Im massively disappointed when i see a plugin update only to find in the changelog: "VST2 depreciated, plugin now VST3 only"

If a new plugin release is only VST3 not 2, i am far more likely to ignore it.

is there any new tool that can spit out a VST2 if you feed it a VST3? or just any way to organize them

VST3 is auto-sorted into plugin brand name folders, often the same brand name changes slightly as the company progresses so you might have the following bullshit folders in the plug list:
iZotope
iZotope, Inc.
Izotope Corp

 

I prefer vst2, but if not possible, I just cut/paste *.vst3 in the same custom folder where I created subfolders as brands (example izotope) also together with vst2, then scan again the custom folder, it works.

 

You can change the "vendor" etc in Ableton database.. I posted this as a sort of workaround for sorting VST3s:
Is it possible to have more than 7 favourites Collections in Ableton? How to organise?

 

thanks, thanks quite useful.

Why does every vst3 plug need a folder in ableton? have no clue why they made this new system

Ableton's VST3 folder implementation sucks, and they dont seem to want to take any time off promoting & updating that silly plastic push controller

 

a standalone, drag-and-drop VST3 dll to VST2 dll converter could possibly be designed by some genius? it seems a fairly quick & simple concept, just the standard is closed to new plugin devs

 

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=565924

Wraps all VST3 plugins in a VST2 shell.

 

This looks brilliant.

 

I'm having issues accessing presets for VST3 plugins in Ableton Live 11.0.11

With VST2 plugins the presets are correctly shown in Ableton, not so when using VST3.

For most plugins I don't rely on presets much, but especially for instruments / synths with complex settings I of course want to save and load presets easily. Yes, most plugins have their own preset browser integrated, but there are quite a number of exceptions that don't have it.

So how do you deal with VST3 presets in Ableton?

 

I changed to a different daw

 

i tried to change to bitwig but found too much missing, maybe in a few versions.. bitwig moves fast!

 

I use the "Collections" feature to organise my VST3 plugins in ableton
eg set a few different colours to things like Drums, Bass, FX etc then right mouse click on a VST plugin and assign it to the relevant colour

 

lol I wasn't joking when I said I changed, the vst among some other things just pissed me off eventually. went to reaper- some growing pains there but now I'm a reaper head really love it. but I hardly used Ableton effects/instruments or there clip mode to produce so it wasn't such a shock

 

this is cool and i wanted to use this, but there is a max limit of like 7 colors currently so I couldnt find a use for it.
My sample folders and VST folders are both divided in more than 10 folders, the only use for Collections in ableton for me would be to organize VSTis

 

Kinda like this?

 

There is an easy way to do this, simply save the plugin as a preset. You can then organize & rename them in watever way you like.

Before you do that though if you plan to upgrade to the new browser you do not even need to bother with that as you can assign tags & then save filtered searches.

 

When editing the database, you can actually edit the vendor to be whatever you want. This means you can use the vendor as a sorting tool if you edit using the SQL editor software.

For example, you could delete the original vendor (red) and change to something like the green text below:

Serum - Xfer Records > Soft Synths
Spire - Reveal Sound > Soft Synths
Diva - u-He > Soft Synths

You would then no longer have Xfer Records, Reveal Sound, nor u-He within your VST3 list but instead you will find Serum, Spire, and Diva all within a single 'vendor' category called Soft Synths.

You could use this principle on all of your plugins and go as deep and as custom as you want, using things like:

- Soft Synths (Serum, Spire, Diva and so on)
- Drum Machines (Drumazon, Groove Agent, Battery, Roland Cloud TR stuff and so on)
- Samplers (Kontakt, Falcon, HALion and so on)
- FX - Compressors (Pro-C2, SmartComp, LA2A and so on)
- FX - EQs (I think you get the message by now.....

Might be a bit of work, but will be worth it if you're an organised kind of producer and it speeds up your workflow for every project going forward!

Hell, this approach may even break your prejudices and unlock some thing you'd never think of too, making you stumble across or try out new plugins instead of always going to the same vendor folder for the old tried and tested stuff.

 

Honestly why would you faff around in the database? Just save plugin preset as iZotope Ozone save it into a folder structure Studio/FX/Mastering/ however you wish.
Or just upgrade to 12

 

v12 does seem like it could have fixed this issue with tags, same for VST2