Installing plugins on a seperate drive

[mashtbn]

Hi all, first post so please be patient.
I have Pro Tools installed on the system drive, which is an SSD. The drive is quite small, and I have a ton of plugins to install. Is it possible to install the plugins on my second HDD or do they have to be in the same location as the Pro Tools software? I'm trying to find out the answer before wasting time getting further down the install route.
I'm running Mountain Lion and Pro Tools HD by the way.
Many thanks in advance.

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by mashtbn

Hi all, first post so please be patient.
I have Pro Tools installed on the system drive, which is an SSD. The drive is quite small, and I have a ton of plugins to install. Is it possible to install the plugins on my second HDD or do they have to be in the same location as the Pro Tools software? I'm trying to find out the answer before wasting time getting further down the install route.
I'm running Mountain Lion and Pro Tools HD by the way.
Many thanks in advance.

Hi,

The plugins themselves have to be installed into the pre-set folder which are on your system drive.

Any sound libraries from plugins that have their own samples etc, can be installed onto a separate drive. you usually have a custom install option when installing these plugins with sound libraries to save the sounds to a custom location, usually a dedicated drive labelled samples or sound library etc.



Chris

[mmk]

Originally Posted by crizdee

Hi,

The plugins themselves have to be installed into the pre-set folder which are on your system drive.

Any sound libraries from plugins that have their own samples etc, can be installed onto a separate drive. you usually have a custom install option when installing these plugins with sound libraries to save the sounds to a custom location, usually a dedicated drive labelled samples or sound library etc.



Chris

good answer +1

[mashtbn]

Thanks so much, that is a great and clear answer. Sorry for the delay replying.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Yeah, not to mention processing plugins themselves don't take up a lot of space because they are mostly data instructions and calculation algorithms. There should be a disk space requirement listed somewhere in the plugin info.

[JFreak]

Yes and no.

NERD WARNING.

If you're running PT on a Mac, which is a UNIX system, you can have your plugins anywhere you want. UNIX does not have C-drives or D-drives, it just has a hierarchy that starts from the root (the first / in the directory name). You can copy contents of any folder anywhere you want and then create a symbolic link to point out where the new location is. Or you can mount a drive to any directory you want to, if you wish. So your brand new killer monster thunderbolt SSD drive can very well be mounted at /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins should you really want to.

Avid won't support those kinds of nonstandard things, but you wouldn't be doing anything like this if you wasn't skilled enough to support yourself.

Okay, that's it. Better to keep the plugs where they are, but I'm just saying they CAN be located on any drive you want :)

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by crizdee

Hi,

The plugins themselves have to be installed into the pre-set folder which are on your system drive.

Any sound libraries from plugins that have their own samples etc, can be installed onto a separate drive. you usually have a custom install option when installing these plugins with sound libraries to save the sounds to a custom location, usually a dedicated drive labelled samples or sound library etc.

Chris

The plugins themselves have to be installed into the pre-set folder which are on your system drive.

Chris...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but by pre-set folder I think you are referring to the default folder suggested during the PI's installation, and not the folder(s) where the PI's presets (individual PI's settings, both those provided by the manufacturer and user presets).

The PI presets on my Windows machine are stored in a numerous locations, often in a subfolder with the same name as the PI in the "My Documents" folder. This is done so both the "factory" presets and the "user" presets can be used with both the RTAS and VST versions of the PI.

A further bit of confusion can arise because, while the Pro Tools RTAS* PI's pretty much have to be installed in the default folder, the VST versions (used by Cubase, Reaper, and some other DAWs) can be installed just about anywhere. This was very confusing to me when I first started installing third-party plugins; Pro Tools was the only DAW I had on my machine and I had no idea where the VST versions should be installed. (*Note that the default folder for RTAS plugins and the default folder(s) for AAX versions are different, but you should always use the default installation folder for Pro Tools PI's).

Hope this helps avoid some confusion...ain't terminology fun?

[ReynaldoPena]

I wish someone drew up a step by step for MAC users on how to run plug ins on an external drive that way I'm able to fluently produce music without all of these issues with CPU usage 🙄 Is already enough that I removed the preferences folder yet the problem persists.

[JFreak]

Create a symbolic link that points from plugin folder to wherever you want


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[Sardi]

Originally Posted by ReynaldoPena

I wish someone drew up a step by step for MAC users on how to run plug ins on an external drive that way I'm able to fluently produce music without all of these issues with CPU usage Is already enough that I removed the preferences folder yet the problem persists.

Remove your Preference folder? Do you mean dumping your Preference file? If so, it will create a new one on next launch of the app. That is normal. That is where it stores settings for the application.

Re: moving plugins to an external drive - as mentioned above, it is not advisable. Sample libraries? Sure. The plugins themselves? No.

CPU usage errors aren’t going to be cured by trying to move plugins off the boot drive. You have something else going on causing your issues. Further troubleshooting is definitely required.


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