Plugin placement strategy (64-bit only)

[tapiodmitriyevich]

It's a lot of faffing around, ennit. And this is the best Windows yet.

Erm. Windows is not responsible here.

Same thing is, developers have no clue and put settings files into the documents folder and create a mess. Instead of %appdata%.

[Googly Smythe]

It's a lot of faffing around, ennit. And this is the best Windows yet.

Erm. Windows is not responsible here.

Same thing is, developers have no clue and put settings files into the documents folder and create a mess. Instead of %appdata%.

Just a poor attempt at humour. I must try harder!
Yes, I do know it's the programmers fault, as I dabble in programming myself*, so I'm aware of the issues involved.

*Obviously, not programming me!

[thecontrolcentre]

*Obviously, not programming me!

[yellowmix]

Given that Reaper will use VST3 plug-ins installed in non-default locations, is the use of C:\ProgramFiles\Common Files\VST3 just a Steinberg idea (just as it did for VST2 plug-ins)?

Yes, but Common Files is the more appropriate location for commonly-shared executables (as opposed to a child of Program Files), and I'd rather have Steinberg standardize it then the developers come to some sort of agreement organically because that just wouldn't happen. I'd move my VST2 folder there too, except many programs expect them in the standard location (looking at you, Adobe Premiere!).

As for developers dumping files all over the place, I've taken to a couple strategies. Windows offers a variety of links which can redirect where the files are actually stored, depending if it's the same physical drive, same logical drive, or network folder. Read more here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx I've redirected plugin resource folders to my Music Production drive, and the user preset folders to my Music Resources folder that is automatically backed up. This doesn't work with all plugins though. Especially plugins that database your presets with the factory presets in one file. Very annoying for backup purposes! XLN lets you upload presets to the cloud though, which is kinda nice.

On the downside, if there's a top-level folder in My Documents the name is stuck there even if you symlink it. Audio developers are not the only ones that do this, so I created a shortcut named "!My Documents" in My Documents—it's alphabetically first—to where I store my actual documents, and let My Documents fester into the anarchic wasteland it is.

[aMUSEd]

First discovered this over 10 years ago - was hoping it would catch on more - works great for me

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... t#p6593473

[stardustmedia]

Just chiming out of curiosity, I'm a Mac user and I think I won't hit such an issue. At least I never did with two DAWs installed.

My question (sorry if I go a little offtopic):
Why do you need to think about the installation path? Will it not work when you just install everything on their default path?

[No_Use]

Given that Reaper will use VST3 plug-ins installed in non-default locations, is the use of C:\ProgramFiles\Common Files\VST3 just a Steinberg idea (just as it did for VST2 plug-ins)?

Yes, but Common Files is the more appropriate location for commonly-shared executables (as opposed to a child of Program Files), and I'd rather have Steinberg standardize it then the developers come to some sort of agreement organically because that just wouldn't happen. I'd move my VST2 folder there too, except many programs expect them in the standard location (looking at you, Adobe Premiere!).

Why standardize the location at all ?
I mean it worked fine letting the user choose the location for VST2 plugins for so long and suddenly for VST3 it wouldn't work anymore ? Can't quite believe.

I'm one of the ones who prefer my system drive (C:) to be just that, and to have plugins and stuff rather on another partition / drive like I did all the years and now I can't anymore because of the fixed VST3 location.

[chk071]

Just chiming out of curiosity, I'm a Mac user and I think I won't hit such an issue. At least I never did with two DAWs installed.

My question (sorry if I go a little offtopic):
Why do you need to think about the installation path? Will it not work when you just install everything on their default path?

The "issue", if you will, on Windows is that there's a registry key which defines the VST path some company's plugin installers use as the default location for VST plugins. And that some installers change that path. For example, when you install anything from Cakewalk, it will alter the default VST path to, for example, C:\Vstplugins\Cakewalk. Steinberg's software does that too, i think. So, you may end up with several different VST plugin folders, if you always choose to install plugins to their defaul locations. Not a problem though, if you change the path manually, which i always do. I don't even create a VST folder in ProgramFiles, or even on C:, but use my other partition for my audio stuff, because i also want to prevent plugins from installing themselves in a folder (like C:\ProgramFiles, or C:\ProgramFiles (x86)), which require admin rights to write to, because i'm logged into Windows as a normal user, without admin rights, and, it quickly gets messy, because, when your plugins are in a folder which requires admin rights to write into, you'll also have to start your DAW as an admin user, because certain things will alter the plugin's files, or the plugin itself.

This is not an issue under MacOS of course, because it always uses the default paths. Also less flexible though, because you can't set up a default path/location for your plugins (or can you?).

[stardustmedia]

Just chiming out of curiosity, I'm a Mac user and I think I won't hit such an issue. At least I never did with two DAWs installed.

My question (sorry if I go a little offtopic):
Why do you need to think about the installation path? Will it not work when you just install everything on their default path?

The "issue", if you will, on Windows is that there's a registry key which defines the VST path some company's plugin installers use as the default location for VST plugins. And that some installers change that path. For example, when you install anything from Cakewalk, it will alter the default VST path to, for example, C:\Vstplugins\Cakewalk. Steinberg's software does that too, i think. So, you may end up with several different VST plugin folders, if you always choose to install plugins to their defaul locations. Not a problem though, if you change the path manually, which i always do. I don't even create a VST folder in ProgramFiles, or even on C:, but use my other partition for my audio stuff, because i also want to prevent plugins from installing themselves in a folder (like C:\ProgramFiles, or C:\ProgramFiles (x86)), which require admin rights to write to, because i'm logged into Windows as a normal user, without admin rights, and, it quickly gets messy, because, when your plugins are in a folder which requires admin rights to write into, you'll also have to start your DAW as an admin user, because certain things will alter the plugin's files, or the plugin itself.

This is not an issue under MacOS of course, because it always uses the default paths. Also less flexible though, because you can't set up a default path/location for your plugins (or can you?).

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I now remember the very old days, when you mentioned the registry key.

That sounds like a huge PITA, that any developet can change that. As you say you can define your own path on the other hand.

Hmm... I believe in MacOS there is no (easy) way to do such a thing. Never tried to install an app on another drive. Never noticed that I even could select a different folder, except for the large sample libraries of NI.

[chk071]

I guess there's no need to anyway. The way i saw it (had a iMac here for a short time), it seemed to be well sorted in the Library folders. I actually liked it. I would keep the default path on Windows too, if it was functional for me, but, the way it is, the default path is either C:\ProgramFiles, or C:\ProgramFiles (x86), and both folder won't work for the way i set up my PC.