Running Installed VSTs By Just Moving Over DLL (no install)

[gtaksa]

some freebie vst effects require installation. I like the ones that just open up and you move the DLL files right over. I just tried installing Delta Filter, then copied the DLL file to another folder, and then uninstalled the program. The original DLL even remained in the folder. I opened up Cubase and the plug in loaded fine. I havent tried processing anything cause it's late. Im guessing it'll work fine. Could there be any problems with this? And if it works fine, what is the point of installing the software? Also does installing a lot of small plugins affect your hard drive performance? I have my hard drive partitioned so all my audio programs are seperate from my system files, but I still don't like having a bunch of small fx listed in my add/remove programs list.

[morelia]

When I try out a plugin dll I tend to just dl it to the D drive and drag it onto minihost. They seem to work from wherever they are. Sometimes I even drag it straight from the winzip window to minihost and it runs from a temp folder I guess. I don't know if that installs anything though. I don't see any way to get around those that come as an exe which is a shame. I hate those installers that really only need to be a zip with a few files and folders to put wherever you want.

[Majken]

Alot of plugins seems to use an installer just to look "professional". I agree with you, it's just a mess. And it's not only a problem with free plugins there are a bunch of commercial plugins that really don't seem to need an installer either.

The "moving around" business gets tiring as well. I hope more companies go the Soundforge route and let you restructure the plugins directly from the plugin menu without moving any files. I see no reason why arranging plugins should work differently from bookmarks in IE.

/Majken