Query: what happens when N5 finds duplicate plugins?

I’m in the process of analyzing and cleaning up my collection of plugins (I have so many!.. :blush:)

I’ve found duplicates in various locations, and at least in one case there was an older version in one location and a newer version in another, both locations declared as VST2 plugin locations to N5. So the question came up:

How does Nuendo 5 deal with the duplicate plugins it finds in a scan? And especially, when they’re not of the same version number? Does it take the more recent one based on the date of installation or does it take a look at the version number? Or is it simply what it scans first?

I’m cleaning up things to avoid this kind of situation, but it would be a good thing to know how N5 selects from the duplicate plugins it might find.

Thanks!

Very interesting topic!

Because of countless updates, 64 bit research etc I am in a quite similar situation.

My personal findings till now:

I had for example 2 or more instances/versions of SIR on my system - no problem, Nuendo/Cubase used the latest.
I had - by accident - 2 identical dlls of Slate Master FX-G on my system - “plugin load error” - I had to remove both dlls - restart Nuendo - close - install one dll - start Nuendo - to be able to access this plugin again.

So it seems that it depends on the plugin…?

It is interesting because of another aspect as well:

I always wanted to have a “favorite” Plugin folder. Ok, since VST3 everything is “messed up” in some way, but at least the old-freebies could be organized manually - and it could be interesting to have a copy of the dll in a “favorite” folder for faster access…


Brandy

Thanks for the feedback, Brandy. It seems it’s best to keep a close eye on our plugins as installers aren’t as meticulous in their handling of older versions as they should be, and Nuendo isn’t as smart as we’d hope.

It would be useful to have the option of starting Nuendo without scanning the plugins at all so that we could then manually go through the plugins and enable/disable them ourselves in the plugin window. It would avoid the annoying startup freeze when the plugin scan gets stuck (a silly catch-22), and would be a better alternative than the archaic “remove and add back” technique recommended by Steinberg.