Sound Advice

[rgturner]

How can I group my audio effects plugins? I want to organize them so that I can easily find what I want/need.

[Bob Bickerton]

You’ll need to give us more information - what DAW are you using?

Bob

[Martin Walker]

Welcome to the SOS Forums rgturner!

Yes, as Bob says, the mechanics of creating sorted folders for your FX plugins will depend on which DAW you're using, but I imagine most of them now provide such facilities as options.

However, the actual way you divide up your plugins among those folders is a very personal thing that will probably evolve over years. Basically, every time I find I've got too many plugins in a single folder to find what I want easily, I have to come up with a further way to split them.

Here's the folder descriptions I've currently ended up with in Reaper:

Martin

[Wonks]

And Cubase has its Plugin Manager, which, like Reaper, allows you to create various lists of plugins, just picking the ones you want from the total in your VST folder (very useful when you have a UAD2 device where you get all their plugs downloaded and available for trial). You can also arrange them within the sub-sections so your favourites are at the top of the list, as opposed to the default alphabetical arrangement.

[rgturner]

Thanks to all of you. I'm using Cubase 14 Pro and I'm a [plugin junkie]

I currently have my plugins grouped together.

Dynamic Processors
Compressors
Limiters
Expanders
Noise Gates
Equalizers
Parametric
Graphic
Shelf

Etc.

I just wanted to see if I'm in the same universe or in some black hole.

[Wonks]

It sounds like you're reasonably well sorted. I presume you're using the Plugin Manager to get that arrangement rather than using Cubase's default arrangement?

I do wish Steinberg would automatically copy across things like your old plugin choices when they do an upgrade.

[Drew Stephenson]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

[Stuart79]

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ug-manager

[Martin Walker]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

Sage advice there Drew!

[Chet Leeway]

In Tracktion's Waveform you can tag plugins whichever way you want and use tags to call up a selection. Also works for presets within plugins so your go-to-sounds become super easy to ... go to. It also organises plugins automatically by type, so I don't bother to maintain any system at all.

[The Elf]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

Sage advice there Drew!

Though this does rather restrict one from discovering anything new and worthwhile.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

I usually type the first 2-3 letters of plug in name in the search field and it pops up. That has worked quite well for a long time.

[Martin Walker]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

Sage advice there Drew!

Though this does rather restrict one from discovering anything new and worthwhile.

Ah, did you not notice that Drew said 'stopping downloading every freebie'?
You just need to be a little more selective

[Martin Walker]

I usually type the first 2-3 letters of plug in name in the search field and it pops up. That has worked quite well for a long time.

That's fine if you can remember the name of the plug-in you're interested in, but in my experience grouping all those with the same desired function into a suitably-named folder can save you a lot of mental effort

[Drew Stephenson]

Though this does rather restrict one from discovering anything new and worthwhile.

That's what I rely on my pluginaholics for.

[MOF]

That's what I rely on my pluginaholics for.

That’s no good, the clue is in ‘aholics’, they’ll tell you how good each new one is but won’t realise that it’s exactly the same as one you’ve/they’ve already got except for the snazzy new user interface which has seduced them into thinking it’s miles better….until the next one comes along and then you’ll buy on their recommendation again!!!
I began to realise I was a pluginaholic myself recently so I’ve slowed down my purchases dramatically though that didn’t stop me from getting the latest UAD 1176 freebie which I probably already own but it looks cosmetically different.

[James Perrett]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

Sage advice there Drew!

Though this does rather restrict one from discovering anything new and worthwhile.

I'd say 99% of new plug-ins are variations of what I already have. I can probably reproduce their sound by judiciously combining the basic building blocks.

[OneWorld]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

Sage advice there Drew!

Though this does rather restrict one from discovering anything new and worthwhile.

I'd say 99% of new plug-ins are variations of what I already have. I can probably reproduce their sound by judiciously combining the basic building blocks.

Same here, I have found out one universal aspect to it all though, whatever wheel I buy, they all just go round and round, some on a wheel barrow, some on my car, then there's the roulette wheel too should I feel inclined to blow my money away, wheels and p[lugins, do we really need all of them

[The Elf]

I found one of the best methods of organising my plugins was actually deleting all the ones I wasn't using and stopping downloading every freebie that looked interesting!

Sage advice there Drew!

Though this does rather restrict one from discovering anything new and worthwhile.

I'd say 99% of new plug-ins are variations of what I already have. I can probably reproduce their sound by judiciously combining the basic building blocks.

That's the case in many instances, but try creating something like Scaler with your existing plug-ins...