How to make Cubase find plugins after reinstallation?

[El Rey]

Hi!

I have recently reinstalled everything in my computer. Before I did this I made a list of everything I had installed to be sure it got installed again.

When I open a song in Cubase SX2 that was made with the old confguration Cubase says it can't find a few plugs even though I know I have them installed.

I experienced this earlier also when I was using Logic but then at least in the mixer I could see which plug was missing because the name was there but it was crossed out. In Cubase, the insert slot where the effect would have been is just empty.


I don't know if this has got to do with the filepath to the plugins, some of them work though. It feels like Cubase should be "intelligent" enough to find the "new" plugs as they are at least in Cubase's plug-in folder.

Is there anything that can be done about this?

Thanks a lot

[pitchdrifter]

Pulldown menu 'devices', then 'plugin information'. Add or Change the default VST directory there, then restart SX.
Works fine here even when moving projects to a new DAW, finds everything fine (SX3 here, although v2 should do it all the same).

Markus

P.S. make sure you have some sort of independent vstplugins folder, very useful (e.g. C:\vstplugins\ where you install your plugins to) - independence from different vst hosts, you dont lose them uninstalling/removing a host folder etc.

[El Rey]

Thanks Markus!

I'm afraid it didn't help though.

I think it might be a problem also, if I do work on this song despite the missing plugins and save it....the next time I open it it won't ask for the plugins (which is bad) because by saving I have "accepted" that the plugins don't exist. I'm not 100% Cubase behaves this way but tried it with "save as" and saved the song (without changing anything in it) under a new filename, I closed it and opended it up again and then it didn't ask for the plugins (but they weren' loaded either) so in that case I have lost track of which plugs were being used : ( , not to mention the settings for them.

[Lord Snarebottom]

This is why there is a process known as a "backup". It would be prudent for you to do them regularly. It's really just a matter of how much importance you place on your own productivity (your data is, after all, only important to you). I know this isn't really helping you now, but it is a good practice for you to implement anyway.

The problem here is likely a pathing issue. I personally re-arrange all my plugins by type manually (I don't trust automatics). Regardless of this, having 3 versions of Cubase and their attendant folders creates a bit of a problem in this area. It's also a bit of a pain everytime UA updates their plugins because I then have to manually re-distribute them. I just deal with it though, because as you now know, the alternative is not so pleasant.

I sometimes also make a vain attempt at trying to garner whether all this trouble is worth it. Every time I see a post like yours, I get all the reinforcement I need.

Looking forward, get yourself an external backup hard drive and Acronis TrueImage software. When you go away for the weekend or vacation, take that sucker with you or to a trusted friends' or family members for safe keeping. In case of disaster (theft, fire, etc.) you'll be thanking yourself.

[Lord Snarebottom]

I just had a thought that you might be able to open the cpr file in notepad and search for paths. I'm pretty sure that they are stored in ASCII in the file. That way you could figure out which plugs are missing. Good luck.

[El Rey]

I just had a thought that you might be able to open the cpr file in notepad and search for paths. I'm pretty sure that they are stored in ASCII in the file. That way you could figure out which plugs are missing. Good luck.

Or maybe I could just go fishing instead

In this specific case I managed to solve the problem and actually i feel a litte stupid. I uninstalled the plug and reinstalled it again and in the installation I had the choice of VST or DX and I choose both. It could have been that before my system reinstallation I had the plug installed as DX and now it was VST : )

Thanks anyway

[bduffy]

Speaking of backups - if you already saved over the original which will tell you which plugins are missing, you can try going to the project root and renaming (one of) your ".bak" file to ".cpr". If it's older than your save, you might be in luck.

I guess this isn't Cubase 3, becuase 3 is much more graceful about missing plugins.

EDIT: ah, you got it sorted out. Never mind!

[kritikon]

Have you clicked on the plugin update button?

Can't quite remember where it is (possibly in Devices somewhere...there's a button to "update plugin information" or something very similar). I've had similar problems, when some plugins weren't recognised, even though definitely installed in the correct plugins folder. Clicked the update button and it ran through all the plugins and then recognised the ones that were omitted.

I vaguely remember it's in the page where there's a huge list of all your plugins - where you can tick the "old behaviour" and that sort of thing. Some of the plugins needed to be ticked as active also (I have no idea why they initially installed as inactive?) before I updated the whole folder.

Check Devices (definitely in there).

[El Rey]

I did try the plugin update which didn't help, though a reinstall of the plug did help. thanx a lot for your help though : )

[pitchdrifter]

Sometimes also a plugin for whatever reason is ticked-off (disabled) in SX. You can enable/tick the plugin in the 'plugin information' list usually, and restart SX afterwards. Happened to me when I entered the reg code of quadfrohmage incorrectly during installation, the plug would disable itself in SX - after reinstalling it without typos in the reg key, the plugin was still not ticked, so I had to do that manually.
Thats another possible cause for plugins not showing.. make sure everything's ticked.