Im on mac, i have a lot of the arturia stuff installed. I just realized the arturia folder is 60 gigs in size!!! For some freaking soft synths!?!?? I tried searching here, but either didnt do a good job, or couldnt find a similar post.

I started digging into the folders, and saw there are VST, and VST3 files inside of each plugins folder, but there are also VST3 files inside my actual VST3 plugins folder, where i installed them. Does anybody know what these duplicate VST and VST3 files are?

inside library/arturia/Pigments as an example.

Im also wondering if i can delete bitmap files, or at least some of them. The bitmap folder for Acid V is 260mb. Inside are 5 folders, 60, 80, 100, 140, 200%. I only ever use default size, so i wonder if i can delete the rest.

Im going to experiment, and just start deleting stuff, but wondering if anybody has any experience with this, in case i delete something that may be needed at some point down the line.

Also, WTF arturia!??!? get it together, its 2025.

 

Arturia desperately need to rethink and revamp the way they are doing their plugins. The bitmap thing is fucking ridiculous and costing everyone so much space consumption on their hard drives. It's super ridiculous that they create different ones for the resizing. I also don't think their skeuomorphic designs are even all that great, would be better if they were just way more simpler and lightweight.

 

this is why I avoid their synths. Sometimes, Acid or Pigments, maybe a few individual ones. And then I use FX if I like them. even those are too big, but a few are more worth it.

You are on a Mac doing this? I would make a folder on your desktop, and instead of deleting stuff; I would just stick anything in there. When you figure out if those files are unnecessary get rid of the whole folder. Something like that.

 

Yah its pretty wild. I just wrote to them, stating my frustration and refusal to spend another cent unless they address it lol. im sure that'll teach em!

I only use a few as well, but a few of my collaborators use them often, so i need to keep em installed or i would vanquish them in a heartbeat. I'll try like you said, just do a safe backup. Thanks!

 

Don't delete anything, you will break your VSTs. There's no way around this. I had some issues with it too, not because of the size, but because I installed my stuff on an HDD and it took 30 seconds to load that stuff (thankfully I upgraded to SSD).
Someone should make a "repack", disabling the resize options (like pick the one you want at the install) because indeed, this is silly.

 

From what I can remember, each bitmap file corresponds to a button here or an option box there, and without all? you'll get errors. The problem is, the way Arturia have added things to their setup over the years has steadily built up to a ridiculous amount of single files.
They would need to start again if they wanted to redesign everything, and I really don't see that happening, Ever!

Even deleting what clearly looks like duplicates will have a knock on effect. You might be fine with the way things still work, but down the line, you'll find a partial synth opening, or a red screen behind the synth or buttons missing.. all those sorts of things.

lol. I can see them quivering in their boots!

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2025 at 7:43 AM

There is no point in getting upset or complaining to Arturia. Arturia will keep things as they are.
It is pointless to delete files without a plan, as you risk your plugins becoming faulty or not working at all.

Try deleting Arturia plugins that you use little or not at all to free up more storage space.

How to manually uninstall plug-ins on macOS

You can also delete presets that you don't need in the "User" folder: C:\ProgramData\Arturia\Presets --> then open the "User" folder for the respective plugin.

 

so against all warnings, i tried anyways. Figured what the hell, i can always re-install if i break it. So far, i have had no issues. I deleted the smaller sizes, 60, 80, 100, 140 bitmap, as i found deleting the largest size, 200, broke the plugin. It wouldnt even open with 200 missing, but the rest of them, it opens just fine. I deleted them, emptied my trash, restarted the computer, opened the plugin, and interacted with every single knob, fader, sub menu, etc. i clicked literally EVERYTHING, loaded presets, sent it midi, used the built in arpeggiator, FX, opened the plugin within analog lab, and also tweaked every parameter within that ecosystem. Ive so far done it with 5 plugins, all of which i did the above, and all which are so far working fine. Fingers crossed nothing arises in the future, as you could easily be right.

Things i deleted.

The extra VST and VST3 files inside of each instruments folder, the smaller bitmap folders, and the third party/native instruments presets, the nksf files for loading the plugins inside of komplete or whatever that is. The native instruments folder alone is 50-100mb. Each VST or VST3 is at least 50mb.

Something even more insane i found. The augmented series has DUPLICATE folders of bitmap files. i deleted the one that is not in the "bitmap" folder, and again, everything working fine. No glitches, tweaked every single item in the UI. Arturia must be smoking crack.

I cant uninstall them, as some collaborators send me sessions with them. I could just have them freeze everything etc, but i prefer the ability to tweak if needed. As far as presets go, i like having them all, as with my Minilab controller, i can load random presets in analog lab without looking at or interacting with my computer monitor. I love this workflow, because it delivers unexpected results. I dont have massive gigs of presets anyways, just 1.5, enough for me to live with. The 60 gigs im trying to delete is from these bitmap files and the duplicate VSTs.

 

Use and external drive to move the Arturia folder from Library. Then you symlink it, this way you free up that Space on Mac. If you don't use the Arturia plugins often, you can connect that drive only when you really need them.
I did the same, also with Nexus, Softube and UVI.

 

Arturia is a shitshow. This absurd wasteful approach to how they've implemented everything is something they should have gotten under control 15 years ago. It's bad enough now I'm willing to forgo the few plugins I like just to have nothing to do with them.

 

ON win10 here, but I removed all that arturia stuff OFF the system drive as well (via symlinks) and on to my system storage drive (not external). The arturia installer does not allow much leeway for the end user on where to put things and exactly what things to put there. The install just dumps a shit-ton of stuff all on your system drive. Then it's up to you to clean it up. This is mainly in reference to the analog labs package but it seems arturia does this same kind of thing with all their heavily bundled stuff. I ended up removing AL altogether because it just wasn't up to par with other instruments that I have installed that take up way less space and that are much more authentic sounding. The uninstall is apparently not as involved on pc as it seems to be on apple. Used REVO for the uninstall and ultrasearch post-uninstall to clean up anything left over. The whole process took no more than 5 minutes. About the only thing arturia that I use anymore is Pigments and that's about it.

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2025 at 10:17 PM

Yeah, the Arturia plugins all sound the same anyway, somehow. But the guy here needs the help for compatibility with the projects sent by his collaborators.

 

I did this, and the plugins were taking ages to load. 30 seconds or so, and each time going to a different sub menu within a plugin was another 5 seconds. With a lightning fast SSD glyph drive.

Its insane. at this point i doubt they will ever implement a fix.

it took me a bit of experimenting, but seems ive figure out how to manually delete the heavier stuff without it affecting performance of the plugin. Fingers crossed it holds up long term. Storing on an external drive did not work for me.

 

Every plugin with a big library that I use is like this too. To make it a little easier to setup libraries/big content on an external drive, you can use an Alias for each one instead of a symlink. An Alias is easier to create in the Finder for many users, and they do not screw it up anywhere near as often as creating symlinks in Terminal.

Put the content folder onto the external, right click and hit Make Alias. Drag the alias file to where you want to make the system look from the normal default installation location to the target folder on the external. It does not get much easier. The best part is you can put the folders on the external at the volume's root directory. Example: /your external drive volume name/Steam/

 

great tip! i do use aliases as well. Ive encountered some plugins that did not react well to an alias though, and had to use symlink. I forget which, but its been a few over the years. maybe the cradle plugins were some.

 

I'm too lazy to dig into the Arturia mess. I just transparently compress the Arturia folder.



Saves about 22%.

Many options on Windows. For Mac, there's Applesauce and afsctool.

Just skip the pngs, there's nothing to be gained by compressing those.

 

Yes I understand you, but it's advisable to delete Arturia completely and reinstall it. When reinstalling, remember to completely delete this folder C:\ProgramData\Arturia first, otherwise the new installation will just overwrite the old installation and your directory will get bigger.