Missing VSTs - VST questions - just getting started

First some honesty. My plugin locations are a mess. They are all over the place. I have started GP for the first time last night and today I’m trying to get everything loaded and working. None of my NI are there. Is there a place in GP where I can add folders where other VSTs are stored?

How do you folks manage VSTs? With the Waves plugins and NI - plus EZ drummer and Helix native - I have a lot. The ONLY plugins that got found are Waves.

I noticed also during the install that only 64 bit plugins work. How can I tell when a plugin is 64 bit or not? And if I’ve purchased 32 bit VSTs, is it normal to have to repurchase, or upgrade?

Thanks. This is the beginning of a LOAD of questions as I get to know GP - yes, I am searching the forum before posting…

Menu>Window>Plugin Manager>Manage. You can set your folder locations there for vst and vst3.

Yes, only 64 bit plugins are supported. You can use something like jBridge to bridge your 32 bit plugins to a 64 bit format.

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“ yes, I am searching the forum before posting”

But perhaps you should look at the documentation. For example, your question about scanning is addressed in the user guide.

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Is there a performance hit using jBridge? I found two answers myself and promise in the future to spend more time before posting.

Ok, you are correct. I am already making headway and am too quick to ask…This will improve.

Any good vendor who is still actively maintaining their plugins will offer a 64 bit version. If they don’t, it’s good reason to look for alternatives.

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I use a few old free 32-bit plugins through jBridge and haven’t noticed any performance problems. I’d think that all jBridge does is put a 64-bit wrapper around the original, so it shouldn’t have to do too much. I should note that I have gotten an occasional error message on closing GP because of a jBridged plugin. Changing a couple settings in the jBridged plugin gets rid of them. Search on the error message and it’ll tell you what to do.

I am in the process of running updates on all my waves and NI stuff. And have contacted both NI and Waves about my products, and if they are 32 or 64 bit. In the mean time I’ve purchased jBridge. It takes 24 hours or so…Can’t run GP wile the NI stuff is updating.

I hope you don’t mind my asking this - its a two part question. 1. How do I find where ALL my VSTs are? The NI Komplete install leaves folders everywhere. Then if you do a search on .dll - well there will be too many. Didn’t do a great job of installing and I have a mess. 2. How do other folk organize their VSTs? Do you move them all into the same folder? Separate folders for different products?

Thanks muchly for the posts.

I’ve got mine in the directory structure that Ableton suggests because I used Ableton before GP. VST3s in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. 64-bit VSTs in C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins. And fwiw my 32-bit VSTs are in C:\Program Files (x86)\VSTPlugins.

A fairly common installation default for VSTs is to also include a Steinberg subdirectory under Program Files. You might want to look for that. Tbh, I don’t think I’ve seen any other than those two. So if you didn’t change the defaults, you probably only have those two places to look.

A lot of installers let you change the VST dir, but not the VST3 dir, so your VST3s are likely to all be in the same place already and whether or not they use subdirectories just depends on how they set up the installer. I don’t think it matters much, as once you’ve got things going, there’s not much reason to look in the VST directories.

Unfortunately and fortunately, the Problem is choice, as Neo observed. You can accept the factory default locations when installing or manually change them. You can keep the factory names when changing locations, or you can change the factory names and the locations. There are many good reasons for any of those choices, depending on your particular circumstances.

Since you are in the process of updating plugins from 32bit to 64bit, you might consider taking the time for some housekeeping and reorganization. The simple and always present way to find all of your plugins is through Add or Remove Programs in Settings - you know or will recognize the manufacturers, or easy to look up entries that you aren’t sure about. However, you may have to move any presets you have created to the new locations.

The other alternative, as you noted, is to look for the existing locations and update where required to those locations. In Windows, most VST files will be in either the Program Files or Program Files (x86) folders on your hard drive/drives. You can also search for VST or VST3 as most of the vendors use that file folder nomenclature for their VSTs.

You can even use Plugin Manager to do a brute force search - e.g. tell it to search C:/ drive. It will take awhile but you will be able to see the file folders and locations (click “Manage” button > “Show Folder Containing Selected Plugin”) and make the necessary search changes in Program Manager to cut down on the search time. Good luck!

I found my 64 bit NI VSTs. Now a painful process - Using my NI account, I can see which products I own. Then manually match VSTs with products to make sure I have everything. The same process with Waves. I’ve created 2 folders VST32 - VST64 and moved everything into these folders - added the 64 bit folder to GP and rescanned. This will make backing up the VSTs way easier. Finding them all, still a problem, and I may have to do some reinstalling. But getting there.

Thank you for the help and advice. I figured getting GP up and running would take a while…its a process. After the VSTs are done, I’ll start work on MIDI. And after that, I want to work on ASIO. It would be nice if GP didn’t tie up the ASIO for my audio device - so will try using ASIO Link Pro. I have this installed, but when try to run it, the app window keeps flashing. Few steps before I get there though.

Again - many thanks.

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GP specifically doesn’t tie it up - it’s the fact that your driver is not multi-client. Any audio application will tie up a single client audio driver.

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I did not notice this. It works great on Windows 11.

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Yup - I know. That’s why I want to use ASIO Link Pro

Send a private message if you need some help setting it up.

Very kind offer and I will take you up on this, however: Very new here and I cannot find how to PM you. I’ve looked at numerous vids on youtube, followed the instruction to the letter on the ASIO Link Pro site - uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times. As soon as I hit the Start ASIO button - the main window flashes on and off and I just did it and am going to have to reboot to shut it off.

bye-the-way - have ever noticed that with the L and K right beside each other on the keyboard Link easily turns to Kink? Reboot time.

And thanks!

Simply click on the round logo of the person and would see a blue box with “Message” that’s an easy way to send a PM…

Thanks keyman. If I click YOUR logo, I see Message. If I click mine, nothing, nor of the person I would like to PM. Does something have to be turned on before you can message?

Just click on an avatar (say @edm11 's avatar), and click on “Message”.

Type in a subject, text on body and then click on the Reply button.

Don’t look in your profile, you don’t want to message yourself :slight_smile:

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@KRTW has a valid observation - I see the Message button on most logos but not on @edm11. See below. Not sure if this is a one off or affects others too.


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