# VST Plugins

Many commercial and free plugins are available in the VST format. MultitrackStudio supports both VST3 and VST2 plugins.

VST plugins can be loaded into an effect slot using the slot's down arrow. The VST plugins appear in the list's Plugins section.

Note: A VST plugin that's installed while MultitrackStudio is running may not be recognized automatically (the plugins are collected only once per session). You can press Command-R while an effect selector is visible to force VST plugins to be rescanned.

If a VST plugin gets into a bad state somehow, you can press Command-R while the plugin interface is visible. This will save the settings, reload the plugin, and load the settings again.

Tip: VST plugins that haven't yet been updated for Apple Silicon can still be used on an Apple Silicon Mac if you open MultitrackStudio using Rosetta: find MultitrackStudio in Finder, Ctrl-click it, choose Get Info, and check the Open in Rosetta option.

## VST3 plugins

VST3 plugins are .vst3 files. They're located in the user or system Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3 folder.

You can use MtStudioLinks.txt files to exclude files or folders (see the VST2 description). Including files or folders is not possible.

### Presets

Any presets that come with the plugin appear in the Presets menu. The presets can be stored in the plugin itself, or they can be .vstpreset files in one of these folders:

- User or system Library/Audio/Presets/COMPANYNAME/PLUGINNAME/
- Network/Library/Audio/Presets/COMPANYNAME/PLUGINNAME/

## VST2 plugins

VST2 plugins are .vst files. They're located in the user or system Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST folder.

See Customizing the VST2 folder for more flexible options.

Plugins that supply a graphical user interface will be shown in a window with Bypass and Presets buttons. Plugins that do not have their own user interface will be made to look like native MultitrackStudio effects.

Any presets that come with the plugin appear in the Presets menu. The presets can be factory presets (stored in the plugin itself), presets stored in .fxb bank files, or presets stored in .fxp files. MultitrackStudio looks for matching .fxb/.fxp files in the folder where the plugin is located, and all of its subfolders.

There are a couple of "powered" plugins on the market that come with their own dedicated hardware. These kinds of plugins are not supported.

### Customizing the VST2 folder

On Mac, there are two default VST folders, and you can specify an additional one in the Plugin Manager. If you need more flexibility, you can place an MtStudioLinks.txt file in the VST folder, a folder that's included by an MtStudioLinks.txt file, or any of the subfolders. MtStudioLinks.txt must be a plain text file. TextEdit can be used to create/edit such files.

This example file demonstrates the options:

/Volumes/MyDrive/OtherFolder/
/Volumes/MyDrive/OtherFolder/TheReverb.vst
-SamplesDir/
-BuggyPlugin.vst

The first line includes the OtherFolder folder. The second line includes the TheReverb plugin. The third line excludes the SamplesDir subfolder, this can be useful if folders with large amounts of samples slow down plugin scanning. The last line excludes the BuggyPlugin plugin.