Content Folder for Dorico Pro 6 - some VSTs are Aliases, others are not: why is that?

[corrado]

Hi everybody,

I installed most of the libraries from the Steinberg Download Assistant that came with Dorico 6 and moved them to an external hard drive via the Steinberg Library Manager. Fortunately Dorico automatically put aliases into ‘/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content’, but for some reason, some .vstsound files (those which are not an Alias) do not appear in the Library Manager. Where do they come from? I’d like to put everything on my external hard drive if possible, but I am not sure how if I don’t know to which library these files belong.

I tried right-clicking on a VSTSound File and open it with Steinberg Library Manager, but I get the following message:
“No action was performed! The corresponding VST Sounds are already registered.”

I am confused as Steinberg Library Manager is reacting as though these .vstsounds were already installed, but I cannot find their file name anywhere inside of the libraries in the Steinberg Library Manager.

Can someone help me figure this out? I’d be very thankful if someone could help. Thanks in advance!

[benwiggy]

There is a permission error that sometimes occurs, such that the .vstsound file doesn’t get moved/copied to the Content folder, but an alias is used to point to the file back in ~/Downloads.

Ideally, you’ll need to move the files, because the Downloads folder isn’t really a good place for them.

I did post a Terminal command here to set more appropriate permisions for the Steinberg Content folders, so that the installer can work properly. I’ll see if I can find it.

[Ulf]

Hi @benwiggy , I think that file permissions are not the problem in this case, because @corrado already moved the files for which the symbolic link exists to an external drive, so I think that is all fine.

Before fiddling with the permissions I’d rather first examine the whole situation, i.e. first get a listing of all contents files and also a list of libraries that the Library Manager shows.

[Ulf]

Hi @corrado , so I propose that we first do some investigations.

Please open a Terminal window (spotlight search for Terminal.app) and into there copy and paste the line

    find /Library/Application\ Support/Steinberg/Content -ls > ~/Desktop/SMTGContents.txt

That shall create the text file SMTGContents.txt on your Desktop. Please zip it up and post here as an attachment.

Next, please open the Steinberg Library Manager and make a list of all the sound libraries it “thinks” are installed. On the right side of the window is a Details button for every library, please write down for each library the install location as shown in there. This step is a bit ardous and boring, but please bear with me.

Next is some questions: Do you also use other Steinberg software products like e.g. Cubase or WaveLab or so, and if so what version (only major version)? Other Steinberg apps may also come with additional contents.

Thank you for your effort.

[corrado]

Here is a list of all the libraries shown inside of the Steinberg Library Manager:

I just saw your new message/reply now. I will follow the instructions and reply to your new message.

[corrado]

Ok. now I am going to provide exactly what you asked.

Here is the .txt.zip:

SMTGContents.txt.zip (6,9 KB)

On your other questions:
Yes, I have Cubase installed, more precisely: Version 14.0.40 Build 369 (Apple Silicon) - Built on Oct 6 2025. I don’t have Wavelab installed.
When it comes to Dorico Pro 6: I have Version 6.1.10.6078 (Oct 8 2025), Dorico 6 AudioEngine Version 6.1.0.13

Here is the list that you asked. I created an extra document for that as well, as there were many things to write down. I hope there are no errors. You will see a table with all the file paths I saw when I clicked on the “Details” button.

Steinberg_Library_Content.pdf (123,8 KB)

Tell me if there is more you need to help me solve the issue.

Thanks again!

[Ulf]

Hi @corrado , thank you very much for the data, especially for the Steinberg Library Content file. That must have taken quite a bit of time to gather.

But basically everything is fine with your installation, because the aliases all point towards your external disc, so that is fine and expected, because first the installer puts everything into the default location (/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content/*) and then when moving them out to the external disc, the Steinberg Library Manager creates those aliases, so Cubase and Dorico only ever need to look at one place for the vstsound files, the aliases make it transparent to where they actually are.

But then there are more files without aliases in the default location. These are from the Cubase and Dorico installations, because there are vstsound files that don’t belong to a particular sound library, like e.g. the impulse responses for the REVerence reverb effect. That’s why they don’t appear in the Steinberg Library Manager.

Now, if you really want to move everything out to your external drive, then you need to do that by yourself. The principle is pretty easy, you move a file to wherever you like and in place of the original file you put an alias pointing towards the new location.

Did you get what I tried to explain? If not, don’t hesitate to ask.

[corrado]

Ok, so if I understood you correctly: I should move these files manually to my external SSD, and then manually create an alias back to the folder where Steinberg automatically created aliases for the other files, right? By doing so, these files are not going to ever appear listed under “Details” in the Steinberg Library Manager, because they are “extra” VSTs that don’t belong to any of the default libraries, right?

I just wanted to point out that it nonetheless seems strange to me, that an instrument like “FCP_SMT_047_HS_Tonewheel_Organ_01.vstsound” isn’t listed with the other instruments from HALion Sonic Factory Content, which also have _HS_ in their file names.

Another thing that I still find potentially suspicious, that in the directory ‘/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content/Groove Agent/VST Sound’, only shows 3 .vstsound files, even though the Library Manager in the Groove Agent section has many more .vstsound files.

I see that some of them (or all of the missing ones, I haven’t counted…) are inside the “VST Sound” folder, mixed with other Halion libraries (plus the Reverence_ImpulseLibrary, which you mentioned I think), but why is that? Is there any logic behind this placement? Would’t it make more sense if they were categorized in the same way as they are in the Library Manager?

The folder ‘/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content/VST Sound/VST Sound Updates’ contains a lot of other .vstsound files, but none of them are Aliases. Most of these files also don’t seem to be updated versions of anything, but rather just new libraries on their own, which are neither Halion or Groove Agent.

If I wanted to have everything stored on an external drive, how would you recommend creating a folder structure for this purpose? Would it be wise to have the same exact folder structure as in ‘/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content’? I kind of already tried to do that, but my folder structure is way more organized, as I put each library in a separate folder.

It would be fantastic if I could just use my folder “SteinbergContent” (maybe renaming it to just “Content”) and create an alias from there that replaces the “Content” folder inside of ‘/Library/Application Support/Steinberg’. I don’t know if this would work… Do aliases in general also “bring with them” subfolders? Probably not… Of course, if this could work, I would first need to put all the non-aliased files in my external folder and categorize them properly.

If you have any suggestions on how I could organize everything neatly I would be thankful to hear them.

[Ulf]

Puh, lots of questions and a lot to answer. Maybe I’ll forget something, then please ask again.

First of all, right, looks all messy, to me as well, but you have to understand that this is all historically grown over the last decades since the founding of Steinberg. Please keep that in mind.

That files from the same sound library are to be found in different subfolders is due to their “functions”. The biggest part of a sound library are the raw samples of the instruments. So e.g. a piano is sampled at different dynamics, then there must be some meta data which tells which of the samples is to be played when MIDI note on commands come in with different key velocity values. So all this information is what makes out of some raw samples the real sound, the sound patch, or - as we call them - the presets.
So you see at some stage it was decided to keep the preset data in one folder and the raw samples in another. And if you really want to untangle this “mess” on your external drive, you can do that, you can put any file anywhere you like, but adjust the alias to the original file.
And as already mentioned, some files don’t belong to a sound library, but Dorico resp. Cubase or other programs expect them at certain locations, so if you move out a file from the default install location, you need to replace the original file with an alias that points to the new location. It’s tedious, sure, but that’s what the Steinberg Library Manager was conceived for, you click one button and the manager does the rest for you.

Now, why does Dorico sometimes complain about missing content, but Cubase does not?

Well, Dorico keeps a list of *.vstsound file which carry preset data and checks for the presence of all of them. That is just a service of Dorico and to warn users, they might get no proper playback because some vstsound file is missing. Cubase does not do such check at start-up, it does not care. Because at the end of the day all vstsound files are optional. Cubase or Dorico will still be able to operate even if they are not there (but then with limited functionality.)

Next you ask: “I should move these files manually to my external SSD, […]?“ Well, I say it is up to you. But if you do, you better follow my advice about creating proper aliases.

Then you state: “It would be fantastic if I could just use my folder SteinbergContent […]“ I’m not sure on that, but in theory that could work, but then you have to keep on your external drive the exact same folder structure as there is/was on the internal drive.

My suggestion though is, why don’t you leave everything as it is right now? The majority of vstsound files (especially the big, giga byte sized files) you have already external, and that what is still on your internal disc, is so tiny, compared to the rest, it won’t make a big difference. But this is only my opinion. I’ve explained the background, you decide what to do.