U are so sweet taktik. 
As I see it there is much more flexibility in the latter option, although the first is not bad either. In effects case I propably still would favour the last one. I’ll propably make some favourites folder or smthing and then sort all others by manufactor, or sumthing like that.
Others?
Every VST plug has a manufactor property.
I also think that using the real directory structure will be a big mess. So having them sorted after the manufactors (like in cubase) for now, will help a lot. We can still have this userdefinable structure later.
I was thinking about that too, but for me it would not be such a pain in the ass to arrange them. I understand your poin tho, and am pleased to see even the manufacturer-type of sorting. So pleeze, next Alpha? 
What about neither though, but rather allowing a user to set up folders WITHIN renoise, a la Soundforge?
I would love to be able to creat a folder for “Delay Effects”, and then move the plugins I felt deserved that into those. This could be accomplished via a separate window which could be triggered by a “sort VST Plugins” button in the Config > Misc area maybe?
That directory structure maybe could just be stored as a header in the CachedVSTs.xml file -
I know that actually sorting the directory itself could cause installation problems, but having it rather be just Renoise-driven would solve that IMO -
Just my $.02 - but then, ANY solution would be better than the current one.
Thanks a lot for thinking about this, taktik!
the sorting of the VSTi-menu in the instrument settings also dependent to the manufacturer, please!
How could this look like ? Any idea ?
If it is possible to have both left AND right aligned text it could be done like this:
Vst: LegacyCell KORG
Vst: Polysix KORG
Vst: Absynth 2.0 Native...
Vst: Reaktor Native...
But we’ll probably hear from ppl that like it in alphabetic order…
How 'bout sumthng like this?
Edirol_______________
*HyperCanvas
*Orchestral
*SuperQuartet
mda________________
*mda ePaino
*mda Piano
Native Instrumenst_____
*Absynth
*Battery
*Kontakt
*Reaktor
Spectrasonics_________
*Atmosphere
Virsyn_______________
*Cube
*Tera
etc...
So that everything is in alphabetical order, frst manyfacturers, then VST’s under them? I’m sure u have better ideas for separators and headline highlights, the lines&spaces etc. are there just to illustrate the point.
e:fixed quote & some stuff
(MANUFACTURER1) PLUGIN1
(MANUFACTURER1) PLUGIN2
(MANUFACTURER2) PLUGIN1
or
MANUFACTURER1 / PLUGIN1
MANUFACTURER1 / PLUGIN2
MANUFACTURER2 / PLUGIN1
that’s all ‘I’ need 
… the manufacturer name can be shortened (“SMARTELC …”)
Kameleontti’s idea is also nice but will increase the length of the menu too much. in my opinion increasing of the length should be avoided.
Yup it could work that way, but I was thinking that maybe it is easier and faster to read if you don’t have too much lines starting with same text, although if f.ex. Native Instruments is shortened to NI, it definetly improves Korn’s option.
Not my idea, I’m just fine looking it as it is now. But maybr it would be useful to some people, and I think it would not change the usablitiy for me, so I made a suggestion, fearing that something like A.Korn suggested would came true.
But you got a point, actually it would make my list very messy, 'cause iI have many VST’s that are the only ones from the manufactor. Then my suggestion would be like very bad idea indeed.
U’re right bantai No sorting for instruments.
It should be sorted by Crap and nonCrap
In any case I really think you should have some sort of favorite sorting for both vsti/vst… there are another thread and …another ,discussing this.
It may be overkill for many ‘fewplugin-people’, but almost essential when/if your collection grows to a certain point.
Until this is user definable, I think the best thing is to sort vst by manufacturer and dont do anything to the vsti.
Just mho
i totally disagree … if you haven’t a big list of VSTi there is no disadvantage for you too … and there is no overkill to sort the VST a little bit better …
every manufacturer makes special types of instruments - like spectrasonics: the great sample-players … and NI: great synths … so if i need a synth i think: let’s take something from the manufacturer XYZ … coz i know: this is what i need at the moment.
what’s better:
Absynth
Atmosphere
FM7
Pro53
Stylus
Trilogy
or
NI:Absynth
NI:FM7
NI:Pro53
SPECT:Atmosphere
SPECT:Stylus
SPECT:Trilogy
?
???
a list of VSTi can increase fast … you buy the bundle from NI (NI Komplete) here and the bundle from manufacturer xyz there … the next VSTi’s are bundled with soundcards etc. or what ever.
you are right: on the other hand there are hunderts of free VSTi’s with different names of the manufacturers but nevertheless i see no disadvantage if the manufacturer is shown too … it’s a help for people who using bundles from different manufacturers for a better overview … and no disadvantage for other people … it’s only a question of the menu/list layout to keep the overview - that’s all.
I bet many ppl (like me) have many single plugins - I mean only one plug from a certain dev installed. For these ppl sorting after developer would be a step into worse lands I guess.
Also not everyone has a good refined minimalised setup of a few good commercial plugs. Many have instead a big arsenal of freeware in their vst folder.
Personally I’d appreciate an optional index.txt file, this had the big advantage of being able to have redundancy in the list.
i vote for user-set directories here… i imagine i have a mastering directory where i can quickly find what am i looking for… now it’s o TORTURE for me to find some plugin within the hundreds of others…
I totally agree - user-set dirs would ideally mean nobody could complain afterwards how it was setup… as they’d be able to set it up to their liking, or not at all (Bantai) - this is something that would greatly simplify the process of working for me, I can’t state that enough!
Featuring Users-Set directories should allow people to both arrange their list by manifacturer and arrange it with any other order they like.
Honestly I can’t see what good should the manifacturer sorting bring. Each manifacturer features a short number of plugins (often 2 or 3…) and they often are very different in their functions… while there is an almost endless number of “single” different VSTi around the net. All of these “single” VSTi would quite certainly have their one-shot manifacturer… so I figure out such list as only having longer names on each raw still offering no/little indexing help under the logical point of view.
When composing I don’t think
“Hm! Here I really would like to hear some plugin from Spectrasonic”…
I rather think
“Hm! Here I really would like to hear some ambient noise…”
I agree, anything but user defined is unnecessary.
To make the user-defined setup faster, renoise could export an index.txt file based on the directory structure of the plugin folder.
Then the user already has something to builed on, he/ she just has to fire up a text editor and edit a bit.