Reference Guide

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Mixing
Organizing Plug-ins
Organizing Plug-ins
Once you have more than a few plug-in effects and/or soft synths installed on your computer, you
might want to organize the way they appear in the various plug-in and synth menus that you use.
The Cakewalk Plug-in Manager is a powerful tool to organize your plug-in menus. Open the Plug-in
Manager by using the Tools > Cakewalk Plug-in Manager command, and display the Plug-in
Manager’s help file by pressing F1.
Even if you don’t use the Plug-in Manager, SONAR now automatically organizes all DX and VST
plug-ins into a default plug-in menu layout called Default – All Plug-ins. If you select the Plug-in
Layouts > Manage Layouts option from a plug-in menu, the Plug-in Manager opens and
automatically populates the Plug-in Layout area with the Default Layout, which produces a solid
starting point for customizing layouts.
VST plug-ins are organized in menus according to the file folder structure in which they reside on
your hard disk.
VST Configuration
SONAR automatically scans your VST folders for new plug-ins on startup, registering any
unscanned VST plug-ins so that they become available in SONAR’s plug-in menus. You can turn off
automatic scanning by using the Options > Global command, and unchecking the Scan For VST
Plug-ins On Startup check box that is on the VST Plug-ins tab.
To configure your VST plug-ins manually, use either the VST Plug-ins tab of the Global Options
dialog, or the Cakewalk Plug-in Manager. You can use the Global Options dialog to set general
VST options, such as choosing which folders to scan, but not specific options on individual plug-ins.
Use the Cakewalk Plug-in Manager to set options on individual plug-ins (use the Tools > Cakewalk
Plug-in Manager command to open the Plug-in Manager). The following procedures explain how to
use the VST Plug-ins tab of the Global Options dialog. The Cakewalk Plug-in Manager has its own
help.
To Display the Global Options Dialog/VST Plug-ins Tab
• Use the Options > Global command to open the Global Options dialog, and click the VST Plug-
ins tab.
To Add a Folder to Scan
1. On the Global Options dialog/VST Plug-ins tab, click the Add button to open the Browse for
Folder dialog.
2. Choose the folder you want to add, and click OK.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add any additional folders you might want to scan.
The new folders appear in the VST Scan Folder(s) list, along with any folders that were already in
the list.