Getting rid of all the 'demo' Universal Audio plugins in Cubase?

[DevonB]

Just went through the laborious task of manually disabling all the UAD plugins I don't have a license for. I'm 'hoping' that checking 'disable' on all the ones I don't own prevents them from being enabled when the next 'set' of updates comes out? Does anyone know for sure? I'll obviously have to disable any brand new plugs that I don't have a license for.

If there was a single reason I would consider ditching UA plugins is this stupid thing of forcing you to install every single plugin. So maddening.

Devon

[Razzia]

Speaking of which
They've also removed the ability to hide/disable unlicensed plugins in the Console, unless I'm very mistaken. I've looked.
Their new browser is a big improvement, and it does pin your licensed plugins to the top of the list and clearly mark which ones are 'demo', but it's fortified this annoying practice of making you install their whole library.

I wonder if it's possible to find which directory the Console gets its plugins from (they install it in about half a dozen different locations on your computer) and delete the ones you don't own.

[dionenoid]

I don't understand the question here. Cubase has the Plugin Manager. You never have to 'disable' any UAD plugins, you just have to decide which one should be shown in your plugin list, once. So what's the problem here ?

[DevonB]

Speaking of which
They've also removed the ability to hide/disable unlicensed plugins in the Console, unless I'm very mistaken. I've looked.
Their new browser is a big improvement, and it does pin your licensed plugins to the top of the list and clearly mark which ones are 'demo', but it's fortified this annoying practice of making you install their whole library.

I wonder if it's possible to find which directory the Console gets its plugins from (they install it in about half a dozen different locations on your computer) and delete the ones you don't own.

The console? You talking in the mix console on the channel where you select inserts? That only shows what's available from what's in the Plugin Manager and not "Hidden". If it's hidden, it disappears from the list. And what browser shows you which plugins are licensed?

Devon

[DevonB]

I don't understand the question here. Cubase has the Plugin Manager. You never have to 'disable' any UAD plugins, you just have to decide which one should be shown in your plugin list, once. So what's the problem here ?

To be pedantic, you are correct; I'm not disabling them, I'm selecting "hide" to remove them from the list. But that is my question. Once you hide massive list of plugins, and UA does an update that updates all the versions of the plugins, do they come back? Wasn't sure if UA updated the GUID for the plugins or just the name, and new versions of the same plugin will remain in the "Hide" state?

Devon

[Razzia]

Speaking of which
They've also removed the ability to hide/disable unlicensed plugins in the Console, unless I'm very mistaken. I've looked.
Their new browser is a big improvement, and it does pin your licensed plugins to the top of the list and clearly mark which ones are 'demo', but it's fortified this annoying practice of making you install their whole library.

I wonder if it's possible to find which directory the Console gets its plugins from (they install it in about half a dozen different locations on your computer) and delete the ones you don't own.

The console? You talking in the mix console on the channel where you select inserts? That only shows what's available from what's in the Plugin Manager and not "Hidden". If it's hidden, it disappears from the list. And what browser shows you which plugins are licensed?

Devon

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant the actual UAD console for the interface I/O. Not in Cubase. I made a couple logical steps here without actually explaining my thinking, in that if you were annoyed by having to install their whole library, it must mean you're running DSP versions since, as far as I know, the UA Connect/Native versions only install what you own.

[Scotty]

The best solution so far for me was to create categories in the plugin manager in Cubase. I put the mono ones in a subfolder within the plugin manager (not physically on the drive). The ones I don't own go in another. Then when I update nothing changes. Do it once and just change the ones you purchase.

Just went through the laborious task of manually disabling all the UAD plugins I don't have a license for. I'm 'hoping' that checking 'disable' on all the ones I don't own prevents them from being enabled when the next 'set' of updates comes out? Does anyone know for sure? I'll obviously have to disable any brand new plugs that I don't have a license for.

If there was a single reason I would consider ditching UA plugins is this stupid thing of forcing you to install every single plugin. So maddening.

Devon

[dionenoid]

To be pedantic, you are correct; I'm not disabling them, I'm selecting "hide" to remove them from the list. But that is my question. Once you hide massive list of plugins, and UA does an update that updates all the versions of the plugins, do they come back? Wasn't sure if UA updated the GUID for the plugins or just the name, and new versions of the same plugin will remain in the "Hide" state?

Devon

I'm starting to think that i moved a step too far ahead in your case. Please correct me if i'm wrong....

The only collection where all installed plugins show up is the default collection by Cubase. So i'm starting to think that's the problem here ; you are not taking advantage of the Plugin Manager and are using the default collection.

So please read up on the Plugin Manager, it's a very handy tool. You make one or more collections, drag the plugins in there that you want, and then use those collections inside Cubase.
https://archive.steinberg.help/cubase_p ... dow_r.html

Plugins won't appear in your collection(s) if you didn't put them in there. You can have many collections, organize your plugins however you want, use folders/subfolders and so on.

It's ideal, especially in the case of UAD, IK, Waves, and others that install many things you don't own or won't use.

[DevonB]

Speaking of which
They've also removed the ability to hide/disable unlicensed plugins in the Console, unless I'm very mistaken. I've looked.
Their new browser is a big improvement, and it does pin your licensed plugins to the top of the list and clearly mark which ones are 'demo', but it's fortified this annoying practice of making you install their whole library.

I wonder if it's possible to find which directory the Console gets its plugins from (they install it in about half a dozen different locations on your computer) and delete the ones you don't own.

The console? You talking in the mix console on the channel where you select inserts? That only shows what's available from what's in the Plugin Manager and not "Hidden". If it's hidden, it disappears from the list. And what browser shows you which plugins are licensed?

Devon

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant the actual UAD console for the interface I/O. Not in Cubase. I made a couple logical steps here without actually explaining my thinking, in that if you were annoyed by having to install their whole library, it must mean you're running DSP versions since, as far as I know, the UA Connect/Native versions only install what you own.

Aha, I get it now. I don't see that because I bought the Producer Pack of 44 plugins last holiday and got all the plugins at once. Great deal for me since I already had a PCIe Solo and USB Quad Sattellite, so I got all the Apollo DSP versions as well. But yes, all the DSP versions install whether you like it or not. I do like the Native versions because it goes in a different Vendor folder, and it only installs, like you said, the ones you have.

Devon

[DevonB]

The best solution so far for me was to create categories in the plugin manager in Cubase. I put the mono ones in a subfolder within the plugin manager (not physically on the drive). The ones I don't own go in another. Then when I update nothing changes. Do it once and just change the ones you purchase.

Just went through the laborious task of manually disabling all the UAD plugins I don't have a license for. I'm 'hoping' that checking 'disable' on all the ones I don't own prevents them from being enabled when the next 'set' of updates comes out? Does anyone know for sure? I'll obviously have to disable any brand new plugs that I don't have a license for.

If there was a single reason I would consider ditching UA plugins is this stupid thing of forcing you to install every single plugin. So maddening.

Devon

Ah yes, I totally forgot about the Mono versions. That's pretty old. They don't have a separate mono plugin version anymore, and haven't for awhile, I don't believe? But yes, I used to do the same thing. I rebuilt my machine a few months back on new hardware, and while poking around, discovered in the VST Plugin Manager, you can sort by Vendor instead of category auto-magically. For me, I prefer it that way. But yes, back 10+ years ago, I used to put everything into folders manually too.

Devon

[DevonB]

To be pedantic, you are correct; I'm not disabling them, I'm selecting "hide" to remove them from the list. But that is my question. Once you hide massive list of plugins, and UA does an update that updates all the versions of the plugins, do they come back? Wasn't sure if UA updated the GUID for the plugins or just the name, and new versions of the same plugin will remain in the "Hide" state?

Devon

I'm starting to think that i moved a step too far ahead in your case. Please correct me if i'm wrong....

The only collection where all installed plugins show up is the default collection by Cubase. So i'm starting to think that's the problem here ; you are not taking advantage of the Plugin Manager and are using the default collection.

So please read up on the Plugin Manager, it's a very handy tool. You make one or more collections, drag the plugins in there that you want, and then use those collections inside Cubase.
https://archive.steinberg.help/cubase_p ... dow_r.html

Plugins won't appear in your collection(s) if you didn't put them in there. You can have many collections, organize your plugins however you want, use folders/subfolders and so on.

It's ideal, especially in the case of UAD, IK, Waves, and others that install many things you don't own or won't use.

Back on my old Windows 10 machine and for many years prior, I used to install all of my plugins into my own 'custom' schema, to basically do what's natively built in now, so the folders and plugins would come up like I want (I've been using Cubase since SX3.)

I recently build a new machine, installed only VST3 plugins every chance I could, and left them in their default location. I've known about the Plugin Manager for awhile now, but I never really played with Collections before until recently. Or at least, I found the drop down menu to sort plugins instead of by Type, to sort them by Vendor. That did everything I wanted with pretty much zero effort. No more installing into my own Folder structure within the OS. I don't like that some of them have the category folder for the vendor (Spectrasonics / Synths / Omnisphere or Drums / Stylus) and would like to get rid of that 'extra' click to get to the plugin, but really like the vendor sort, as that was how I've sorted things for years in the first place.

So it sounds like there is two viable methods? Come up with a brand new Collection, or use the default collections, and "Hide" the one's you don't want. I'm just worried that UAD will 'update' with new plugin versions, and I'll have to go back and hide another 100+ plugins I simply don't have. The main problem is UA has made it so hard to really know what plugins you own and don't, because the list in "My Plugin Library" on their webpage doesn't actually tell you ALL of the plugins you have. Fairchild Plugin.... uhh... which one? Teletronix Leveler Collection... which ones? There are several like that, and it's quite annoying. Only true way to know is to try to load any plugin that matches by name and see if it says 'Start Demo', or see the name of the plugin, and go read the description of every plugin to see if maybe these 5 plugins are a part of it or not? Like I think it was the UA 175B plugin. I believe there is a 175A? I only got so many because the Signature Plugin pack for Native was such a good deal last year, and gave me several plugins I wanted for DSP, with a bunch of stuff I didn't. But at least rather have activated everything I own, at bare minimum. Anyway, I'll stop bitchin'.

Devon

[Scotty]

Management through the plugin manager of Cubase that I described has worked well for me for several years.

I'm just worried that UAD will 'update' with new plugin versions, and I'll have to go back and hide another 100+ plugins I simply don't have.
Devon