Other VST Folders

Dorico
1

In the settings of dorico i cannot find to configurate it to search for VST in different folders than the most common folders like
C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins, i have also a VST folder on a extra harddisk, caus i use a lot of third party vst’s.

I found that there are some xml- or txt-files that dorico is using and might be helpful.

Is there anyone that nows more about it or has any idea?

regards
dimugi (Dirk Mueller)

2

This is something that will be much easier in the next update because we’ve added a dialog to set the plugin paths in Dorico. In the current version though you need to edit the file:

 %APPDATA%\Steinberg\VSTAudioEngine2_64\Vst2xPlugin SearchPaths VSTAudioEngine.xml

Copy one of the ‘obj’ sections and enter a random number in the ‘ID’ field, eg on my machine I have this:

<obj class="FNPath" ID="148632048">
  <string name="Name" value="64 bit" wide="true" /> 
  <string name="Path" value="C:\Program Files\Crystal\" wide="true" /> 
  <int name="Type" value="1" /> 
</obj>
3

On my machine i have a different folder:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\VSTAudioEngine2_64

and a different file:

Vst2xPlugin SearchPaths VSTAudioEngine2.xml

where i added:

The whole file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

Later on i added also a file vstwhitelist.txt into this folder but with or without this file it doesnt’t find the vst’s.

This txt-file contains following:

EZkeys
Superior Drummer 3

These are the names of the vst-files without the ending dll.

A am using dorico 2 elements

4

The log file may give more information about what is happening. Could you go to the Help menu and choose Create Diagnostic Report, and then attach the file DoricoDiagnostics.zip which should be on your desktop.

5

I hope i did it well to create an add the file as attachment.
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (1.14 MB)

6

First of all, the file must be named vst2whitelist.txt and not just vstwhitelist.txt, please rename it.

Second, the audio engine finds lots of vst2 plug-ins, but not EZKeys and Superior Drummer. The ‘Vst2xPlugin Search Paths VSTAudioEngine2.xml’ looks correct at first sight. What is the exact path to those plug-ins?

7

N:\VSTIPlugins\Toontrack\ is exactly the whole path to these two vst’s.

8

In that case the xml must look like this:

9

I changed it like you wrote and now it looks that way and it works fine:

What if i put more subfolders in that directory, because i like to put my vst’s to that folder, there is more space than on c:?
Do i have to put an extry entry in the xml-file for each subfolder or is there a way that dorico can also search in subfolder by it’s own?

But i need to tell you that you did a great job helping me and by that way any user forum-user finding this treat.

10

Dorico automatically searches all the subfolders of each path in the configuration file.

Note, in the whitelist file, you put the name of the .dll file WITHOUT the name of the subfolder it is in.

11

Now i changed the last part of the file to:

It still works and should find also new VST’s in the future that will be added there in the folder or subfolder.

12

Changing the path to "N:" means Dorico will search everything on that disk. There are two possible problems:

  1. It might take a long time, depending on how many files and folders are on the disk
  2. It might find the wrong version of a VST, if you upgraded something but the old version is still somewhere else on the disk (for example in a backup folder).

IMO it would be better to restrict the search to where the VST’s should be installed, as it was before changed it.