Some VST2 plugins not showing up - tho their VST3 versions are

I recently upgraded to Cubase 11 and am finding that the VST2 versions of some plugins I’ve installed are not showing up within Cubase, even though their VST3 versions are.

Most of my VST2 plugins show up fine, but the ones so far where no VST2 shows up are: Arturia Dimension D, Slate Digital’s Lustrous Plates and Klanghelm VUMT. Their VST2 .dll’s are definitely present in the same folder as all my other VST2’s, but they’re nowhere to be found within Cubase. Have searched for them in case they’re in some random folder within the plugin tree, and tried refreshing (re-scanning?) the list in plugin manager - but no luck.

Any ideas why they’re not showing up?

And if there’s no way to get these VST2’s to work, how are VST3’s these days? There was a time people would avoid them… but I guess they’re generally stable now? If so, no problem really, but thought I’d check.

VST3 plugins take precedence if both are installed - if you want to use the VST2 versions the rename the .vst3 files to .bak.

Better to stick to VST3 unless there is a particular bug with a specific VST3 plugin. I don’t even bother installing VST2 any more …if there is a choice.

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Thanks, did not realise this was the case, but found another thread that mentions it depends also on if the plugin developer gives their VST2/VST3 files different “I.D.'s” - which would explain why some plugins have both VST2 and VST3, and some only VST3.

The only problem I have with a VST3 plugin I’m currently a lot using is the bypass function doesn’t always work - of course this could be the plugin itself causing the problem, not the VST3 - but never had this problem with any VST2’s. Will try temporarily removing the VST3 and see if the VST2 then shows up, and if the bypassing problem goes away.

yes - it when the IDs match :+1:

I’ve seen issues with VST3 and bypass as well - For example the Boz imperial delay VST3 doesn’t bypass properly when you render but does in ‘normal’ playback - it’s annoying. (Boz knows about it but doesn’t feel the need to fix it !)

You don’t need to remove the VST3 - just rename it

Thanks, good to know (and about the bypass problem) - will try renaming the VST3.

just to be clear - by rename I mean change the .vst3 to .vst3bak or something