[SOLVED] VST3 Plugins don't show up in StudioOne4 Professional

Yes! It is yet another instance of your favourite post type “my plugin won’t show up in host XYZ”! It’s literally a fresh install of StudioOne on Win7 without any changes.

  • I’ve quadruple checked the path
  • VST2 will be found, VST3 not
  • Plugin shows in other hosts, I think the plugin is ok
  • Plugin doesn’t even show up in the “plugin manager”
  • Its also not on the “blacklist”
  • Neither Debug nor Release show up
  • Edit: this happens even with the template JUCE examle plugin

Is there some error report which says something like “plugin crashed”?
Right now I don’t even how whether StudioOne sees the plugin at all or not.

Here is a checklist for VST3 plug-ins on Windows&Mac:

  1. Launch Studio One (Windows users: right click > Run as administrator ).
  2. Go to Studio One > Options (PC) / Preferences (Mac) > Locations > VST Plug-Ins tab , and make sure the following paths are listed (if they are not, add them):
    Windows: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 ; C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3
    Mac: Macintosh HD > Library > Audio > Plug-Ins > VST3
  3. Check-mark Scan at startup .
  4. Click on Reset Blacklist and when prompted click Yes .
  5. Click OK and restart Studio One.

I went through that list several times… no change.

I did some more testing and can conclude that I wasn’t able to load any JUCE VST3 plugin in S1… even the standard empty plugin won’t show as VST3 but will as VST2. I tested on Win10 and Win7. Can somebody maybe try to reproduce?

  1. Projucer -> new Project
  2. Exporter VS2019
  3. Target VST3 and VST2
  4. build
  5. try to load in Studio One 4

I will try to go down some versions in JUCE and try again…
Edit: Same thing with JUCE 5.4.4, which is the oldest version that supports VS2019

Have you tried having only your VST3 plug-in in the VST3 directory, and no other VST2 plug-in (not even your version of the same VST3)?

Yes, I’ve tried every combination. At this point I’m pretty sure the problem isn’t anything path related. I’d be happy if some person on another machine could try the “hello world” plugin in S1 :slight_smile:

  1. check S1 logs.
    (taken from SR support but there are similar ones by other manufactures)
Windows:

Navigate to " **C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\PreSonus\Studio One 4** ". 

Grab the  **'x64'**  folder and move it to your desktop. Launch Studio One, it should rescan your plugins.

After you load a project and everything works as it should, you can delete the 'x64' folder that's on your desktop, Studio One created a new one after the plug-ins scan.

Mac:

open a new Finder window, click on the " **Go** " menu in the menu bar, hold down the ⌥  **key (alt)** , the User Library will appear in the menu. Open the  **Library**  navigate to  **Application Support/Presonus Software/Studio One 4**

Grab the 'x64' folder and move it to your desktop. Launch Studio One, it should rescan your plugins.

After you load a project and everything works as it should, you can delete the 'x64' folder that's on your desktop, Studio One created a new one after the plug-ins scan.

Those folders also contain logs of scanning so you can get more details about what went wrong.

And least,
I guess you’ve checked that one already. but make sure S1 is 64bit and your compiled plug-in is 64bit (on Windows…)

Do you have the C++ runtime installed on the machine running studio one?

Have you validated the plug-in in auval or pluginval?

Thanks to everybody, I got it sorted!

For some weird reason, S1 will only scan C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\ for VST3, and none of the plugin folders you specify in the options. This only happens with VST3 and on Win! Mac and/or VST2 behave just fine…

But to be fair, the directory was already written in @HowardAntares’ answer, I was just too stubborn to use the default folder…

Oh my, I didn’t know about this tool. You might have opened a pandoras box here for me… :see_no_evil:

It’s not merely the “default”. It’s the ONLY folder for VST3. Period.

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What about C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\VST3\? :wink:

Is this a thing on with other DAWs as well? Kind of misleading to give the option for another folder but only scan for VST2 there IMHO… Anyway, I figured that the Mac version behaves the same, JUCE just copied the VST3 to the right place beforehand and left the build directory with an alias only.

Steinberg set the rule for these folders to be in their specific locations as to avoid the VST2 debacle of every host having to be configured individually and people accidentally having multiple versions of the same plugin etc.

If you can configure a VST folder in a host, it’s always meant to be understood as “VST2” folder. Not VST3. I’m surprised they even offer that option on Mac at all, as on the Mac there is also a fixed folder for VST2 available.

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32-bit. Yuk.

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