VST2 confused

Dorico
#1

After updating to 3.5, the VST2 plugin configuration is confused. Certain plugins (like kontakt) do not even show up in the preferences dialog where I can specify which VST23 plugins to block or allow. Its not on either list. But in PLAY mode I can see Kontakt, and a few other plugins are there available…

This is strange and must have something to do with old plist files from DOrico3 somewhere related to whitelist or blacklist, etc…

How can I COMPLETELY remove Dorico3 before installing Dorico3.5 to make sure its a clean install? or any other ideas why the VST2 plugin configuration would be wonky?

(ps - Kontakt doesn’t come in VST3 format, so that’s not it)

#2

Kontakt won’t appear in the list in the Play page in Preferences because it’s on the “factory” whitelist, along with NotePerformer. What plug-ins are you trying to use that aren’t showing up in Dorico 3.5?

#3

The controls in the dialog don’t do quite what you are expecting. In Dorico, VST2 plugins are effectively on one of 3 lists:

  • the ‘allow’ list (previously called the whitelist): the ones that the user has granted permission to allow. Dorico has a few plugins that are already on the system allow list, including Kontakt, NotePerformer and I think Aria. You don’t need to add Kontakt yourself
  • the ‘block’ list: the ones that are installed but the user hasn’t allowed them yet
  • the blacklist: plugins that crashed on loading and so for safety have been disabled.

This dialog doesn’t currently give more fine-grained control over disabling plugins such as Kontakt that are already on the system allow list, and there can be occasions where a plugin may appear on both lists if the user has allowed it but then it crashes on startup. It also doesn’t currently allow for disabling VST3 plugins (they are all enabled by default). We may rethink the structure of the dialog to make it clearer in the future, but for the moment, the intent was just to make it easier to enable plugins than having to write the filenames to a text file.

#4

Ok, so just to understand, you are saying that previously functioning whitelist or blacklist files…are now ignored? where were those before so that I can be sure and delete them? I really want to make sure all old stuff has been removed, because what I see now is non-sensical and I’m not sure how to fix it.

Right now I see two lists. Allowed plugins, which is empty on the left…and blocked plugins on the right with hundreds of items. Actually I later figured out that some of the stuff I saw added to the PLAY screen were all my VST3 plugins (which I have since removed entirely from my system other then steinberg plugins which don’t come in VST2 form).

the only plugin you guys are automatically adding to the list is Kontakt, but what other plugins out there might automatically be added at some point? None that I own apparently. Just as a hypothetical question, if I wanted to hide/block Kontakt, how would I do it?

#5

also is there any way for me to see which plugins have failed validation and are now blacklisted other then just not seeing them on either of the two lists?

#6

I was confused at first as well, but discovered that Dorico 3.5 now has a new section in:
Edit/Preferences for VST Plugins.

We build our whitelist there now.

#7

Sorry, a few posts were made I did not see before I piped in.

Aside:
Aria wasn’t atomically allowed for me. I still use the vst2 variants here (I heard there is a VST3 one out there somewhere, but haven’t bothered to track it down to try yet, as last I heard it only came in the two channel audio output variant).

#8

The list on the left is effectively an editor for the whitelist. Initially it shows you exactly what’s on the current list. The list on the right is all the VST2 plugins that haven’t yet been explicitly allowed. The editor allows you to add items to the whitelist from the list on the right. The blacklist was never user editable - it was an internal file created by the audio engine whenever a plugin crashed on startup.

Kontakt (5 and 6) and NotePerformer are the only plugins on the system whitelist (I was wrong about Aria). There’s no method currently of disabling Kontakt if it’s present.

#9

The Aria VST3 only produces a stereo output, which makes it more limited than the Aria Multi_output VST2.

I just went in and clicked “Allow All” under the Blocked list, and all my blocked VST’s ported to the Allowed list.

#10

Is there any way to view the current blacklist?

#11

Yes, unless I’m misunderstanding you, it’s the ‘Blocked plug-ins’ list on the Play page of Preferences.

#12

I think those are the plugins that I specifically elected to block. Where the list of plugins that failed validation?

#13

I’m not sure if those are exposed in the UI at present, but they are listed in the file ‘Vst2xPlugin Blacklist Dorico 3.5 AudioEngine.xml’ which I think is in ~/Library/Preferences/Steinberg/Dorico 3.5 AudioEngine

#14

I’d first have a look at %appdata%\Steinberg\Dorico 3.5 AudioEngine_64\Vst2xPlugin Blacklist Dorico 3.5 AudioEngine.xml to see what’s there.
In the Steinberg\VSTAudioEngine3.5_64 folder you will find the white list.

Ideally everything ought to be viewed and edited from within Dorico but for troubleshooting, it’s well worth starting by having a look at these two as so many, myself included, have found the vst2 migration has not worked quite as smoothly as expected.

OOPS --posts crossed. At least we seem to be in agreement!

#15

Thanks for this ^^^ just to correct the path where it was found was slightly different then you said, its found here:

~/Library/Preferences/Dorico 3.5 AudioEngine/