The option to rename plugins (or supply an alias) in the Plug-In Manager would be very helpful.
Most plugins have unnecessarily long names. It would be nice to rename Slate’s “Virtual Tape Machines,” for example, to the industry-recognized abbreviation, “VTM.” As is, even on my ultra-widescreen monitors, it gets abbreviated to “Virtual…es,” which isn’t attractive. And when it’s next to Slate’s Virtual Mix Rack (displayed as “Virtual…ck”), the two are easily confused.
Another example: By now, I know that Waves’ C1 is a compressor. I don’t need to see “C1 comp Stereo” (or “C1 co…eo”). I would rather see “C1” or “C1 Stereo.”
And this is where aliases would be further helpful. Rather than simply rename “C1 comp Stereo” to “C1,” which could be confused with the mono version of the same plugin, an alias could be used in the MixConsole, so that hovering over the plugin would reveal a tooltip with the plugin’s full-length name. This way, when we choose a plugin, we see “C1 comp Stereo” and “C1 comp Mono” in the plugin list, but once either is added, MixConsole simply displays the alias, “C1.” Short and sweet. I don’t need to know if it’s mono or stereo anymore.
The best of all worlds would be the ability to rename the plugin and provide an alias. This way, the plugins list and tooltip could show a long-form descriptive name, “Waves C1 Compressor (Mono),” while MixConsole simply displays “C1.”
Just a thought.
I hope this is helpful.