OwlPlug - An audio plugin manager

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OwlPlug

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ruinednation wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2019 5:31 pm That worked. Did I need to update Java to work with Native Discovery turned on? I usually don't out of habit at work as updating Java breaks things. :x
No don't worry, OwlPlug uses an embedded version of Java which is different from the one installed on your system. Any Java version can be setup on your system, OwlPlug will not use it. :wink:
In other words, OwlPlug installer contains a Java app and a dedicated Java 9 JVM.
ruinednation wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2019 5:33 pm zorkiii run OwlPlug as adminstrator (right click or check administrator in compatibility settings)
@ruinednation If you run OwlPlug as administror, can you scan plugins with Native Discovery option enabled ?

Can you send me (by PM or email) OwlPlug logs located in C:/Users/{Username}/.owlplug/logs ? This will help me to troubleshoot the issue. Thank you !

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ruinednation wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2019 5:33 pm zorkiii run OwlPlug as adminstrator (right click or check administrator in compatibility settings)
That fixed it, thanks!

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This is great!

I wish there was a Steam for all plugins out there. Would make life a lot easier.

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I've updated OwlPlug to fix issues reported by ruinednation and zorkii.

The root cause is described here, it was a stupid compilation issue :lol:

The fix is embedded in OwlPlug 0.10.0.
Thank's again for reporting this issue !

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I installed 0.10.0 but it crashes when trying to collect VST plugin data on first run. I uninstalled it but having read this thread, I guess I should feedback the logs. Will try to get time this weekend.

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GusGranite wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2019 6:22 pm I installed 0.10.0 but it crashes when trying to collect VST plugin data on first run. I uninstalled it but having read this thread, I guess I should feedback the logs. Will try to get time this weekend.
Thanks, feedbacks are greatly welcomed. :)

Here is some guidelines,
- Do you reproduce the problem after disabling Native discovery on the Option panel ?
- If you run OwlPlug as administror, can you scan plugins with Native Discovery option enabled ?
This seems to be a problem with low level stuff during plugin metadata retrieval, details about your operating system will be helpfull.

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Same wish here. Put it on OS X :)

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dropsnorz wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2019 4:00 pm
Hey Arthur, been a while since we've heard from you... how's the development coming along?

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I too am getting a crash during the scan... Win10.1807
Native Discovery was enabled and the crash log says:
34957 ERROR c.o.c.t.p.d.PluginFileCollector - Scan target is not a valid directory. 0 plugins have been collected from

Disabled the Native and it worked!
Is there any way to add multiple VST2 directories? I have some in program files/vst and others in steinberg/vst, for instance.

When we uninstall a plugin, how does that work exactly? Does the plugin get moved to another location or is there some tag which renders it disabled?

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Ok, yikes. Uninstall = Delete! Definitely not what i was hoping for.
I think what the VST market really needs is a client which allows us to disable plugins, but not delete or move them... Organization is also a huge need right now, as the only way for org'ing vst is the old shortcut trick.
I think there's an absolute TON of potential for this tool, but i'm not sure what's even possible with win10.

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What if you were to base the organization and activation using a shortcuts directory? Like don't uninstall plugins, just remove their shortcut from the Owlplugs re-org'd folder? Does that make sense?
There could also be a great opportunity for a steam-like community which would be used for doing meta-data tagging of all the plugins, so that clicking on any plugin in the app would give the user a tag-cloud, which they could then use to create their organized vst shortcut directory.
Bitwig already does a really nice job with this, but Ableton is a f'ing joke when it comes to a plugin manager...

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Hi psynical, thank you for this feedback and ideas. This really helps me to keep motivated to work on OwlPlug. :)
how's the development coming along?
Well... I'm extremely busy with my full-time job and some personal stuff. So unfortunately, Owlplug's development has slowed since July 2019. It's really hard for me to grant time for this project which is very frustrating because I'm still determined to work on it.

It seems "Native Discovery" feature is not stable. I don't know if the problem is caused by a system compatibility issue or a corrupted plugin.
- Does the native discovery fails when executed on an empty directory? Does it fail when executed on a directory with only one plugin from a "trusted" company like Steinberg, NI ?

I'll try to add more logging in the next release.
Is there any way to add multiple VST2 directories? I have some in program files/vst and others in steinberg/vst, for instance.

Not really, but you can define a root VST2 directory and creates links (a bit like shortcuts) from OwlPlug UI to another directory on your file system. Something like this:

Code: Select all

C:/owlplug-vst/
      ├── steinberg -> C:/Program Files/Steinberg
      └── others -> C:/Program Files/VSTPlugins
What if you were to base the organization and activation using a shortcuts directory? Like don't uninstall plugins, just remove their shortcut from the Owlplugs re-org'd folder? Does that make sense?
I think I get the point. Owlplug will have to work with two directories, let's say an install directory where all plugins are stored and a workspace directory for the current active plugins. In the workspace directory plugins are just shortcuts to the install folder. When the user deactivates a plugin, only the shortcut is removed and DAWs only use the workspace folder to retrieve plugins.

This is a really great idea. It's a bit complex because I've designed OwlPlug to work with an existing plugin setup no matter how it's organized. In any case, this is a very elegant way to handle plugin enabling/disabling.
There could also be a great opportunity for a steam-like community which would be used for doing meta-data tagging of all the plugins, so that clicking on any plugin in the app would give the user a tag-cloud, which they could then use to create their organized vst shortcut directory.

I agree, community tools for at least reviewing and tagging would be great. It's on the roadmap. I also want to work on a dynamic OwlPlug main store. A place where all developers can submit their plugins for being available on OwlPlug.
I'm currently working on a minor update this month. It will add few fixes and some analytics features that will help me to understand how OwlPlug is used in practice.

I will keep this thread updated with the latest Owlplug news.

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Hi guys, I have some news!

I'm really happy to announce that OwlPlug is now available for macOS since 0.11. As usual, you can download the latest version from Github.
This was the most requested feature by the community. I still haven't a Mac but I've access to a Sierra instance to package the app. I've tested the app under macOS 10.12.6. There might be some bugs, don't hesitate to report them on this thread or using Github issues. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

As OwlPlug is now officially distributed on macOS, we can plan to add Apple-specific features like AU support. What do you think about that? Is it something that might interest you?

I received tons of positive and supportive messages about OwlPlug. Thank you so much!

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For some reason it deos not run on Mac OS Mojave. Any ideas how to fix it?
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My Mac wouldn't run the application and my windows machine blocked the installer as harmful to my system.

This would be really helpful so I can make a list of my plugins. I have tow systems but not all plugins are duplicated on each on. I would like to know what I have installed so I can make sure everything is duplicated on both. I've been looking for a utility like this for a while.
Last edited by apoclypse on Sat Dec 26, 2020 9:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Studio One // Bitwig // Logic Pro X // Ableton 11 // Reason 11 // FLStudio // MPC // Force // Maschine

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