Hello out there!
Anyone use the Steinberg Cubase Plugin Manager but feel it’s a l’il bit, ahem, constrained?
I maintain 2 systems: a laptop (for out-and-about recording/composing) and a studio-based rackmount (to polish the proverbial 7urds I create whilst out-and-about!). I attempt to keep both systems fully up-to-date as far as their plugins are required and organise both near-identically as far as their (over-cramped) GUI’s are concerned in order to make it easier to slide between each platform as I’m working.
As such, I was wondering whether the Plugin Manager could be made to run as a standalone app. This would mean I can install new plugins and, as-and-when I need to ‘tidy things up’ following updates and installs, I can do so without the hassle of having to open Cubase.
I get the impression I am not alone in having a vast arsenal of VSTs acquired in the vain attempt to make my music better (it doesn’t!) but keeping them organised into folders and sub-folders (whether that be in the Windows file manager or within Steinberg’s Plugin Manager) has always been a time-consuming and never-ending task (yes, I AM overly-anal about such things but, then, so are a lot of other creators out there, it would seem!).
Joking aside, there are so many superb plugins out there these days that organising them appropriately, such that they’re readily available, really is a feat and a half. In a similar vein, I’d like to be able to tag each plugin for ready recall - so I don’t get distracted from the task of creating - and, pwiddy, pwiddy puurleaze, rename them too, to something I find useful, not the developer!
Whilst we’re at it, it would be great to be able to transfer such VST organisation from one system to another with a simple option just for plugin organisation.
[Yeah, yeah, I know that preference management is partially possible within Cubase, before all the fan-boyz join in … but I’ve only ever managed to move seamlessly between systems twice in my decades of using Cubase. Twice! Something almost always fails and I’ve learned from past experiences to simply recreate working environments from scratch because it’s easier than operating with ever-present subsequent ‘flaws’ that crop up a week-or-two later when you least expect them to!].
To be completely honest, I wish there was a readily usable ‘save preferences’ window for every aspect of Cubase, not just the plugins, as moving between systems has never been as straightforward as it could (should?) be. Or is it just me? Am I really an inveterate Cubase user, ex-Systems Oppo and ICT Consultant who simply cannot operate Cubase effectively!? Perhaps I am! Just let me know…!
Specifically, I’m just so fed up of losing settings, workspaces, organisational aspects and such-like between versions - especially as each upgrade appears to deliver a GUI which seems to get more-and-more complicated (often unnecessarily so, I feel) and harder and harder to use - I just wanna make music, not navigate ill-conceived interfaces suitable for 18-year old techy nerds!
[I’ve even resorted to attempting to manage the raw XML preference files to resolve such shortcomings but have almost always come unstuck at some point, despite saving multiple backup versions as I go along manually editing them, because it’s tediously time-consuming!]
So, Steinberg, please can we have an improved VST Plugin Manager which allows us creatives to readily organise our plugins in the way we want? And can you make it a standalone app too, while you’re at it? And, if it’s not too much trouble, can we be in control of how big those incy-wincy, ickle-lickle fonts are, even if it’s just inside the plugin manager window (app?) because the entire Cubase ecosystem is really hurting my eyes and preventing me from being as creative as I’d like to be!!!?
Cheers,
Steve.
PS I never really appreciated the works of E. L. James or Jasper Fforde so can we please stop the overly-heavy reliance on the 128, 128, 128 / #808080 / 0, 0, 0, 50 colour palette for Cubase!?