MeldaProduction's does install itself, and while that doesn't bother me, it still gives Kilohearts the edge. iZotope is a distant third because it no longer stores my login information, I have to enter it each time I run the shell.

Kilohearts and MeldaProduction aren't perfect, but the sins they commit are relatively minor ones.

What I want from an installer shell program is numero uno, don't install any damn services, and don't screw up iLok or the VC++ redistributables by overwriting them with older versions.

Then I want the installer shell to be able to phone home and version check all of my installed plug-ins, and give me individual control over which ones I wish to install/update. Both Kilohearts and Melda do this. I want it to be able to store my log-in information so that I don't have to enter it each time (Native/iZotope, why do you make me enter my email and password EVERY time I run the installer shell?).

It should allow the user to set the install folders for VST2's and samples or other resources and it should allow the user to choose which plug-in formats they wish to install. And it should OBEY those choices and not install friggin' AAX and/or VST2 after I explicitly tell it I only want 64-bit VST3.

It should have the option to store installer files locally in case I need to repair an installation. The OPTION. Do you hear me iZotope? I don't want to have to periodically purge old installers from my Downloads folder.

It should allow queueing of downloads so as to allow long downloads to run unattended. Arturia's allows me to choose to queue multiple updates, but then if I pause one (because it's taking too long or whatever), all updates stop and I have to force quit the installer. Sometimes they all grind to a halt for no reason whatsoever (maybe the individual product's installer is hidden behind the main window?). I'm running it right now and queued updates for 3 products. When the first one finished, the other two just sat there saying "waiting." For what, I don't know, but invariably, if I quit the installer and start it back up, the remaining updates will complete. Ah, yes, I see, as soon as I killed the installer shell using Task Manager, the installer for Analog Lab popped up. So crappy.

It should not clutter my VST3 folder with "demo" versions of plug-ins I don't own. IK frickin' Multimedia, hang your head in shame. T RackS is such a great product line, and that practice of installing ALL of the modules regardless of license status makes it look bad. When I think of T RackS, it's always with a twinge of remembering the drudgery I have to go through each time I update it, having to refer to my list of licenses and move all the rest of the product line out of my VST3 folder.

It should handle the task of activating the products that I own without my needing to enter serial numbers in the plug-ins themselves.

It should not install duplicate libraries when I have licenses whose content overlaps. IK Multimedia again. I found out at one point that I was both missing a great deal of the suite I had paid for (SampleTank MAX), AND that I had lost WAY too much disk space to duplication of samples.

Aside from the first three companies, all of the remaining installer shell programs I know of commit fundamental sins such as not checking versions (Plugin Alliance), installing services, not storing login information (as I type this, Vienna Assistant can't log me in for whatever reason).

Unfortunately, the challenged ones outnumber the solid ones, so installer shells get a bad name (not undeserved).

[MusicMan]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

Aside from the first three companies, all of the remaining installer shell programs I know of commit fundamental sins such as not checking versions (Plugin Alliance),

Agreed with all of that. Just a point on this one, Plugin Alliance now shows updates. I wrote a script that cross checked my VST folder and queried the website, so I had a semi OK solution, but it was absurd it didn't already include it, especially after so many requests.

The Tracktion installer is another horrible one. The installer options aren't consistent and if you move a library etc, the installer no longer recognizes it as being installed, so no update checking from then on. It doesn't understand the concept of custom paths. I have quite a few of their plugins and manually installing instead of their half baked installer is probably still more efficient!

[Starship Krupa]

Just now, MusicMan said:

Just a point on this one, Plugin Alliance now shows updates.

Sweet! I must run it....

[MusicMan]

1 minute ago, Starship Krupa said:

Sweet! I must run it....

They released it a while ago and didn't seem to make a big deal out of it so about it people never even knew it was added! The sceptical side if me thinks that's just because they're going to move to NA installation instead, so they didn't want to make much noise beforehand!

Forgot to mention... back onto these two.. Melda and United do have some of the least offensive and most convenient installers out there. I just use them now instead of individual downloads.

[CSistine]

30 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

Forgot to mention... back onto these two.. Melda and United do have some of the least offensive and most convenient installers out there. I just use them now instead of individual downloads.

Do you still have an alternative for those 2?

Frankly, the Melda install has several issues for me (though some of them concern the install not the installer):

• It is not transparent (a typical Melda problem also in the plugins) what happens if you update only some of your licensed plugins.
• The offline installation is horrible.
• There is no way to have different plugin versions in parallel. E.g. it was a horror installing the new MTrackAlign (beta), because I first had to update all other plugins to the newest version.
• Their kind of plugin folder substructure cannot be costomized (I have already a similar structure in the VST3 folder and don't want to have Melda's in addition. So it is a laborious move task => I made a script).

[Starship Krupa]

57 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

The sceptical side if me thinks that's just because they're going to move to NA installation instead

We'll see. Maybe someday, but it seems like a daunting task right now.

Of course, due to the perversity of these things, I fear that iZotope and Plugin Alliance will get shoehorned into my least favorite installer of the cabal, Native Access.

But for now at least, I'd say that the current Plugin Alliance installer is one of my favorites, up there with Kilohearts and MeldaProduction/United. It's moved ahead of iZotope Product Portal.

Maybe that could be a new category in the KVR Awards: best installer shell.

[swijaya]

13 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

another install manager - done with these

Individual installers:

https://unitedplugins.com/download/old

[mettelus]

11 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

They used to have individual installers but I think the perspective really depends on how many plugins in the collection you own.

This always comes to mind for me when AmpleSound updates are needed... first you have to download the correct installer Mac or PC (which includes 2 variants in the zip), unpack those, install them all manually and separately (and choose the proper VST2 folder), then check to see if new libraries are needed, then clean up all the downloads. Updating typically takes an hour  I wish they had an installer! Then you just log in, see what things you own that need updating and it can all just happen while you go grab more coffee and be done with it.