There are a lot of things that Cubase does exceptionally well, or I would not be here. It’s the first, or one of the first, DAWs to implement chord tracks, and it has some of the best MIDI editing flow of any DAW; and many aspects are very convenient and easy to use. There’s just one particular gripe I think I need to share, because it may be that not all of us newbies understand what we’re doing in this regard, and maybe my concern here will help educate us newbies as to the ACTUAL proper way to make a smooth workflow - for those with a couple of thousand plugins that is. Yes, because I research audio plugins, I’ve amassed quite a number of them, and unless I’m missing something, Cubase is not quite accessible to “plugin collector” newbies like myself. For this “big plugin library scenario” it seems to fall short in one particular way. Other DAWs with simpler approaches are just doing nothing and yet manage, for my particular need, to be more accessible.
Prove me wrong here. I want to learn.
When I try to load an instrument (sometimes I’m adding one or 2 to my library per session) I get met with options that seem to reflect the categories in the VST Plugin Mgr:
Among the choices being Default, and All instruments. Normally the “current” folder is the only one I have access to unless I go back into the VST Plugin Mgr. (If I want to load an effect I believe the process also reflects the “current” folder (the last folder I navigated to within VST Plugin Mgr.
The problem here is that unless I painstakingly add my own folders, its totally hit or miss as to whether my Instruments or Effects will show up accessibly in the default or “all” listings cubase-DAW-created folders. (That’s my point - why are user plugins ONLY deposited in folders? Why are they NOT available alphabetically?) For example, right now I’m trying to find Chordjam, by Audiomodern. I haven’t yet added it to my custom folders (my instruments by company and my instruments by category). But I should be able to go to a default listing, where there’s simply an alphabetical or by-create-date listing. That way I don’t need to add everything to custom categories.
The folders Cubase has created are impenetrable. Although I know that Chordjam is in the main listing of instruments to the left side of the VST Plugins window, its simply not found by opening up ever y single Cubase-DAW created folder (e.g. Other, Drum, Effect [Effect is a choice in the Instruments dialog mind you] Kong Audio, Generator, Sampler, Synth, Pitch Shift, etc.). The “Other” folder is apparently NOT THE SOLUTION, because so often it WILL NOT HAVE, the missing plugin. And yet the missing plugin will be in Cubase’s list (to the left side of Plugin Mgr), BUT WILL NOT be available for me to select. Further, when I drag it into a custom folder then I see that there’s no problem with the plugin - aside from my not having been able to find it in Cubase’s self-created folder structure. Please tell me I’m completely missing out on how these whacky Cubase-created folder structures can be worked around, without that tedious process, because I’ve gone into all of them and Chordjam isn’t in there AFAIK. (I suppose I could just add every single plugin into a single custom-created root folder. But this is what other DAWs seem to be doing as part of their automatic initiation routines. )
I should somehow just be able to navigate a list of all my plugins (at least the ones, in this case, that Cubase agrees fall into the instrument category, along with a handy second list of those grayed out plugins that are categorized as effect or “failed to load” - at least then I would know why Cubase hasn’t made Chordjam available. {But in my case, these ‘folder buried’ plugins were actually working fine, including Chordjam).
Its obvious using other DAWs that many plugin companies are doing something non-standard (maybe there is no correct standard) in terms of placing some sort of header info as to the plugin developer name, etc., so I realize its not Steinberg’s fault that they can’t categorize things very well. But that’s not my issue. My issue is why can’t I just navigate to a list of all available instruments (or see blocked plugins in case my plugin isn’t found in the available list). I think some support requests that Cubase support people field pertain to plugins that are actually in the VST Plugins main listing (left side) but are tricky to find in the Cubase-created folder structure.
In another post I mentioned that the drag and drop in this user-customizable folder structure within VST Plugin Mgr isn’t functioning that smoothly; things accidentally get deposited in the wrong folder (more than occasionally), unless one is extremely accurate with the mouse. So its really that issue and this lack of “full listing” that combine to be problematic.
[Note, is there a non-mouse way to alphabetize these, since dragging results in accidents? For example, if I up-arrow on windows, it navigates up and down, but if I hit Ctrl-UP it highlights the above folder. Is there a keystroke combination that will “MOVE UP” & “MOVE DOWN” the folders so I can easily get them alphabetized without these accidents?]
But honestly, who wants to edit their plugin lists, either creating their own big list, or adding new folders, simply to be able to find a new plugin? Permitting Cubase to re-create this VST Plugins list from which to load instruments and effects should be possible (including at the bottom the problematic plugins sorted by their problem “grayed out” categories, hence notifying the user of the problem - I realize the knowledgeable user can already find this out - but including it in the “add instrument” or “add effect” process would seem helpful in my view).
I feel I must repeat, the “Other” folder is not helping in my case. By having things hidden in folders, when typically “Other” does NOT have my new plugin, its up to me to either 1) open up every Cubase DAW-created folder, or 2) create a custom folder and place it there. I tried option 1) several times in the past months, and could not find the plugin, only to find it on the left side, working beautifully.
I hope people will not get on board with this - but instead will tell me how to configure Cubase so the issue is a non-problem.
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