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Old 08-09-2018, 05:42 AM   #1
xdudex
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Default Organizing and managing plugin folders

Hello again all,

So in Windows, I had a specific folder I moved all my plugins into, so I could easily make back-ups, etc... not to mention making it easier to point Reaper to the right directory for all my native plugins.

Do you all do that as well in Linux? I finally found where some native .vst plugins were located, added that directory to Reaper, and BAM I was able to see a ton more plugins to use.

Questions...

Is it safe to migrate/move plugin locations such as from /usr/lib/vst to a directory such as /home/username/documents/plugins?

Is there a default directory plugins get installed to? From scouring File Manager it seems not, but I wanted to be sure. I'm having a hard time tracking down where other plugin folders may exist.

Ideally, as stated above, I'd like one location for all my plugins, separated out by type (.vst, .dssi, .ladspa, etc...) just to make things easier to manage.

EDIT: I found this in Ardour's manual:

LADSPA plugins are shared library files. They need to be installed in either /usr/lib/ladspa, /usr/local/lib/ladspa or in a directory mentioned in your LADSPA_PATH environment variable.

LV2 plugins are folders/directories. They need to installed in either /usr/lib/lv2, /usr/local/lib/lv2 or a directory mentioned in your LV2_PATH environment variable.

Linux VST (LXVST) plugins are distributed as shared library files. They are typically installed in /usr/lib/lxvst, /usr/local/lib/lxvst or a directory mentioned in your LXVST_PATH environment variable.

In reading that, it sounds like you just need to update the plugintype_PATH file with the directory you want your plugins to reside in?

Last edited by xdudex; 08-09-2018 at 05:58 AM.
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Old 08-09-2018, 06:06 AM   #2
khz
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@dssi, ladspa, lv2 (Linux plugins):
You install Linux plugins via your package manager of your distribution.
This path is fixed by the distribution. You should not move these. If these are moved/deleted manually, it can be that the package manager gets unsolvable problems and therefore in the worst case their distribution is no longer updatable.

@vst:
Copy/paste VST plugins to your home directory in the hidden folder "~/.vst" or "~/.vst3". You may need to assign this path to programs like Reaper.

Last edited by khz; 08-09-2018 at 06:24 AM.
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Old 08-09-2018, 06:19 AM   #3
xdudex
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Hello again, KHZ! Got it. Thank you for the information! Bummer to not be able to centrally manage files from one location. Oh well.
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Old 08-09-2018, 06:48 AM   #4
Jack Winter
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You could have them all in a central place...

Though in practice it might be a little bit more complicated (depending on what you do).

You could for instance create ~/.plugins (a hidden directory in your home dir).
Then create subdirs in there, ~/.plugins/vst2 and ~/.plugins/vst3 for instance. I think you might even be able to point reaper just to ~/.plugins and then it would scan all the subdirs looking for vst plugins.

We'll see how this turns out on the long term when reaper gets lv2/ladspa/dssi support. And I suppose we'll also have to see how to do it best if it someday gets windows vst support.

Personally I have ~/.vst2 and ~/.vst3 where i copy the plugins I want to have available on my system.

I'm not sure it's easy to provide a short a concise article on this subject, but maybe I'll try someday
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Old 08-09-2018, 08:05 AM   #5
khz
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@.vst/.vst3 hidden folder in general:
Does this have a specific reason or purpose that there are two different folders? If so, which one?
Why are not all VST (VST1/2/3) in a ".vst" folder?
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Old 08-09-2018, 08:48 AM   #6
Jack Winter
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I really don't know to be honest. AFAIK there are no vst1 plugins at all for Linux.

I think that ~/.vst has been used for vst2 plugins for a long time on Linux, but don't know who started it.

The only vst3 plugins that I know of on Linux are the u-he ones. My guess is that they started installing into ~/.vst3 so that you can differentiate between the vst2 and vst3 versions.
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Old 08-12-2018, 10:45 PM   #7
khz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by khz View Post
You should not move these. If these are moved/deleted manually, it can be that the package manager gets unsolvable problems and therefore in the worst case their distribution is no longer updatable.
That's not entirely true.
Some purchaseable DAW's may have their own plugins.
To use them in other Linux programs you have to copy them into your "/home/USER/" folder.
For the Harrison plugins, for example:
Code:
cp /opt/Mixbus32C-4.3.19/lib/LV2 /home/USER/.lV2
This path ("/home/USER/.lV2") must of course be specified as plugin path in the corresponding program.
The spelling of the folder is freely selectable. Some say ".Lv2", others ".LV2". Should just be consistent.
https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?p=86449#p86449

Last edited by khz; 08-12-2018 at 10:51 PM.
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