House cleaning

[wst3]

I've been on this quest to clean up my plugin folders.

Yesterday I succeeded in reducing the number of instrument plugins from 805 to 161, of which I still need to check 62 of them to see if I really think I need them. The remained were deleted because they were older version or duplicates. Out of the remaining 161 only 5 are VST2 plugins, I think the vast majority of the deleted plugins were all VST2.

Why am I telling you this? The performance of Studio One v6.5 skyrocketed. It's like a new machine. I can only imagine what will happen when I thin out the collection of 1350 plugin processors and effects.

So if you haven't deleted all the unnecessary plugins yet may I respectfully suggest maybe you should at least look into it?

(Full disclosure - I made safety copies of my VST and VST3 folders - just in case, and no, I haven't had the nerve to delete those yet.

[Guy Rowland]

Interesting. Wonder if it's case for other / all DAWs?

[GR Baumann]

*reads Bill's post for the third time*

Allah on Jet Ski ! 805 Instrument plugins!

Of course Gustav Mahler comes to mind, 1910 in Munich, on the very first performance of No. 8 all together, 1030 Musicians were on stage.

[Guy Rowland]

Apparently I'm 863 in Cubase - 736 effects, 127 instruments. 61 are blacklisted, so I guess those can be subtracted. Some are VST2/3 duplicates. Waves takes up a lot in my case. The Q EQ is 14 plugins on its own.

Bill, when you say performance "skyrocketed", what specifics do you notice changing? Launch time of the app? Each project? Responsiveness when adding a plugin? General audio performance?

When I upgraded machines a lot of the unused plugins went. A lot of what is there is because I've used it in a project at some point or other, and is sat for compatibility reasons. I'm pretty happy with Cubase performance now, so I'm tempted to keep things as they are.

[Daryl]

The funny thing is that I'm the other way round. I delete everything and then add as needed.

[wst3]

The funny thing is that I'm the other way round. I delete everything and then add as needed.

I did that for a while, but found myself spending too much time installing plugins.

Keep in mind that number climbed to ridiculous because of duplicate copies, some legit (vst3 vs vst2) but the majority were the result of installers behaving badly, and me not keeping up with it.

Guy - the sequencer starts up quicker, projects load more quickly, and in general it just feels more responsive. The difference was not subtle.

[Guy Rowland]

Guy - the sequencer starts up quicker, projects load more quickly, and in general it just feels more responsive. The difference was not subtle.

Thanks!

I think because I moved to a new rig, much faster and threw out a lot of plugins then, I'm in a pretty good place now with Cubase. But it's a good reminder to not let things get out of control, and helps keep the GAS in check.

That said, one specific - I wonder if I can safely remove all my duplicate VST 2 plugins?

[wst3]

But it's a good reminder to not let things get out of control, and helps keep the GAS in check.

Yeah, I definitely let things get WAY out of control, a mistake I hope to avoid, at least for a little while...

That said, one specific - I wonder if I can safely remove all my duplicate VST 2 plugins?

If there is a vst3 version of a plugin you can safely remove the vst2 version, with the caveat that plugin replacement is still not universal, and it does not always work. I've yet to hit a problem with it this time around. (A while back I just blew away my vst2 folders, the results were not pretty! Thank heavens for backups!)