Missing Plugin -> Ability To Choose

Ideas & suggestions
1

As it frequently happens to me - some of plugins (VST or VSTi’s) are become renamed or name changed in case of version upgrade…
For example: when i load old song. Many of plugins missed. Even if i restore it manually - i can’t restore their settings… Only workaround in this case - manually rename plugins to old names, Renoise request. But it’s boring and can casue even more incompatibility with my latest songs. So after loading and fixing i have to rename plugins back again…

So the suggestion for case like this: what if Renoise will ask user “XXX Plugin missed. Want to choose different name or location?” Some sort of it would be great!

2 Likes
2

Can’t believe!
Nobody have same troubles when opening old songs after many changes in your VstPlugins folder, or when some plugin name changed and Renoise can’t find it ?

What are you people doing when this happens ?
Any suggestions ?

3

In 99% of the cases when a plugin is missing is when I open a song on another computer/new system and I simply forgot to install it yet. (thanks to this tool it happens much less often)

The case where the plugin changed the name happened only once to me and that was with BassChorus, which has the version number in the name of the .dll file. I renamed the file or loaded the new plug+preset, problem solved.
So, since this is a very rare occasion which can easily be solved I don’t see a need for a feature.

my .02

4

Think so too, if the VST is not there, it’s not there.

A few plugs have their version-number in the filename, then I just rename it. (glitch,overdubber or battery are other examples).

5

Useful advice. Thanks.

6

Let’s take an example:
I opening very old .rns file, say - 3 or 4 years old.
Till this years i’ve reinstall Windows few times, reinstall all plugins. Some of old plugins unused i’ve purged, many new installed.
When i opening such .rns - 80% of plugin filenames are not match.

Ok, now i should restore missed plugins, rename that which name incorrect, save each preset (.fxp) for each missed plugin in all chains. Then renaming back all renamed, to preserve compatibility with my last songs. Then load each plugin manually (with new names), and then load each preset (.fxp) to each plugin!

It’s so boring and complex!

BTW: is there possible to copy or save preset of missing plugin and paste to another ?

ermi: thanx for remingind about XRNS ListVST ! I’ve totally forgot about that little but usefull tool.

7

i was just about to open a thread for the same topic, when the forum’s “similar thread” query showed me this, so sorry for digging it out of its grave, but the associated inconvenience is still a very recent one.

here is my POV:

i am using renoise since almost two decades and throughout that time many plugins i use have received dozens of updates from their vendors. throughout these updates, their unique identifier (most of the time:.dll name) has changed, so that in result, i obtain the following message upon opening an “old” xrns:

image

in this case, two plugins could not be found, even though both of them are properly installed and are still compatible to the data stored within the xrns.

The reason for why this happens is that Waldorf changed the .dll name from “PPG Wave 2V.dll” to “PPG Wave 2.V.dll” (so they added a dot between the 2 and the V) at some point and Waves decided to rename their plugins from “Waves xxxx” to “xxxx stereo” or “xxxx mono” a couple of years ago.

The process for fixing this is:
(a) rename the respective .dll file to what renoise has saved within the xrns’ xml file.
or
(b) extract the xml from the xrns, open in editor, replace old plugin identifier with new one and save it back to the xrns

option (a) is not applicable for any waves plugins, since they are incorporated into the “waves shell”. so option (b) has to be processed, in order to fix the issue. and believe me… it’s no fun doing this for dozens of xrns files.

also: renaming the dll, will possibly cause a total messing throughout your projects, since some songs have probably been saved with the old identifier and others with the new one.

if renoise would offer an option for “find new plugin” in the missing plugins dialogue or maybe just offer an “enter alternative identifier” option (plain text input), life for long-term users would be less cumbersome and updating plugins would no longer give you that “i hope nothing breaks” feeling.

not a deal-breaker, but certainly an option i’m longing for since years, so i finally decided to give it a go here :slight_smile:

1 Like
8

The “find new plugin” replacement option would also be useful when you switch a project from Mac to Windows.

9

This 1000%.

Renoise could also attempt to load settings in the replacement plugin as well. Would be extremely useful.

1 Like
10

if renoise would offer an option for “find new plugin” in the missing plugins dialogue or maybe just offer an “enter alternative identifier” option

+1.