Hi. I was wondering if there's a way to change the "internal name" of some VST2/VST3 plugin files

1. For example, in the past I had an old version of Spire that was shown in my DAWs as "Spire-1.1". Back then I didn't pay attention to that and started a lot of projects with it. Now there's a 1.5 version with a more convenient preset browser and other fixes. But when I install the new version it's just called "Spire" (without any digits in the name). So all the instances of "Spire-1.1" that I used in my old projects don't recognize the new version and don't load.
My question is: "Can I somehow install the newest version and change its internal name to match the old one?". So that the plugin would show as "Spire-1.1" for the DAWs, but in fact there's a newer version under the hood.

2. Slightly different scenario. I have some old projects that use Kontakt 5 + some more recent ones that use Kontakt 6 (and it's shown just as "Kontakt" in my DAWs). Now I want to switch to Kontakt 7, but for some reason it's installed with digit in the name again ("Kontakt 7" instead of just "Kontakt"). I would love to change all the instances in all of my project just to "Kontakt" and always have the newest version as "Kontakt" to be future proof. Like when the 8,9,10 come out I don't want to have 5,6,7 just for the old projects. Can I make the "One ring to rule them all"?
Or maybe it's possible to trick the DAWs somehow and make them recognize all of the versions as the same plugin... It would still be ok to have all the versions installed, but detected as the same thing.
I'm using Bitwig Studio and Ableton Live if that matters

For the first scenario I was thinking about using some kind of plugin wrappers, because I noticed that jBridge can change the name of a converted plugin. For example the x64 version becomes "Oxford Inflator Native.64" instead of just "Oxford Inflator Native" and it's not done by just renaming a dll file. But jBridge doesn't allow me to set custom names when I'm converting, it can only add ".32" or ".64". Does anyone know a plugin wrapper that lets the user set a custom name?

 

If the reported name changes, the internal save state layout likely changed as well and may no longer be compatible with states from previous versions. But you may be in luck. Depending on your DAW, you can open the project file in a text editor and manually change the name / plugin-id. Has worked for some plugins in the past for me.

As for Kontakt: There is a migration path for Kontakt 6 VST3 to Kontakt 7 VST3 if your DAW supports VST3 plugin migration. I believe other combinations, like Kontakt 6 VST2 to Kontakt 7 VST3, or K5 to K7 do not work.

See here for a list: https://community.native-instrument...ugins-that-support-vst2-vst3-migration-a-list

Quoting a Kontakt developer:

 

Last edited: Sep 1, 2023

That's cool. Never thought of it. But wrapping a new version with the old title would still be better if it's possible

 

changing the name worked for some plugins for me
Battery 1 to 2 (could not find the installer, needed old project)
3 to 2 didn't work, maybe the version was too new
i suggest to try renaming the dll and see what happens
and like xorome suggested Bacup the projectile(s) first.

renaming in registry worked too

 

Renaming dll/vst3 file doesn't work for me in such cases. The file itself can have the new name, but the DAW still sees its real version.
Do you mean "windows regedit"? Interesting idea, but there's no such parameter for Spire. And I still think the DAWs load the names from the source code

 

like i said it worked for me a couple of times.
Other way:
you could just install the old version make presets or fxb and then open them up with the new version