Members rasputin1963 Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 I have a number of audio apps that accept VST plugins as part of their filtration/FX capabilities. SONAR, iZotope RX, Audacity, WAVELAB to name a few. It is their custom, the moment you open the program, to begin an inventory of all the VST's you have in your VST folder. This can entail quite a few tedious seconds, even minutes, if you have a large collection of VST's. It would seem that, when the app encounters a VST it cannot load (because the plugin is old, cheap, buggily designed or whatever) it would just auto-ignore that VST, continue loading the other viable VST's, then open the program, with the buggy VST's simply not available to you. Finished, done and dusted. But NO: Often one simple VST will cause the bigger app to not only stop loading plugins.... but to totally crash miserably. Yes, sometimes you'll get a popup dialogue that says SKIP/IGNORE? But most of the time you will not: the app will simply go into brainfart/whitescreen mode, then crash altogether. Why can't a VST-enabled app... simply move on and not let that one buggy/old plugin get under its skin? Why are big, respectable apps at the mercy of one or two buggy plugins? ras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 That can really be frustrating. The only suggestion I can give you is to get a solid state drive for your boot drive. Chances are the application will still crash when it tries to load a bad VST, but the whole process will go much faster due to how fast everything loads from a SSD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted October 1, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted October 1, 2015 Maybe they decided that it's time you bought a new one. Some program that I have, might be Sound Forge or it might be Reaper, or something else gives you the option of not taking inventory of every plug-in each time the program starts. You might see if that's an option with your program. Alternatively, you can take note of what it can't load (I assume it tells you) and un-install that plug-in since you can't use it anyway. But then you lose it for programs that are able to load it. You might also be able to hide the ones that won't load in a particular program and put them in a separate folder that you don't tell the program about. I think it's Steinberg programs that always check the official VST folder but you can add other folders for it to look for other plug-ins, and just put the rogue plug-ins in a folder that you don't tell the DAW about. It's all about progress, ultimately - progressively draining your bank account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 2, 2015 Members Share Posted October 2, 2015 I have a number of audio apps that accept VST plugins as part of their filtration/FX capabilities. SONAR [...] ras Can't weigh in on the others, but I think you should be able to get relief in Sonar by going to the Plug-In Manager, look for the VST configuration panel/section, click options, uncheck one or both Re-scan failed plug-ins and/or Re-Scan existing plug-ins. (Of course, there's a manual scan button, too.) While you're there, you could even edit the plugin folders that are being scanned and that might speed things up by removing superfluous folder scans. But unchecking the failed plug-ins scan should clean up your process some. And, for plug-ins that fail across hosts, why not move them to an unscanned folder you've created elsewhere called Why the Hell Am I Saving These Worthless Plug-ins? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted October 2, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 And, for plug-ins that fail across hosts, why not move them to an unscanned folder you've created elsewhere called Why the Hell Am I Saving These Worthless Plug-ins? That reminds me of a file cabinet I have with the drawers labeled as follows: String 24 inches and longer String 12 to 24 inches String 6 to 12 inches String too short to save It's actually appropriate since what's in this cabinet is product literature picked up at more than 30 years of NAMM and 50 years of AES shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 2, 2015 Members Share Posted October 2, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted October 3, 2015 Members Share Posted October 3, 2015 IWhy can't a VST-enabled app... simply move on and not let that one buggy/old plugin get under its skin? Why are big, respectable apps at the mercy of one or two buggy plugins? With recent versions of SONAR, scanning happens in the background...you shouldn't have to wait all that long. But to answer your original question, the problem is the scanner is looking for something, and not getting an answer. So it keeps looking and waits...and waits...I suppose scanners could have a "If it doesn't answer after a minute or two, hang up and move on to the next one." But, another issue is that after the scanner tries to talk to the plug-in, the plug-in might then have to go out and talk to a copy protection dongle or phone home in some other way (e.g., file on a hard drive). Now, when you quit the scanner, it remembers that it couldn't find a plug-in and excludes it from future scans (hence the option to "re-scan failed plug-ins" in SONAR, or Studio One saying "Plug-in not loaded because it crashed last time" in its start screen). Some DAWs are better than others about this. A non-SONAR one that I don't want to diss just about has a nervous breakdown when it finds a plug-in it doesn't like. The only solution is to try again, see where it hangs, and remove or uninstall the plug-in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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