How To Add Vst Plugins In Ableton
On Windows, Native Instruments products are loaded in Ableton Live as VST plug-ins. On Mac computers, they can be loaded either as VST or AU plug-ins. Once the products are installed, Ableton Live must scan your plug-in directories in order to make them available. VST plug-ins might stop working when the stand-alone application of the plug-in gets moved, renamed or uninstalled. It's recommended to always install the VST file directly to the correct destination folder, rather than manually moving the DLL file afterwards. Use Admin rights (Windows only) Certain plug-ins require Live to run with admin.
Having the option to add more than one VST folder in the preferences would be great, Sonar has this feature (but I hate Sonar and it's practically the only thing I like about it) The advantage of having this feature is that you can add one VST folder at a time and Ableton would scan each individual VST folder. So if you have some plugins that crash on scan you could simply only add the folders with the working plugins. It's specially helpful when you have tons of VSTs installed. Scanning tons of VSTs is very time consuming specially when you have many that crash Ableton on scan.
Ableton comes with an impressive, diverse and extremely usable set of instruments, effects and samples. However, at some point you will almost certainly want to install 3rd party plug ins to get that sound you need.
Luckily for you, the process of adding 3rd party plug-ins on a Mac is extremely straight forward. It is literally a case of copying the plug in files into the Mac plug in directory. Once this is done Ableton will automatically find your plug-ins ready to use. Glockenspiel free vst.
Where is the Ableton Plug ins folder?
The truth is there isn’t one specifically for Ableton, it’s a shared plug ins folder in you Mac Library. By default the folders used to contain plug-ins, and where you need to copy them to, are:
Ableton Live Vst Plugins
/hoover-vst-free.html. (for AU) Library > Audio > Plug ins > Component
(for VST) Library > Audio -> Plug ins > VST
Setting a custom plug in folder
How To Add Vst Plugins In Ableton Recording
In Ableton there is also the ability to set a custom location for your plug ins folder. This is handy if you have multiple DAWs installed on the same Mac, or if you just want to use a different hard disc, perhaps a solid state to run them from.
In the Ableton top menu go to:
Preferences > File Folder > VST Plug-In Custom Folder
Make sure to enable the feature, and you can now copy plug ins to any location you like.
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