Solved New user Studio One 7.1.1 install issue

[Efrain]

Studio One newbie here.
Just installed Studio One Pro 7 that came with a FaderPort promo.
During the installation plugin scan it seems to have failed on the following Plugin Allaince plugins all other plugins scanned fine:
ADPTR - Metric AB
ADPTR - Sculpt
Lindell - 69 Bus
Lindell - 69 Channel
Lindell - 80 Bus
Lindell - 80 Channel

Anyone having similar issues with Plugin Alliance plugins? Any suggestions on steps for unblocking and rescaling after I reinstall them? Any other ideas? I’m also wanting to disable vst2 and only use vst3.

Thanks!

Efrain

 

[Gerran]

In the Plugin Manager (Browse/home/plugin Manager button at the bottom) you can hide VST2 plugins.

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My Plugin Alliance installs (only a few) seem to work fine. Did you point to the right folder in the menu Studio One/Options/Locations ?

 

[Jemusic]

In the plugin manager there is an option to free the black listed plugins that failed the next time you start up. Click on that and just do the scan again. It usually finds them the second time around. I have got Plugin Alliance plugins and no issues here at all.

 

[Efrain]

In the Plugin Manager (Browse/home/plugin Manager button at the bottom) you can hide VST2 plugins.

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My Plugin Alliance installs (only a few) seem to work fine. Did you point to the right folder in the menu Studio One/Options/Locations ?

Hi,
All my plugins are in the default folders and it just started scanning during the install not giving any options on what to select.
I’ll check out the video now.
Appreciate you taking the time to help!
Thanks,
Efrain

 

[Efrain]

In the plugin manager there is an option to free the black listed plugins that failed the next time you start up. Click on that and just do the scan again. It usually finds them the second time around. I have got Plugin Alliance plugins and no issues here at all.

I’ll look for that option and see what happens after i reinstalled the plugins.
Thank you for taking the time!
Efrain

 

[Efrain]

@Gerran @Jemusic
I wanted to thank you both for your time and update you on progress and share what helped me for anyone searching in the future.
Reinstalling the affected plugins did not resolve the issue. So I went into preferences and found the paths to the plugins folders that were mapped to a VST2 in my user directory and a VST2 in the library\audio path as usual, but no VST3 path for some reason.
I deleted all the paths and only added the on to the VSt3 folder. I also went in preferenfes\advanced\services and disabled the Audio Init plugin support. I also unblocked the failed plugins.
After restarting Studio One it scanned all plugins again and I had zero failures.
I went through the plugin browser and opened up various ones including the previously failed ones without issue.
The only pending issue I’m seeing is that under the Acustica Audionrelated folders (Acqua, Acustica) I found a bunch of duplicate VST3’s all names “ACQUA”.
I have not seen this happen in Ableton and feel Studio One must have scanned some Acustica specific files relatedntoneach legitimate plugin and displayed them as their own plugin. If that makes any sense.
Rather than just hiding them (which I’m so excited Studio one has this capability, I want to find out what they are beforehand.
I’ve posted the question in an Acustica plugin thread over on Gearspace and will update this thread with the response.
Thanks again for your time!
Efrain

 

[Efrain]

Update:
Seems at least a couple people on the Gearspace Acustica thread had the same issue and just hid those I know duplicate Acqua files recognized and plugins.
I opened a support ticket with Acustica and have tried a few things with no success. The last response was requesting I send contents of the ARM64 folder so they could involve their contact at Presonus.
I’ll update again once there is a resolution.

 

[Vocalpoint]

So I went into preferences and found the paths to the plugins folders that were mapped to a VST2 in my user directory and a VST2 in the library\audio path as usual, but no VST3 path for some reason. I deleted all the paths and only added the on to the VSt3 folder.

Just an FYI - Studio One scans the industry standard VST3 folders by default without ever needing to that location to the Locations-Plugins area.

This is regardless of Mac or Windows

Here what mine looks like:

All I have "manually" placed for any locations is my custom VST2 directory (3) which contains the last 3 VST2 I use.

I have 426 VST3 installed as of this writing - and all are scanned successfully with NO mention of a VST3 path here - including 15 Plugin Alliance VST3's.

VP

 

[Efrain]

Just an FYI - Studio One scans the industry standard VST3 folders by default without ever needing to that location to the Locations-Plugins area.

This is regardless of Mac or Windows

View attachment 944

Here what mine looks like:

View attachment 945

All I have "manually" placed for any locations is my custom VST2 directory (3) which contains the last 3 VST2 I use.

I have 426 VST3 installed as of this writing - and all are scanned successfully with NO mention of a VST3 path here - including 15 Plugin Alliance VST3's.

VP

Just an FYI - Studio One scans the industry standard VST3 folders by default without ever needing to that location to the Locations-Plugins area.

This is regardless of Mac or Windows

View attachment 944

Here what mine looks like:

View attachment 945

All I have "manually" placed for any locations is my custom VST2 directory (3) which contains the last 3 VST2 I use.

I have 426 VST3 installed as of this writing - and all are scanned successfully with NO mention of a VST3 path here - including 15 Plugin Alliance VST3's.

VP

Thinking I should delete that path and see if it addresses all the duplicate Acustica “Aqua” plugin entries I’m seeing.
Is there an easy way to perform a full rescan afterwards?
Thanks for sharing!
Efrain

 

[Vocalpoint]

Thinking I should delete that path and see if it addresses all the duplicate Acustica “Aqua” plugin entries I’m seeing.
Is there an easy way to perform a full rescan afterwards?
Thanks for sharing!
Efrain

What I would do - is first ditch ANY VST3 paths in that dialog.

Then go to View-Plug-in Manager:

Here you can "show/hide" dupes by click these visibility indicators (1)

OR - go nuclear (2) and click Remove Plug in Settings. S1 will ask you if you are sure - say Yes and let it do it's thing

This will rebuild the plugin DB and give you a clean slate. But only do this once you get your plugin paths sorted.

AND - important note - "auto VST3" scanning in S1 only works correctly - if you haven't messed around with the standard VST3 folder location that is managed by the system. If you are manually forcing VST3s to install elsewhere (or even worse) - moving them manually - then it is guarantee that S1 will not pick them up.

VST3's should always be left alone - let the vendor installer do the work. Every vendor out there with a reasonably popular plugin - will follow the now standard Mac/Windows/Steinberg folder standards and place their plugins in the system managed VST3 folders.

VP

 

[Efrain]

What I would do - is first ditch ANY VST3 paths in that dialog.

Then go to View-Plug-in Manager:

View attachment 946

Here you can "show/hide" dupes by click these visibility indicators (1)

OR - go nuclear (2) and click Remove Plug in Settings. S1 will ask you if you are sure - say Yes and let it do it's thing

This will rebuild the plugin DB and give you a clean slate. But only do this once you get your plugin paths sorted.

AND - important note - "auto VST3" scanning in S1 only works correctly - if you haven't messed around with the standard VST3 folder location that is managed by the system. If you are manually forcing VST3s to install elsewhere (or even worse) - moving them manually - then it is guarantee that S1 will not pick them up.

VST3's should always be left alone - let the vendor installer do the work. Every vendor out there with a reasonably popular plugin - will follow the now standard Mac/Windows/Steinberg folder standards and place their plugins in the system managed VST3

I’ll follow your guidance and go nuclear for a fresh list. I always accept default vendor paths so should be good after I remove that redundant path I added. I appreciate all the info you’ve provided! Thank you!! Efrain

 

[Vocalpoint]

Anytime! Hope you get it sorted.

VP

 

[Efrain]

Anytime! Hope you get it sorted.

VP

Folllowing all the steps and also Removing the VST3 path I had added took care of the weird Acustica mystery “Acqua” plugins. They are no longer displayed! Thank you @Vocalpoint !
But for some reason it always re adds the VST3 paths and I get the duplicate plugins for all my collection. It also had crashes again on the ADPTR and Lindell plugins from plugin Alliance. But once I deleted the VST2 plugins for those the crashes are gone and I still see the VST3 versions of them.
I also removed VST2 in plugin manager .
But still see the duplicates. Will I just need to hide the duplicate vsts manually? Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Efrain

 

[Vocalpoint]

But for some reason it always re adds the VST3 paths and I get the duplicate plugins for all my collection.

I have seen this in the past. And I think what is happening is that once you mess with the Locations-VSTPlugins area at least once and start manually adding paths in there - that data is written to a .settings file in the bowels of the S1 install and it has a tendency to keep showing up. I do not think it's harmful - and it is possible to edit the xml in one of the .Settings files - but that is very delicate work.

But still see the duplicates. Will I just need to hide the duplicate vsts manually? Any thoughts?

If it were me - and dupes were making me crazy - first I would uninstall ALL Plugin Alliance stuff - ensuring no plugins exist on my machine.

Then I would nuke the S1 plugin database again, let it rebuild, rescan and have S1 come back up with a total clean "Plugin Alliance" free - view of the world.

Then I would get my hands dirty with something much more elegant - to physically ensure no VST2 headaches can even exist - by building a new install package via the Plugin Alliance Installation Manager:

I would pick my platform (2), my specific plugin type (3), ONLY my purchased products (4), then decide if I want all my stuff (5) or very specific subset (6) and let the installer do it's thing (7 + 8)

Then install - knowing with 100% certainty - there are NO VST2 at all - only VST3.

Then fire up S1 - it will scan all the newbies and you can rock on with no dupes.

VP

 

[Efrain]

I have seen this in the past. And I think what is happening is that once you mess with the Locations-VSTPlugins area at least once and start manually adding paths in there - that data is written to a .settings file in the bowels of the S1 install and it has a tendency to keep showing up. I do not think it's harmful - and it is possible to edit the xml in one of the .Settings files - but that is very delicate work.



If it were me - and dupes were making me crazy - first I would uninstall ALL Plugin Alliance stuff - ensuring no plugins exist on my machine.

Then I would nuke the S1 plugin database again, let it rebuild, rescan and have S1 come back up with a total clean "Plugin Alliance" free - view of the world.

Then I would get my hands dirty with something much more elegant - to physically ensure no VST2 headaches can even exist - by building a new install package via the Plugin Alliance Installation Manager:

View attachment 948

I would pick my platform (2), my specific plugin type (3), ONLY my purchased products (4), then decide if I want all my stuff (5) or very specific subset (6) and let the installer do it's thing (7 + 8)

Then install - knowing with 100% certainty - there are NO VST2 at all - only VST3.

Then fire up S1 - it will scan all the newbies and you can rock on with no dupes.

VP

yeah I probably screwed or up by tinkering.
But I have over 1300 plugins that include much much more than just Plugin Alliance. wouldn’t want to uninstall everything.
Wondering if I can just delete all the VST2 plugins from the folder. Or is there a way to just remove or reset that settings file. I haven’t started working on studio one so any resets to defaults wouldn’t bother me.
I still have my working install of Ableton when o already have VST2 and AU excluded.
Thanks again for all of your help!
Efrain

 

[Vocalpoint]

Wondering if I can just delete all the VST2 plugins from the folder.

ONLY delete the Plugin Alliance VST2 - if you intend to use my roadmap above.

That does not apply to any other VST2 that you have there. It will be up to you to use caution when stripping other VST2's

If you have a ton of old projects that still contain references to VST2 plugins - you have no choice but to keep them installed until you migrate the older projects to VST3 so these projects can still open correctly.

If you cannot remove specific VST2 - hide them via Plugin Manager.

I was in the same boat as you when I built out my new DAW in Feb 2024. 1400 plugins were clogging up the works and I had "dupes" everywhere

So when I built my new DAW - VST3 was the foundation. I ensured NO VST2 were ever installed - except for just three oldies that have no VST3 counterpart - and that I still use - like AbSynth 5 for example.

Other than that - there is zero value to have both flavours (VST2 and VST3) of every plugin installed here in 2025. VST2 is retired and vendors are dropping that format daily.

VP

 

[Efrain]

ONLY delete the Plugin Alliance VST2 - if you intend to use my roadmap above.

That does not apply to any other VST2 that you have there. It will be up to you to use caution when stripping other VST2's

If you have a ton of old projects that still contain references to VST2 plugins - you have no choice but to keep them installed until you migrate the older projects to VST3 so these projects can still open correctly.

If you cannot remove specific VST2 - hide them via Plugin Manager.

I was in the same boat as you when I built out my new DAW in Feb 2024. 1400 plugins were clogging up the works and I had "dupes" everywhere

So when I built my new DAW - VST3 was the foundation. I ensured NO VST2 were ever installed - except for just three oldies that have no VST3 counterpart - and that I still use - like AbSynth 5 for example.

Other than that - there is zero value to have both flavours (VST2 and VST3) of every plugin installed here in 2025. VST2 is retired and vendors are dropping that format daily.

VP

I have zero projects to worry about and can reset whatever needs to be. My preference is to stick with VST3. Do you know if that settings file can be reset or deleted and the system recreates it? So that I end up back with defaults where I can remove the BST paths and not have them come back?
Some of the plugin manufacturers don’t give the option to select which to install so I’m always gonna have left overs in that folder even if I go the route of uninstalling and reinstalling everything. I don’t know if anyone has actually just removed all the VST2 plugins from the VST folder and not run into issues.
Hope I’m not sounding lazy. Lol
Thanks,
Efrain

 

[Vocalpoint]

Do you know if that settings file can be reset or deleted and the system recreates it? So that I end up back with defaults where I can remove the BST paths and not have them come back?

In the Locations dialog - you can remove any paths that are in your way:

Some of the plugin manufacturers don’t give the option to select which to install so I’m always gonna have left overs in that folder even if I go the route of uninstalling and reinstalling everything. I don’t know if anyone has actually just removed all the VST2 plugins from the VST folder and not run into issues.

Agreed. That is why in my case (which is well beyond the scope of this question) - the path you see above - is a special custom path that I created.

Inside that VST2 folder - there are no plugins whatsoever - just three "symbolic" links that point to the three VST2 that I actually use.

I use a tool called Link Shell Extension - to create these.

This allows me to have certain plugin installers - like the very poorly designed UAD plugin installer - install their crappy VST2 plugins on masse to whatever folder their installer is programmed to use. Same for any other VST2 that get scattered around.

But instead of adding these entire ugly VST2 target paths to the S1 Locations area - which will pretty much guarantee that dupes will appear in Plug-in Manager - I completely ignore all standard folder paths for ALL VST2 plugs and only allow the VST3's into S1 - which are picked up automatically.

I use Link Shell Extension to hand pick ONLY the VST2's (regardless of where the actual plugin resides on my hard drive) that I want S1 to see by creating a link to them that sits in the VST2 folder of that custom folder path above.

This allows any VST2 plugin installer to do it's thing - completely unaware that their plugins are not being scanned at all by S1.

And allows me to control exactly which VST2's can be scanned by S1 - based upon what links it is given access to in that folder path above.

VP

 

[Efrain]

In the Locations dialog - you can remove any paths that are in your way:

View attachment 949




Agreed. That is why in my case (which is well beyond the scope of this question) - the path you see above - is a special custom path that I created.

Inside that VST2 folder - there are no plugins whatsoever - just three "symbolic" links that point to the three VST2 that I actually use.

I use a tool called Link Shell Extension - to create these.

This allows me to have certain plugin installers - like the very poorly designed UAD plugin installer - install their crappy VST2 plugins on masse to whatever folder their installer is programmed to use. Same for any other VST2 that get scattered around.

But instead of adding these entire ugly VST2 target paths to the S1 Locations area - which will pretty much guarantee that dupes will appear in Plug-in Manager - I completely ignore all standard folder paths for ALL VST2 plugs and only allow the VST3's into S1 - which are picked up automatically.

I use Link Shell Extension to hand pick ONLY the VST2's (regardless of where the actual plugin resides on my hard drive) that I want S1 to see by creating a link to them that sits in the VST2 folder of that custom folder path above.

This allows any VST2 plugin installer to do it's thing - completely unaware that their plugins are not being scanned at all by S1.

And allows me to control exactly which VST2's can be scanned by S1 - based upon what links it is given access to in that folder path above.

VP

What’s strange is I that VST path keeps coming back after I delete it. May be like you previously mentioned that something got written on a confit file somewhere after I added that redundant VST3 path. Seems to want to put back the vst2 path.
Haven’t had time to touch the computer this weekend. Hope to continue in the evenings during the week and see what I can do to keep that path to the vst2 plugins from coming back. I also unchecked vst2 in plugin manager but still see them on the plugin list .
Appreciate all your detailed input. I’ll update during the week.
Thanks again!
Efrain

 

[daw stew]

What’s strange is I that VST path keeps coming back after I delete it. May be like you previously mentioned that something got written on a confit file somewhere after I added that redundant VST3 path. Seems to want to put back the vst2 path.
Haven’t had time to touch the computer this weekend. Hope to continue in the evenings during the week and see what I can do to keep that path to the vst2 plugins from coming back. I also unchecked vst2 in plugin manager but still see them on the plugin list .
Appreciate all your detailed input. I’ll update during the week.
Thanks again!
Efrain

Hi Efrain, did you ever resolve this? I have a SO v7 issue in that several Plugin Alliance Bettermaker plugins are blacklisted as they fail to scan at start up. This wasn't an issue with SO V6. Maybe it's a problem with the v7 plugin scanner. I've tried resetting the blacklist. No joy. I've deleted the plugin. Settings in Appdata so that SO is forced to rebuild the plugin database. That hasn't resolved it.