Cubase 9's Plug-in Manager going wrong

[woodsdenis]

Just to note I have never ever had a Cableguys plugin crash any system I use and I use them on every session.

[zvenx]

Unless your system never crashes, how do you know that for sure out of curiosity?

I know I had crashes for months due to waves plugins that I was totally oblivious to waves being the source (that is I wasn't necessarily working on a waves plugin at the time the crash occurs)
rsp

[fmr]

Unless your system never crashes, how do you know that for sure out of curiosity?
rsp

Sometimes, when I have crashes, I know which was the offender (it's easy if I am doing something with something, and that something brings everything down).

[zvenx]

Unless your system never crashes, how do you know that for sure out of curiosity?
rsp

Sometimes, when I have crashes, I know which was the offender (it's easy if I am doing something with something, and that something brings everything down).

I edited whilst you were typing.

Sometimes indeed....however.....


rsp

[mitchiemasha]

As a Cubase 7 user, I am SOOOO glad I don't EVER have to worry about upgrading to Cubase 9

Well you're missing out.

I have enough problems with Cubase 7

A huge reason to upgrade to 9.

[dzilizzi]

I'm running on Windows 7, and what surprised me was all those free DSK plugs that were jbridged in passed. I'm traveling for work this week without my music computer so I'm not quite sure what was blacklisted. It wasn't much and it could have been 32 bit versions of stuff that also has 64 bit versions.

I do know that every time I try to use Izotope plugins on ProTools, it crashes. I haven't tried them on Cubase because I have other stuff that works just as well. But they weren't blacklisted. Hmm.

[VitaminD]

Am I one of the very few where Cubase (Artist) 9 is running smoothly?

I'm not having any issues with the Plugin Manager, the program is stable, it loads my CA8 songs smoothly. It just works.

Perhaps it is down to having pathed the plugins into

X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Instruments
X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Effects

And then having sub folders in those for each manufacturer -- very few are in the root of each.

I just pointed CA9 to my folders, let it chug on them for awhile, and it came back saying your hundred + plugins were found. No problemos.

Are you guys chunking all your plugins 32-bit, 64-bit, instruments, effects, etc into one big pot (folder)?

[asnor]

Am I one of the very few where Cubase (Artist) 9 is running smoothly?

I'm not having any issues with the Plugin Manager, the program is stable, it loads my CA8 songs smoothly. It just works.

Perhaps it is down to having pathed the plugins into

X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Instruments
X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Effects

And then having sub folders in those for each manufacturer -- very few are in the root of each.

I just pointed CA9 to my folders, let it chug on them for awhile, and it came back saying your hundred + plugins were found. No problemos.

Are you guys chunking all your plugins 32-bit, 64-bit, instruments, effects, etc into one big pot (folder)?

Smooth sailing here on both Mac and PC. As far as plugins; even my old MDA stuff scanned in fine.

[dzilizzi]

Am I one of the very few where Cubase (Artist) 9 is running smoothly?

I'm not having any issues with the Plugin Manager, the program is stable, it loads my CA8 songs smoothly. It just works.

Perhaps it is down to having pathed the plugins into

X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Instruments
X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Effects

And then having sub folders in those for each manufacturer -- very few are in the root of each.

I just pointed CA9 to my folders, let it chug on them for awhile, and it came back saying your hundred + plugins were found. No problemos.

Are you guys chunking all your plugins 32-bit, 64-bit, instruments, effects, etc into one big pot (folder)?

This latest computer setup I tried to organize my VST's but not all gave me an option as to where they should be loaded. It can be very frustrating trying to figure out where they are sometimes. And I'm not sure if I can move them without messing things up.

[fmr]

Am I one of the very few where Cubase (Artist) 9 is running smoothly?

I'm not having any issues with the Plugin Manager, the program is stable, it loads my CA8 songs smoothly. It just works.

Perhaps it is down to having pathed the plugins into

X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Instruments
X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Effects

And then having sub folders in those for each manufacturer -- very few are in the root of each.

I just pointed CA9 to my folders, let it chug on them for awhile, and it came back saying your hundred + plugins were found. No problemos.

Are you guys chunking all your plugins 32-bit, 64-bit, instruments, effects, etc into one big pot (folder)?

This latest computer setup I tried to organize my VST's but not all gave me an option as to where they should be loaded. It can be very frustrating trying to figure out where they are sometimes. And I'm not sure if I can move them without messing things up.

Almost all of my plug-ins are in sub-folders. The majority allows you to already define a sub-folder when installing. Others define it already by default. For those that don't do one or the other I go to the folder later and I create the sub-folders manually. So far, I had no problems with any of them.

[woodsdenis]

Unless your system never crashes, how do you know that for sure out of curiosity?

I know I had crashes for months due to waves plugins that I was totally oblivious to waves being the source (that is I wasn't necessarily working on a waves plugin at the time the crash occurs)
rsp

1. In Bitwig you can see the plugins that crash
2. In other DAWS on a Mac its in the Crash log

[zvenx]

Unless your system never crashes, how do you know that for sure out of curiosity?

I know I had crashes for months due to waves plugins that I was totally oblivious to waves being the source (that is I wasn't necessarily working on a waves plugin at the time the crash occurs)
rsp

1. In Bitwig you can see the plugins that crash
2. In other DAWS on a Mac its in the Crash log

And I assume you know how to read the Cubase crash logs? Sometimes it is obvious what caused the crash, most times I can't read it. Nice if you could, helps tremendously.
rsp

[dzilizzi]

Am I one of the very few where Cubase (Artist) 9 is running smoothly?

I'm not having any issues with the Plugin Manager, the program is stable, it loads my CA8 songs smoothly. It just works.

Perhaps it is down to having pathed the plugins into

X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Instruments
X:\VSTPlugins\64-bit\Effects

And then having sub folders in those for each manufacturer -- very few are in the root of each.

I just pointed CA9 to my folders, let it chug on them for awhile, and it came back saying your hundred + plugins were found. No problemos.

Are you guys chunking all your plugins 32-bit, 64-bit, instruments, effects, etc into one big pot (folder)?

This latest computer setup I tried to organize my VST's but not all gave me an option as to where they should be loaded. It can be very frustrating trying to figure out where they are sometimes. And I'm not sure if I can move them without messing things up.

Almost all of my plug-ins are in sub-folders. The majority allows you to already define a sub-folder when installing. Others define it already by default. For those that don't do one or the other I go to the folder later and I create the sub-folders manually. So far, I had no problems with any of them.

When I get home, I will try to move a few and see how it works.

[Weasel-Boy]

I hate the Sentinel. I have my reasons.

For those of you struggling with Cubase 9's Sentinel blacklisting perfectly legitimate 64bit plug-ins, there is a way to make it behave just like it did in Cubase 8.5. I have a tendency to think outside the box a bit and made this little discovery.

I should point out I'm on the Mac platform, so you PC folks will need to do the appropriate translations for locations and file naming conventions. I don't even know if it will work on the Windows platform. Sorry.

If what I'm about to suggest scares the crap out of you, don't do it. You've been warned.

You'll need the Cubase 8.5 app resident to do this. But first, a few safety measures:

1. Make sure Cubase 8.5 and 9 are not launched.
2. Back up your current Cubase 9 Preferences folder (YourBootHD/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences) by zipping the folder or dragging a copy to a safe location. You can save this file anywhere. (I just leave my zipped copy in the Preferences folder… the same location the Cubase 9 preferences folder resides). If something goes wrong, you will need this.
3. Access Cubase 9 application's Contents folder (right-click on the app, select Show Package Contents), open the Contents folder and find the Components folder and Zip or copy this file somewhere safe: VSTPlugManager.bundle. Again. if something goes wrong, you will need this.

OK, ready for the scary part?

Access the Cubase 8.5 application's Contents folder, navigate to the Components folder and Option/Drag a copy of the VSTPlugManager.bundle file to your desktop.

Take the same named file you backed up in Cubase 9's Components folder, trash it and replace it with the copy you just made from Cubase 8.5.

Go to the Cubase 9 Preferences folder (BootDrive/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences/Cubase 9) and remove every file that has something to do with plugins and blacklists. These files:

• Vst2xBlacklist Cubase (x86_64).xml
• Vst2xPlugins Cubase (x86_64).xml
• VstPlugInfoV3.xml
• PluginManager.xml
• Plugins.xml
• The folder: Cubase Pro VST3 Cache (containing: vst3blacklist.xml and vst3plugins.xml).

You can place these in a folder on your desktop or put them in the Trash for temporary safekeeping (they are still backed up in your copied or zipped prefs, too). The idea is to get Cubase to rebuild all of them again without screwing around with any of your other preferences when you reboot Cubase 9.

Ready to see if I'm nuts? Launch Cubase 9 and let it rebuild itself and boot. Keep an eye on it during the launch process so you can respond to move forward on any prompts that may appear.

If it initially boots with missing MIDI or Core Audio-type prompts, quit and reboot again.

All done and it booted without issue? Launch a Project and open the Plug-In Manager. Open the Blacklist. Notice anything? If successful, this menu should be nearly empty or completely empty.

Check through your PlugIns folders on the right, looking for anything greyed out. Search for the missing in the VST Effects and VST Instruments folders on the left and re-insert them into your PlugIns folder. You may not be able to do this, if all you have is the original Default folder...in which case, you'll have to copy the default folder by clicking the arrow on the right: New Collection>Copy Current Collection and give it a name. You should be able to freely repopulate and reorganize your new collection, if something is missing.

That's it. No Sentinel and it all works like a charm. At least it does over here, and that’s with 800+ plug-ins. I’ve tested this for a week without issues both with new and old Projects and any Project I’ve created will open in Cubase 8.5 as well….also without issues.

Of course, if it all goes to hell because you screwed a step up, you can restore everything by trashing the VSTPlugManager.bundle file and reinstating the original C9 version and doing the same for the Cubase 9 Prefs. Restoring with these two elements should put you back to where you were, with no issues.

Again, if what I’m suggesting scares the crap out of you. DON’T ATTEMPT IT. You’ve been warned.

If any of you are brave enough to try this, report back. And a translation of locations for PCs, if it works successfully on that platform, would be handy. Again, sorry, I don’t know where Windows buries the bodies or the file name difference between Mac and PC.

[Orbit-50]

I don't get what all the hubbub is about. I have millions of plugins and there is no problem. The only things for me that got blacklisted were the VST 2 counterparts of the plugins that have a VST 3 version. I use the VST 3 versions anyway, so I have no problem with that. Everything else was fine.