I want to use one of my many audio plugins to EQ the audio of a video I've made; the top end is too harsh.
I went into File/Settings Program and then Folder, then clicked on 'Add VST Plugin path' and something seemed to scan. But no where could I see how to load a simple EQ VST. I loaded audio FX and clicked on 'Hifi EQ' but no popup appeared to see this. I tried 'Extra FX' and nothing was found.
What am I doing wrong? 👿
Possibly nothing.
Vst is generational with newer plugins not compatible with older versions of the vst implementation.
If you have installed the free version of Music Maker along with your copy of MEP you may be able to import a vst plugin from there. I have been able to use some of my older Steinberg plugins in Music Maker but not all.
Ray.
The "free" version of MM does not include the facility to add VSTs.
When you clicked on "Add VST plugin path" did you navigate to exactly where those VST .dlls are stored on your computer? Are ALL your VST .dlls in ONE folder? I think this latter setting (one folder) is needed because, as far as I can remember, you cannot select multiple paths in MEP.
If you did all the above you need to be aware that such "external" VSTs are accessed via the Mixer (shortcut M)>FX (the button above the master fader). The screen that opens, bottom left hand edge should be a + and - buttons. Press the + and all your VSTs should be available.
HTH
Jeff
Hi Jeff.
I've only got the free version and had it on my last setup. I will see if I can get it to import any of them again but I haven't finished loading older plugins yet. If I remember correctly I had Steinberg's VB-1 and Wizoo's X-Phraze synth which has worked for me since Cubase VST 5.1.
I've just to open my new installed version and it's telling me a whole bunch of .dll's are missing. 😒
Will see how I get on.
It's all the Music Makers effects plugins that have gone missing.
Now, I downloaded this with MEP and until now hadn't touched it. I may try to reinstall it later.
Ray.
I've got the full version of Movie Edit Pro Plus, under Help it says the version No. is 19.0.2.58, so in theory I should be able to make my third party VSTs work? It seems it will recognise VST2 plugins, but not VST3. In my home recording DAWs (Cakewalk and Studio One) I only install VST3 dlls. I'll do a reinstall of an EQ plugin and opt for VST2 to be installed and see if MEPP recognises it then.
EDIT: Yes, that must be it. I just downloaded a free EQ plugin called TDR Nova from here:
https://thehomerecordings.com/best-free-eq-plugins/
and installed the VST2 and VST3 64 bit versions and MEPP recognised the VST2 version ok. Get with it MEPP, VST3's been around a while now! 😉
Yes, MEP only works with VST2s, not VST3s.
Personally, in my DAWs I always install both "types", no real reason for that, I guess, other than it give me options when selecting to use them! Whether MEP should be able to use VST3s is, perhaps, moot; after all, it is, primarily, a video editor! 😇😇
Jeff
I can't seem to get Music Maker back installed but if you can access Music Editor 3 from MEP (I don't know if all versions of MEP contain it) it seems capable of loading some vsts.
Out of my 108 plugins it installed 9. Some the graphic interfaces won't load properly but basic sliders appear that can be adjusted. You may get pop-up boxes saying the effect can't load but once the box is closed the effect loads anyway. Music Maker 3's EQ controller also seems a lot more flexible.
Ray.
I've got the full version of Movie Edit Pro Plus, under Help it says the version No. is 19.0.2.58, so in theory I should be able to make my third party VSTs work? It seems it will recognise VST2 plugins, but not VST3. In my home recording DAWs (Cakewalk and Studio One) I only install VST3 dlls. I'll do a reinstall of an EQ plugin and opt for VST2 to be installed and see if MEPP recognises it then.
EDIT: Yes, that must be it. I just downloaded a free EQ plugin called TDR Nova from here:
https://thehomerecordings.com/best-free-eq-plugins/
and installed the VST2 and VST3 64 bit versions and MEPP recognised the VST2 version ok. Get with it MEPP, VST3's been around a while now! 😉
Here is one of the recent messages from the Samplitude forum about VST3's.
In three different DAWs (Samplitude, Mixbus 5, Digital Performer 10), VST3 has recoiled on me and bit me. I wouldn't touch anything in its VST3 form with a ten foot pole. It is not yet a "standard" that even the plugin programmers understand, IMHO. If they work at all in a DAW, either some functions will mess up, or the plugin will crash on me. I just don't think VST3 is ready for prime-time anywhere.
The consensus agreed.
Thus, I would not like to see VST3 capability added to MEP or VPX until such time as they all get it figured out and stable - firstly with DAWs.
John CB
I've never had a single problem with VST3 in my DAWs. VST3 has been around for over ten years and is perfectly stable. How various software manufacturers implement it on the other hand can be another story.
+1 👍
How various software manufacturers implement it on the other hand can be another story
Therein lies the problem!
I use Adobe Audition as my primary audio recorder/editor and it is notoriously "picky" about using only VST2s and 3s that "exactly conform" to the original Steinberg specifications. It seems that not all plugin manufacturers necessarily follow this practice!
Jeff
After doing an extensive importing of all of my early Steinberg vsts' I found only the earliest ones will work fully within the audio internal Music Editor 3. I am talking about going back to plugins that worked on Windows 98 from Cubase VST. Some made for later versions of Cubase SX will work but the main graphical interface is missing. You are left with a Graphical interface with sliders only. New plugins won't work at all.
In total, I have found 33 plugins that work so far. The main problem seems to be with the graphical interfaces.
Perhaps the new ones don't load because of the way they are drawn? All Magix interfaces seem quite simple. The audio side of those that do plug in but with just basic info and slider controls still seem to work audio wise. The spectral analysis tools seem to work just fine. I have a fair collection of old DVDs that have old free vsts' on them from old CM magazines. I will look further.
They were loaded via MEP and not Music Editor 3 John.
But they cannot be loaded into MEPs mixer panel.
No idea why other than a total rejection of the user interface.
I get reminders that 25 other vst effects have been found when showing and adding the folder path, (many less than actually show or can be used in ME3) and that they will be available on a shutdown and re-opening of MEP, but it never does.
[Edit] I have noticed that only the plugins that come in at under 1000KBs seem to work.
Ray.
Hi John.
The two methods of import seem to be linked.
The folder already shows up there and the plugins still don't show. Still getting the same warning message.
I notice all of your plugins are verified Magix ones. Not third party.
Could be another factor as most of mine are marked as Steinberg products. Those still show in ME3.
Mine open in ME3 as I said but can't check with The other Editor MEP comes with as since I deleted it I can't seem to get it back. Not that I need it but would have been another audio editor of Magix to test.
Ray.
Hi Ray,
The Audio Effects that you show are all afx and maybe mxf files from Magix that can be found under:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\MAGIX\Common\Videocontent\Video Pro X\AudioEffects
or Movie Edit Pro for you. No VST's show up here. You can only add them to tracks in the Mixer by clicking on FX for a track in the header of the track, then by pressing on the + at the bottom left as I showed in my screen shots.
You can also save your own audio effects and they will have the extension afx. These, of course, would be mostly the effects from the audio cleaning dialogue.
ME3 is a actually a separate program that can work as a standalone. It's an old version of Audio Cleaning Lab which has gone through several iterations and a facelift and is now known as Sound Forge Audio Cleaning Lab. The latest version 2 accepts VST3's. In ME3, there are no video effects, only VST's that can be applied to objects and/or the project. VST's are added by going to Options, Path settings and adding the paths to the VST's. In MEPP, it's through the Program Settings as I showed previously. MEPP and ME3 are separate programs, so adding VST's in one does not add them to the other.
If you need track effects, then go through the Mixer. If you need object effects or cleaning, go through the external audio editor like ME3. I have used Magix Audio & Music Lab, Sound Forge Audio Cleaning Lab (1), Samplitude Pro X3, Sound Forge Audio Studio 12 and Sound Forge Pro 11. I stick with Magix Audio & Music Lab because I don't have to do a mixdown of the object the get the external editor to show up with a right click on the audio object (the audio part of a video clip - a wave file is already mixed down). This is on my bug list with Magix.
In MEPP, have you tried changing the external audio editor to Audacity? It should work.
John CB
Hi John.
I have at no stage added any folder paths to ME3 from using ME3s' interface. I don't know how to be more clear on this point.
Nor did I try to add effects via the program settings path inside of MEP Premium until you suggested it and found the link was already in place. Trying to use your suggestion added nothing.
I have not been able to re-install Music Maker since I deleted it.
I can run my copy of Cubase from MEP if I choose to but as MEP does not seem to be able to use rewire connections so that I could rewire to the MEP mixer audio channel outputs into Cubase directly that would allow me to alter multiple channels in real time, I see no point in doing that.
All I was trying to do was see which vst effects I could get to run within MEP or one its own editors and how old or new they would be or if there was any other factor involved. So far the only correlation I can find is the code size of an individual plugin where nothing over 650 KB seems to run. Borne from curiosity and the need for a bit of fun is the only reason I did this. I have an established workflow that I am comfortable with and not likely to alter any time soon. I only alter workflows to suit new capabilities.
Why would I need to install Audacity? I'm happy with Cubase. While I'm happy to experiment with what I already have and make connections to things that may be useful, I'm not happy at all with adding anything I don't need. I do not need broken bits of registry code and other code dross littering my hard drive at this point. Maybe once I get to clone my C: drive I may consider it.
I know how Cubase works and I'm familiar with it. I can import an MP4 video from MEP and work with it from there if I need to or import individual tracks one at a time which is a very limiting way of working, but again I can export each audio track individually and then place them all at once into Cubase and do a multi channel mix that way. It's a long-winded workaround but can be done. Thankfully, the need is once in a blue moon.
Ray.
Hi Ray
. . . . I have at no stage added any folder paths to ME3 from using ME3s' interface. I don't know how to be more clear on this point. . . . .
Like @browj2 I am also puzzled why your seeing the Cubase VST's in MEP and ME3, your image of the Audio plugins does not show any Cubase VST's.
What do you see when when you open the Mixer, click an FX button, the + icon bottom left then VST Fx?
When you open ME3 what do you see in the Options, Path settings and Effects, Plugins when it is:
John EB
Hi John.
Look further up to my post showing seven screenshots. Five of those plugins are early Cubase plugins. They are in images 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. All early Steinberg plugins. The other has its developer's name on it and was part of a package of three free plugins called FilletOfish.
If you are talking about what do I see if I try to open an additional effect within the MEP audio mixer than you have missed part of one of my replies.
I've always opened ME3 via clicking on a waveform within MEP and selecting 'Edit in an external editor'. Never opened it or used it as a standalone application. I have no desktop shortcut to it. All my audio editing that I do other than final mix-downs within MEP is in Cubase.
With regard to points 1:and 2:
1: I don't know, I have never looked at it so far. I didn't know, until the Spanish inquisition started, where even the folder path was.😉
2: Exactly the same folder path as viewing from adding effects the way I did it and not the way John CB suggested.
This really seems to have upset you both.
I have no explanations, just observations.
For me it's just a curiosity, an exercise brought on from boredom with nothing much at present worth editing to do instead. Nothing more. I have never even used ME3 within MEP, I just opened it to see what it offered and wondered after the initial post here if I could add more working effects from my own library. As an audio editor it has little of interest to me.
Ray.