As shown some time ago for the Mac, today’s tip shows you how to organize your plug-ins on windows, in order to find and load them quickly into Blue Cat’s PatchWork or MB-7 Mixer.
'When VST first came along, everyone was making VST conversions, trying to squeeze desktop applications into a plug‑in. I wanted SynthEdit to integrate somehow with Cubase, but I didn't want a synth‑building user interface squeezed into a tiny plug‑in window. This plugin is free to use for commercial or non-commercial use, but is copyrighted and cannot be distributed without permission. Download & Installation. Click 'Download', open the downloaded zip file and extract the dll file to your VST plugin folder (Cales32.dll if you use a 32-bit host, or Cales.dll if you use a 64-bit host).
As you will see, It’s no rocket science, and this will greatly improve your experience and reduce the time to load your plug-ins.
Spending Too Much Time Looking For Plug-Ins?
Some people have been asking for the capability to load the plug-ins directly from the menu instead of having to open an Explorer Window. While this may be added in the future to our software, be aware that it may never beat what you can already do today with the Windows Explorer or Finder, as you will see below…
How To Make Vst Plugin Easy Minecraft
How To
On Windows, whatever you do, your VST plug-ins folder will probably quickly look like a huge mess, unfortunately…
There is however a very simple way to overcome this issue and organize your plug-ins properly: it will just take you a few minutes!
To quickly access your plug-ins, without modifying the original install locations (for optimal compatibility), just do the following:
1. Create a new folder somewhere convenient on your system. For example in the ” My Documents” directory.
2. Label the new folder as “Plug-ins”.
3. Drag it into your Sidebar Favorites section to make it available as a shortcut there.
4. Go to your VST plug-ins folder.
5. Right click on each plugin you want and choose “Create shortcut” (multi-selection works too).
6. Move these shortcuts to your new folder, and create sub-folders to organize them.
Here you go! You can now access plug-ins quickly using the shortcuts, inside the appropriate folders:
VST Plug-Ins organized into subfolders, directly accessible from the Favorites Sidebar
Additional Tip: You can also choose to add several folders to the favorite bar instead of a single one, to access directly the mostly used plug-ins that you use most of the time.
One More Tip: It is possible to add a shortcut to the same plug-in in different folders, as it may be valid for several categories.
Not Fancy Enough? Add Some Icons!
Once you have properly organized the plug-ins thanks to shortcuts and linked to them from the favorites bar, you may want to add some colors to it and change the icons. You can set a different icon for each folder, and even for each plug-in:
Plug-Ins Folders with Custom Icons
With custom icons, it is even easier to find the plug-ins: a glance will suffice to pickup the right one!
Free Search Included!
And one more thing… Did you know that you can then use the standard windows search feature to find the plug-ins? Just type in a name and you’ll get it instantly!
VST Plug-In Search Included !
Conclusion
Simply using the Windows Explorer properly and taking the time to organize things will greatly improve the plug-in loading experience. There are even features that are not available in most host applications (how many do provide custom icons and search?).
Writing Vst Plugins
Do you still need an included plug-in menu? Please discuss below!