Organizing Plugins

[KuruPrionz]

I recently picked up some TRacks and Amplitube stuffs. I am a "Sale Surfer" and play the waiting game so I got a good price.

 

As many of you know (and probably dislike!) IK Multimedia does the "kitchen sink" thing and you get all of their plugins but only the ones you purchased and registered work.

In addition to that, many plugins simply provide multiple formats and I've had lots of instances where the same plugin is available (and scanned) as VST, VST3 and AU (Mac user).

 

I am using Waveform 10 and they have options for creating custom folders and custom views for plugins. Briefly, at the tail end of each track there is a spot where you can drag the "+" icon and a list of available plugins appears. You choose one and it opens on the screen for adjustment.

 

I had a PILE of them and stuff that was redundant or does not currently work.

 

First step was completed last night. I made a custom folder titled "Do Not Use" and put all duplicate files and all files that are not authorized in there. I favor the AU format but not all plugins have it so some VST and VST3 has been allowed to exist.

 

Eventually I plan to go through my system and discard many of these but this will do for now (and also creates a list of what needs to go).

 

I also intend to keep the inactive IK plugins, partly because TRackS seems to want them and partly because there is a 10 day free trial period and maybe at some point I'll demo some of them to good purpose even if I never purchase them.

 

I welcome suggestions on the next step. I am planning to create more custom folders as follows:

Delay

Distortion

Drums

Dynamics

Frequency Control

Guitar/Bass Amps

Mastering

Modulation

Other

Reverb

Synths

TRacks

Do Not Use

 

There will be some redundancy, I want NI Kontakt in both Drums and Synths, it hosts both types of plugins. Did I miss anything?

 

Next step after that is to create some of my own presets in TRackS and Amplitube that only use plugins I have. That should speed things up and prevent annoyance.

 

Edited to Add: I've decided for now to put Panners in Other. I suppose they could belong in Modulation. I usually automate any panning and it's slow and unequally spaced.

 

It will take some time to organize all of this but I am thinking it will save time in the long run since I should be able to locate the plugins I want quickly.

I will add that there are still some Waveform plugin folders that show in the Custom view. I need to find out how to sort those folders into my new system, another project!!!

 

Any and all ideas, experiences or suggestions are very welcome, thanks in advance!

[KuruPrionz]

Plugins have all been relocated in their new folders. There are 3 default folders still at the top, will figure that out. Everything in them can be put in the other folders.

 

Forum Help post on adding photos recommends we keep them small. I wish to comply so will link a cropped screenshot of my new plugin drop down menu. Delays are open, I've got 8. Will make it much faster to compare them, maybe some or most of them can go.

 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/143117517@N04/3Md4ck

 

Pruning will take time. So will making preset racks. This is better already, not in a huge hurry. Sometimes you have to find where something fits. I do tend to judge a clumsy interface harshly, do mice have thumbs? Sliders good, knobs bad!

 

I'll post back as progress is made. Will keep an eye out for the posts of others.

Cheers!

[Anderton]

One of the features I always liked about Sonar, and is now in Cakewalk by BandLab, is the plug-in manager and ability to make custom plug-in layouts. Studio One's plug-in manager is okay because it makes it easy to show/hide effects, but doesn't allow for organization other than sorting according to folder, vendor, type, or "flat."

[Anderton]

I wonder if it would be possible to create shortcuts for your plug-in DLLs, put them in folders, and scan the folders with the shortcuts...hmmm...I'll have to give it a try. Probably won't work, it sounds too easy

[KuruPrionz]

Thanks for the thoughtful posts Craig!

 

What I've done so far is progress. There used to be a folder labelled "Effects" and most of the plugins resided there.

With duplicates in VST and VST3, it was a gigantic chaos pit. I hated it.

Those 8 delays that are now in the Delay folder were spread out all over the place.

 

This has given me a simpler way to focus on all of the extra, unneeded files. Now I can easily go after a folder at a time and clear them out to the extent possible. The Do Not Use folder ideally would not exist. Putting it at the bottom of the chain helps for now. If I can get TRackS to behave without all the extra unauthorized plugins I can just download them from the IK site if I want to try them out. It could have been glitchy behavior caused by using Safari to download and install. I couldn't get stuff to work correctly until I uninstalled (kudos to IK for including an uninstaller!) and downloaded/installed from Firefox. Oddly, Amplitube only displays amps that I own although it will happily include effects that I haven't purchased. Easy enough to ignore, I don't want effects on my primary guitar tracks anyway.

 

I am also wondering if I can just "Copy" the plugin as represented in the default folders and then "Paste" that into the folder I want. That would be too easy as well!!!!