FR: VST folder scan options

[bk]

Adding any new VST's seems to be taking an annoyingly long time for me anymore. I think it would be a great time saver if the list of folders to scan for VST's had check boxes in front of them so we could just tick whichever ones had new plugs installed, rather than scan all of them no matter what.

Granted, I have a lot of plugs, but I have them all organized in folders by type. I have another folder called "testbed" where I try out new plugs. If I like 'em they get moved to one of the regular folders, but usually they get deleted. If I could only scan my testbed folder, it would save me a huge amount of time.

Anybody else feel this would be a good idea?...Beno?

[edelweiss]

Have you tried selecting "just look for plugins that are new or have changed" ???

[Lunch Money]

Yes...

Er...

You missed the above-mentioned feature. <laff>

Also, I learned a long time ago that it's a good idea to "trim the fat" from time to time. I had about a dozen EQs and realized that some of them, while classics (Paris EQ for example) and very useful, weren't plug-ins that I ever turned to. So, regardless of how good the sound was, I trimmed my folder content based on whether or not I actually ever USED any of these things.

That got me down to a small handful of synths, too. Yeah, Synth1 and Crystal are treasured and I recommend them all the time, but ever since I got Wusikstation I don't need them so much.

Original point, though-- select "Scan only for plug-ins that are new or have changed" will sort you out.

Greg

[bk]

Actually, I use "only check for new or changed" and I don't automatically scan at launch, either.

So am I the only one who would find this feature useful?

[IIRs]

No, I would too actually.. I regularly change / add to my collection of custom SE home-builds, and its always a tedious wait for a re-scan.

Yes I know I should "trim the fat", but most of it is obscure little single-purpose VST's that I've made to use in one or two tracks, and would like to keep in case I ever go back to them.

[Warmonger]

I still think it takes too long to scan, even with that option enabled. Chainer starts up almost instantly when I haven't changed any plugins. While I don't expect quite as much from a full host, it still could be much faster.

[morelia]

Actually, I use "only check for new or changed" and I don't automatically scan at launch, either.

So am I the only one who would find this feature useful?

No you are not. That would be an awsome and very time saving feature. I hate loading T because it takes so long.

[Lunch Money]

I have to admit, I don't have a clue what you guys are on about. If I add a new plug-in and don't re-scan the entire directory, it still only takes a few moments to fire up a new one.

Now, here's the thing:

When Tracktion loads, it actually checks the names and IDs (VST have unique 4-character IDs) of the plug-ins and initializes the ones it's directed to (ie. when you re-scan) in order to test integrity.

Other hosts (like the uber-quick-loading eXT) simply initialize the plug-ins as they are needed. The good thing is that start-up time is minimized. The bad thing is that without that check, there is much more potential for instability and plug-ins with shared IDs causing conflicts.

The musicians in this forum must have absolutely no patience whatsoever if an extra 10-second (trust me, if you're only scanning 1 or 2 new plug-ins, it's literally only 10 seconds, which just FEELS long because you're hoping for 1 or 2) wait is killing them. Compared to what is usually at least a half-hour recording/mixing session, that 10 seconds is nothing. I usually spend at least that much just staring at my screen going, "Doi!" and thinking of nothing in particular.

I'm off to track down a picture of a Commodore 64 tape deck so that I can post it as my standard reply to impatience issues. I remember when I used to wait 8-10 minutes just to play an 8-bit low-rez game like Q-bert!!!

Greg

[bk]

, it's literally only 10 seconds,
Greg

I've timed it...it's more like 70 seconds on my system. The more plugs you have, the longer it takes. It doesn't matter how many your adding.

[Lunch Money]

bk, I know you've already stated that you use "just new or have changed", but I can't imagine any way that when using that option it would be 70 seconds.

Greg

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Very odd. On my system T starts in about 5 seconds. Scanning for new or changed plugins takes about 3 seconds!! A complete rescan takes 21 seconds.

I have about 12 VSTi and about 30 VST effects. The system hard drive (where I have everything) is a 2-year-old 80GB Maxtor 7200RPM 2MB cache so it's speedy but not THAT speedy. It's a Windows 2000 box, 2.53GHz P4 (533MHz FSB, it's an old one).

[bk]

It seems like the time increased substantially when I re-arranged all my plugs and organized them into seperate folders (i.e. "compressors", "reverbs", etc.). Does this make it harder to scan for some reason?

[glurgle]

could be, I organize mine by company/developer (buzzroom, smex, simulanalog, krakli etc etc) and it takes 45 seconds for me to "scan for plugins that are new or have changed"

[Lunch Money]

Wow, something is up.

I've arranged my plug-ins both those ways, and I've never had THAT long of a wait, and my system isn't (and wasn't) very powerful.

Changing the folders around won't affect start-up time very drastically. 45 seconds for "just new or changed" scans is far too much. The only thing I can think of is that it's trying to initialize a corrupt plug-in, which always 'hangs' the system.

Greg