Clean install of VSTs

In an attempt to save hard drive space, I attempted to remove a number of VSTs installed by Dorico that I didn’t think I needed, but apparently I do after all. (I have no other VSTs installed outside of what Dorico gives me; I am no sound designer guru.) In so doing, I have apparently managed to muckup my Dorico installation to the point that the factory playback templates are gone, and most of the old files that I open spit out this weird dialog:

So I’ve been trying to delete and reinstall the Dorico VSTs from scratch, but this apparently doesn’t help. Removing them from the Steinberg Library Manager doesn’t get rid of all the files in /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content, and so I delete the rest manually. But then attempting to reinstall them from Steinberg Download Assistant gives me this sort of error:

I’ve tried clean-reinstalling the VSTs and even Dorico itself a couple times now to similar avail. Is there anything I can do to put everything right again? Bonus: once it’s all put right, what VSTs can I get away with removing without causing problems again?

Hi @Coranglais16 , looks like you really messed up your installation. I can help you in recovering, but since I am currently on a Win laptop, I can not lookup some paths on Mac. I will come back to you asap.

Can you not just restore /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/ from your backup?

That would be a good idea but I don’t back up my Library directory! I literally had never thought to do it, lumping it in with the System directory as one of those things you don’t back up because you can get it back with a reinstall—but obviously now that I think about it that’s not the case. All sorts of worked-out software preferences are stored there.

Now here comes my advice:

First stop Dorico from running, then go to the folder ˜/Library/Preferences (the tilde character denotes that the path starts in your home directory) and in there remove the folders Steinberg MediaLib, Steinberg MediaBay Server, Steinberg Library Manager and Dorico 5 AudioEngine .

Then go to /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/ (this path starts in the root of your Macintosh HD) and delete completely the subfolder Content and all its subfolders.

Then you open the Steinberg Download Assistant and install again all soundpackages that are recommended in the the download section for Dorico.

Once you did that, the Content folder(s) shall be full with files again and correctly registered with the Library Manager. Try again with Dorico, can HALion Sonic now load all sounds again?

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Finally got to take a look at this—the directions originally didn’t work, but I found I needed to restart prior to reinstalling everything. So now I appear to be back in business. Thank you Ulf!

Another question if I may: I now have a bunch of VSTs that I don’t believe that I need. Here’s what my Steinberg Library Manager has:

  • Flux
  • HALion Sonic Factory Content
  • HALion Symphonic Orchestra
  • Iconica Sketch
  • Indian Drum Basics
  • Olympus Choir Micro
  • Sonic Selection
  • Trip

Which of these can I safely remove via SLM without causing problems? In particular, Flux, Sonic Selection, and Trip seem loaded with synth-y sounds that I’ll never use. And since I have Iconica Sketch, do I also need 6GB of HSO as well? Removing VSTs with abandon is what got me into trouble in the first place, but given I am running a MacBook Air with non-expandable storage, I’d rather have the storage space than the extra VSTs.

Iconica Sketch does not have solo strings, so I think you do need HSO as well.

Flux and Trip, yes, sure, throw them out, but they are quite small anyway.
HSO is of course big, but it’s difficult to judge if you need it or not. It’s also about your personal taste. There are many people that find HSO awful, but I find them quite okay. Nothing that blows you away, but all very solid and decent. The Sonic Selection and Sonic Factory Content you definitely want to have because those sound libraries are needed for unusual or rarely used instruments, basically everything that is not contained in HSO or Iconcia.

I would definitely consider moving the samples to an external drive, rather than just ‘not’ having them.

The Steinberg Library Manager makes this easy to do.

That’s also something I wanted to answer and then forgot about… Thanks to @benwiggy for speaking it out.

Or presumably I could alter the playback template to assign solo strings to the Iconica string ensemble samples? I’d lose out on a solo string sound yes, but I don’t need such a differentiation in my line of work.

This is a good idea. But then I’d have to have an external drive be a permanent part of my setup, always plugged into my laptop if I want Dorico to not bother me about missing samples? Drives are small nowadays so it’s almost workable I guess.

I think it won’t even complain about missing files at startup. The reason is, when you move the vstsound files to extern, the Library Manager will move the files to the new external drive, but at the original location it puts a symbolic link instead. So with that in place Dorico won’t complain, even if the external drive is not connected (I think).

Ooo, ok, that’s worth a try I suppose. That would require a drive to play with.

I suppose part of this is wrapped up in my not realizing that SLM was necessary (or even that it existed) to remove or move VSTs. I had been working from the assumption that you just remove VST files from the Library directory manually and everything would be ok, like they’re regular preference files. Steinberg Library Manager seems to be magic, knowing where to put things and how to clean up after itself.

Ok so I removed Flux and Trip, and also the Indian Drum basics, but left everything else there, and all was ok for a few days, until today when all my playback templates disappeared! The only one left is Silence. I have done nothing to the playback templates since this all began. Does anyone know where they might have gone or how to get them back?

The playback templates disappear when Dorico can’t find the HALion libraries any more. So I guess that with the symbolic links, what the Library Manager does, did break somehow and now you are in that state. I think we need to do something more radical now, i.e. reinstalling really everything, but before doing so, everything needs to cleaned up really properly beforehand, going beyond that what I’ve earlier described. How about a remote session where i could assist. I’ll write you a private message. here via the board. Please check.

An update for anyone who’s looking to see how the story ended. In a joint remote session, Ulf found in the logs that I was missing exactly one file: FCPSMT139HSSEArtistSynthPresets02.vstsound, which should have been located at /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content/VST Sound. After putting that file where it belonged, I had to double-click it in order to register it with Steinberg Library Manager, and then I was in business. Thanks again to Ulf for his outstanding technical support!

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