As the title suggest, is there a way or a script to Split plugin List by Vendor's name in Fl Studio ?

i have already done this manually, but it is really a long and exhausting procedures, not to mention boring.

 

Hehe, I'm sorting it the same way.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no easy way to do it but manually renaming the plugins and putting em into folders.

 

As noted by @r4e it has to be done manually. The process certainly can be automated but it needs to be a team work.It would take 25-40 thousand lines lines of C# source code and we are not even talking about the several thousand needed for the GUI definition files. All of that only to have FL Studio put a clamp on it. It needs to be a team work
At one point, I used to categorize them by vendor but with hundreds of plugins you keep asking yourself: what is x plugin? What hardware does it emulate? So I decided to group them by category AND more specifically by the hardware they emulate whenever applicable.It is tedious work but this method has given me vast knowledge, and more importantly it helps my workflow tremendously. It is easier to learn and memorize that the Urei 1176 LN makes the drums sound punchy, and adds a bright character to a sound, than trying to memorize what plugins A,B,C and D do. More so when the plugin's name doesn't even resemble or hints to the hardware it emulates. I have enclosed some files as example. I do it for effects as well as generators. If anyone wants me to share the files, send me a PM.

 

Last edited: Mar 17, 2019

That much C# code for what? For a sorting tool? Otherwise I can't see the reason for that ammount.

I mean it would be a nice idea to have such a tool around, like a plugin database manager
that knows all the features of a plugin and sorts em by category or what ever. Would be also nice
to be able to scan the current database and then manage everything automatically, based on
an incoded feature list. Another Idea would be to backup and restore that database
to be able to have the same plugin lists on several machines.

Therefore I once made a little script that worked until FL 20 but then became obsolete
because of the displacement of the plugin database into the documents folder.

Besides that it still works to easily backup & restore the database on other machines.

 

You could be right but I think Im being conservative with the estimated 25K. A similar one which is in the works has taken almost that much. Another one but for KSD presets is over 26k also. If you have some free time and want to team up with a couple of other guys and myself to work on it I am all for it.

 

Ye, time is the issue here but I'm very interested.
Btw. Nice ammount of Posts & Likes

 

That's why I refuse to use vst3 versions, I do it in a pretty similar way when I install the pluggies.

 

That plugin list tho! picking a plugin from there is alaways an adventure.

 

get studio one its better in every way and will do this automatically for you.

 

That's quite the collection you have there @The Pirate and well organised, too!
VST2's are easy to organise but is it still not possible to custom sort VST3's if the DAW doesn't support it or the relevant tags aren't embedded?

 

I did not understand your question. I would say that 95% of my VSTs are VST3. You are partly correct, if DAW does no support it or without tags embedded it is hard but not impossible. As I was discussing with another member, it will take lots of coding which equal lots of hours.

 

Oh, right! So, how did you manage to organise them, given that it wouldn't have been a simple task such as moving them where you wanted? & Was that just in one DAW or for all DAWs?
Thanks

 

If you really install vst3s they are automatically allocated to the folders the way the developer sees fit, at least afaik.

 

I know a very quick way to sort out the database manually by vendor,
You remove all your plugins by just renameing your plugin folder and make a new blank plugin folder
then run a plugin scan .This clears out the new plugins found list .
you then add say all your fabfilter plugins into the new plugin folder ,run a fast scan
and this addes all the fabfilter plugins into the new plugins folder in fl,

Make a new folder called fabfilter then right click on the new plugins folder icon in fl and choose open folder
then copy all the files from the new plugins folder into your premade fabfilter folder
then add the fabfilter folder into your main plugin database folder and there ya go.
you just repeat this with all plugin till there sorted,fastes way ive found so far

 

That is just for FL Studio. On other DAWs you need to learn how they go about sorting the plugins. Once yo got that info you can customize your plugin selection for each DAW. If everyone did it we could build a database and simply kept on adding. As I was discussing with @r4e, it some of us get together we could code an app that would automate that process for us.

 

The VST3 are automatically installed in the Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and generally grouped by manufacturer. That is where they reside, however, the sorting out has nothing to do with that. All my VST3 are still in that folder. The sorting out is done within the DAWs system.

 

That striked struck me as odd, too. Not to mention that would translate into like one zillion C++ code lines lol
So what I understand is that you developed a tool to organize your plugins and somehow export them to whatever format uses FL Studio internally. Is that right? That really would be hard and time-consuming. Toontrack EZMIX has a very powerful presets database browser that does that. Of course, it only manages its own presets so it's way wayy easier than what you did.

Haha, I remember somebody told me that when I had 1024 posts and 512 likes. No need to explain more in the context of this talk ;) True history. I forgot to take an screenshot, too bad!

Edited: now that I think of it, JUCE's framework comes with a plugin scanner and tester with source code included. The DDMF Metaplugin developers were fairly criticized by some because basically they took that source code and they didn't even bother to improve the scan process (like they do in Plogue Bidule, Blue Cat Audio, for instance)

 

Last edited: Mar 20, 2019

@Xupito That much coding is not far from reality if we want to make one app which can work in all major DAWs is not going to be so simple. Take for example https://presetmagician.com/license/trial. When she started the project I didnt think it was going to take this much. The developer, she has almost 30k lines in it and she keeps adding more. This girl is a beast. I will check that scanner from J. That sounds like a way to streamline some of the work.

 

Indeed, if you want a tool that somehow exports plugin organization to every major DAW format or whatever way they store it that is big task.

 

I use this small tool, helps with sorting by vendor:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/3thaujqcn7yb/FruityFolders.zip

Extract this and put .exe in root folder (eg. PluginDatabase-Installed-Effects-VST) and run.
Repeat for VST3 folder if needed (or Generators-Installed).
Unsorted plugs will be in NoName folder.
Original files are left in root folder /erase them or leave them there/.