It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

There's so many basic things that are still missing from Pro Tools... things that people have literally been requesting for 10+ years!

Not having some sort of plugin manager within ProTools to tell it which plugins to load (or not load) has got to be one of the FUNDAMENTALS of building a rock solid working environment, yet we STILL don't have one.

Having to manually move plugins to an "UNUSED" folder?? What decade are we in?? :eek:

Dear Avid... maybe you could stop faffing around with whatever ideas YOU think are cool and actually implement the things that your paying customers actually want!

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I'd +1 this suggestion. Didn't think about it as I've done most of this manually, plus with all the UAD stuff it's a moot point...

It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Maybe one day...

In the mean time enjoy your loops :P


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Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Ha ha exactly!!

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

What does "load" a plugin mean? Why would any DAW load a plugin that's not currently being used? I assumed plugins are loaded as you insert them. Even a "plugin manager" sounds superfluous. :confused:

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

sorry if i am stupid, but what does this mean "some sort of plugin manager within ProTools to tell it which plugins to load (or not load)"

load or not load is the question (no pun) .. why would you be Not Loading some plugins ?? normally we all load up all the plugins we have at once and then pick and choose from within PT ..

what issues or Workflow needs (a better way to say this) do you see or need ??

again, i am just not understanding why you would not just load up ALL your plugins at startup of PT ..

cheers john

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

The OP wants to be able to launch PT with "plugin sets" loaded for various purposes.

Imagine having a "composing set" loaded when you're writing so that when you go the plugin menu, only your VIs (and whatever else you want) are shown. And when you're mixing, your "mixing set" doesn't have any VIs, but all your favorite processing plugs. I get it.

Doesn't make sense for how I work, but I see the appeal.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

you know what would be better?

saveable effects chains/channel strips..

you know, like every other daw has been able to do for like 10 years now.


and i know you can hack it.. but thats not the same.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

two different and desirable things to different people.

And the hack isn't even close to the real feature, it fact the "hack" is really a different thing entirely.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

One of the biggest causes of instability with Pro Tools is 3rd party plugins.

The fact that there is no practical way to tell Pro Tools not to load a plugin to see if that is causing issues.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I still don't think any DAW should be loading plugins until you actually insert them. Really, what's the point? So you don't have to wait 374ms for it to load during a session? Wouldn't the DAW startup faster anyway though? So you wouldn't be losing any time. It's not like a software instrument where you gotta wait for samples to load so they can be there when you actually perform/record. And even then, no DAW loads all samples to all plugin instruments on startup. So I really don't get this plugin "loading" thing.

As far as being able to create plugin "sets," I'm all for it. But why does that mean the plugins should load on startup? Again, why not just have them load as you insert them? Never again would anyone have to worry about a plugin crashing their DAW on startup.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I assume you are referring to something Studio One does... Examining each plug-in and only allowing those that pass the stability test. If so, I agree. This would be a big time saver.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

The purpose of the preload is twofold.

1. You don't have a plugin crashing a session because you add it and it's not compatible.
2. Settings and globals can be shared across a session instead of having to be reloaded every time the plugin is added.

It does make sense, but it would also be nice to have a better way to manage it.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Yes, most DAWs scan the plugins ONCE, then don't do it again unless you tell it to re-scan (like when you buy a brand new plugin). PT wants to scan them all every damn time you launch the DAW which is super-annoying when you have lots of plugins, or when you're only restarting because PT crashed. Ever launch Reaper? Loads in like 2 seconds when plugins have already been scanned. Another nice feature of a plugin manager is that you can arrange the plugin menu to look exactly how you want.

I'm sure this will never happen since Avid is so out of touch and is more focused on collaboration. I record bands who do not have Pro Tools, I'm not regularly collaborating on sessions with other engineers.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

i agree, for both troubleshooting and creative reasons a manager is needed.

The old Plugin Manager here

http://www.maisonsonique.com/index.p...-software_side

still works to an extent on 12/aax. You can assign a folder to WAVES to check off individual plugs rather than the whole shell BUT the manager is now not supported and last time I checked it wouldn't recognise plugins within manufacturer folders e.g. Soundtoys / UAD so you had to manually move these around and when updating them that's when it all got a bit messy. Still is nearly there.

I thought maybe someone should start a kickstarter for Pete Gates or someone to make a manager, Pete's must have PT Prefs program lists the plugins on a separate tab but currently does nothing management wise.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Another thing would be a check for potential conflicts. I'm sure I'm over simplifying this but the idea that we need to search for "trouble causing" plugins is ridiculous.

If they can't tighten the spec they can at least do as the requester asks and give us an easier way to do this.

C

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Ironically, I think it's because the spec is too tight that there are sometimes issues.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Yes, pretty pretty pretty please!!

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Having fiddled a LITTLE bit with Cubase, I do love their custom plug-in set manager. I like having most of my plug-ins... available. But really, I'd prefer to make my own categories and stick my few preferred in each folder, in my own preferred order. For instance, iZotope's Ozone does not belong in "Dynamics" for me. That's "Master-Channel Processing". For Instruments I want "Drums", "Sample-Based" and "Synthesizers" (and I get to pick what goes where). In PT , every time I have to put an instance of Kontakt on a new Instrument track, my finger joints yell at me from the clicking and scrolling to get down the list.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Why don't you sort the plug-ins by Category and Manufacturer and put the ones you use the most in the Favorites List? I find it easier to look plug-ins up by Manufacturer. Also, I set my Favorite plug-ins to User Preset so when I select it, its already at the setting I normally use. As always, YMMV

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

It seems the amount of plug-ins you own/have installed is nowhere near the amount I have on my system. Not even close :D

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I've got near or over 200 plug-ins installed.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Counting Waves Q10 as 10 plugins, yea? :)

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Some of us do have a ton of plug-ins. I have 349 ilok licenses, many of which include bundles, plus Waves Mercury, plus all that have individual computer stored authorizations. Probably somewhere between 600 and 800 total.

I would welcome a more robust solution for categorizing, including the requested plug-in manager whenever resources permit.

Having said that though, I do manage to get by without any real tragedies the way things are.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

People who "need" more than 10-ish plugins are doing something wrong if they can't get a superior sounding session with that count. I am talking about GOOD plugins ... we all know what that means :cool:

I mean who has 500+ plugins and why !? Thats just insane! We have maybe 100 plugins included VI (not counting NI KU10) installed and we use maybe the same 10-15 plugins all the time so the rest of the plugins are just there. And the other 200 which are bot used anymore are not installed.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I also have a dozen go-to plugs but it's still sometimes nice to have variety just for kicks. But having +500 plugins installed would derail me from what I'm doing...

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Waves Mercury alone is over 150 plug-ins. Of course I don't use more than about 20 different plug-ins (including VIs) on a typical session. But there are times when I look for something I don't commonly hear, that's why I buy most everything that seems interesting to me. I also like the idea of supporting boutique developers.

This does make the plug-in list a bit less manageable though.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

With all due respect to you all, I think you got it wrong.
One of the biggest causes of instability with 3rd party plugins is Pro Tools :D . Not the other way around. Check out other forums and see for yourselves. Logic X, Studio One, Cubase, etc... Not as many problems as PT.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Yes, that's my experience as well. It would have been nice if Avid had decided to implement the VST spec instead of creating AAX.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Relatively new to Pro Tools (less than 3 years) and clueless. I know a company that boasts a plug-in manager that separates DirectX, VST, MIDI Effects, Media objects and Control Surfaces. Since PT communicates with far too much stuff: hardware, controllers and software used in diverse industries (audio, film, media & broadcast, scoring...), it will be interesting to see how Avid can implement a plug-in manager that adds AAX to that complexity.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

This topic originally posted a year ago and then got a bump in October 2017, here is the New Year 2018 bump.

It's 2018 and "industry standard" PT still doesn't have a plugin manager.

I just went Universal Audio and having a bunch of UAD-2 plugins on my drop-downs that I haven't authorized is frustrating. Google searching "Pro Tools Plugin Manager" found this thread.

I will go through the files and move them in the meantime, but from what I've read, every update you have to go through this process again. Also, I think Universal Audio is the only plugin manufacturer that have ever installed plugins on my system that won't work unless activated by free trial or purchase.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

+1. Absolutely ridiculous. Remove everything, then load them one by one and check by trial and error.

I like what Studio One does, it prevents incompatible plugins from loading.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

UA and IK Multimedia both do this. I tend to avoid updating unless there's a need to since I too comb out the unauthorized plugins. I don't want them in my plugins menu.

Personally I believe the onus is on the plugin developer. I have complained to both UA and IK Multimedia that their installation process should only install what I have license for but neither was receptive to the suggestion. Waves and others provide a managed installation process so it's definitely feasible.



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Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

One thing I like is the menu where you can sort by type or brand.

What would be nice would be a favorites tree that could be sorted by brand, manufacturer or type.

Doesn't seem like a huge deal but those of us with Diamond or Mercury have a lot of EQs or Comps and looking at Waves is daunting as well.

First world problem!

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Don't know about IK but it wouldn't be in UA's interest, or I guess some of it's users, to only install the plugins you've bought. After all, part of UA's system allows you to attempt to load a olugin you haven't bought, and then get a 14 day demo before buying.

And, of course, you probably know that everytime you buy a plugin, all your demo plugins get reset, so you can have 14 day demos for a plugin you multiple times, if you are not ready to buy it yet.

But I'm with you, I prefer not to see the plugins I don't own, to save clutter.

For me, I do the following ...
1) Use the UA Console plugin manager to hide (in Console only) the plugins I don't own, and
2) While that window is open, use it to help remind me which plugins I don't own, and so need to move to the unused plugins folder.

To be honest, I mostly KNOW which ones I own ;-)

I have also created an unused plugins folder that I move AU and VST plugins to. It only takes me a couple of minutes to select them and move them.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Yes, it's 2018 and the "industry standard" Pro Tools still doesn' have Track Folders or even folders in the Clip List. That is just insane.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Yes please

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

Interesting thread
I have no opinion, as for me it has never been all that much of an issue. The mfg and type option is nice and the favorite Dynamic and EQ...... then Session Templates and the track preset "hack" actually handel most of my organizational needs .

But then I have only the HD bundled , Waves Diamond, a few extra AIR , the Elysia Alpha comp pair , and a couple Massey.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I found this Pro Tools Plugin Manager that was able to easily move out my unused UA plugins using a GUI and I kept the UA Console side by side for reference (I don't hide Unauth in console).

I do sort by Category and Manufacturer in Pro Tools, but I have every (Waves, Soundtoys, FabFilter, Eventide, iZotope, IKMultimedia, Slate) plugin and most Plugin Alliance, McDSP and UAD-2 plugins (Complete List).

I did find a "hidden shortcut" to add more than 2 to your favorites list here by holding down the Command key. I didn't try it yet though.

Re: It's 2017 and there's STILL no Plugin Manager in PT
 

I would plus one a built in plugin manager, and one that also allows us to rename plugins and put them in custom groups. Would be wonderful. Not a deal breaker, but a workflow improver for sure!

Little tip.. this is how i manage my waves bundle plugins.. i go to my waves application folder, manually created a plugins unused folder there, and move the waves plugins from apps/waves/plug-ins V9 to the unused folder.. this way I have been able to de clutter the massive sprawling waves menu in PT.. and remove things like Q10 entirely that I would never use, for example, which takes up like 6 menu slots on it's own.

@WombatStudio I will check out the offline third party plug in manager, thanks for the tip, hope it works with PT12 and sierra.

offline is a decent idea as a workaround indeed. But, in OSX, i just create a two tabbed window anyway, and move the stuff i don't' want from plugins to unused. This doesn't work for waves of course as there is only one aax wave shell component (or 2 or 3 depending on how many waves plugins installed), which is why i came up with the little workaround to move them in waves app folder itself.