Always scans for VST Plug-ins on startup[SOLVED]

[major4579]

See http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 40#p194640 for the workarounds.

I running Audacity 1.3.9 (Unicode) Aug 29, 09

Whenever I start Audacity it goes through a scan of VST Plugins in the C:Program FilesAudacityPlug-ins directory.
I have unchecked the "Rescan VST effects" (see below) but it still scans everytime I start up. The on;y way to disable the scan is to uncheck "Enable VST Effects". Is this a known bug or am I missing something.

The following is from a post by Gale Andrews:
"Audacity 1.3.9 only scans for VST plug-ins the first time it detects any. Thereafter, plug-ins are cached so they do not slow down Audacity each time you launch it. To rescan for newly added VST effects, go to the Effects tab of Preferences, check "Rescan VST effects next time Audacity is started", click OK, and restart Audacity."

Thanks,
John

[billw58]

I running Audacity 1.3.9 (Unicode) Aug 29, 09
Whenever I start Audacity it goes through a scan of VST Plugins in the C:Program FilesAudacityPlug-ins directory.
I have unchecked the "Rescan VST effects" (see below) but it still scans everytime I start up. The only way to disable the scan is to uncheck "Enable VST Effects". Is this a known bug or am I missing something.

John:
I can confirm this on Mac 1.3.9 as well. On Windows, there should be file: Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacityplugins.cfg. As long as that file is empty (or if the file does not exist), Audacity scans for VST effects on launch. The only way I have found to stop the scan is to put a VST effect in the plug-ins folder so that something gets written to plugins.cfg the next time Audacity starts. I never thought of unchecking "Enable VST Effects" because I have one that I like.

-- Bill

[major4579]

Bill,

Thanks, that's the info I needed. I'm a bit of a newbie and didn't think of the fact that there were NO VST plugins installed. Once I installed one VST plug-in, the rescanning stopped.

Problem solved!

-John

[Gale Andrews]

Bill,
Thanks, that's the info I needed. I'm a bit of a newbie and didn't think of the fact that there were NO VST plugins installed. Once I installed one VST plug-in, the rescanning stopped.

This wasn't known to me, but yes in 1.3.9 Release it seems Audacity scans the Audacity Plug-ins folder if there are no VST plug-ins in any of the places it looks for them. It did not do this in the 1.3.8 Alpha code we were testing with at the time. Anyway, this appears to have been fixed on 13 September shortly after 1.3.9 Release, when we fixed the problem of VST effects being permanently in the Effect menu once they had been cached (even if they were subsequently removed).

Having moved all my VST plug-ins to locations where Audacity does not look for them, 1.3.10 Alpha does not seem to display a scanning dialogue for me in Windows XP if there are no VST plug-ins available.

Can you both confirm this by trying in the 1.3.10 Alpha Nightly Builds.


Thanks


Gale

[billw58]

Can you both confirm this by trying in the 1.3.10 Alpha Nightly Builds.
Gale

Gale:
See my post to -devel on this topic. On Mac I never see the "scanning" dialog.

Also, just clearing out all the VST effects does not display the problem. You need to either trash or clear plugins.cfg.
-- Bill

[Gale Andrews]

Can you both confirm this by trying in the 1.3.10 Alpha Nightly Builds.
Gale

Gale:
See my post to -devel on this topic. On Mac I never see the "scanning" dialog.

Also, just clearing out all the VST effects does not display the problem. You need to either trash or clear plugins.cfg.
-- Bill

Bill, you said "the only way I have found to stop the scan is to put a VST effect in the plug-ins folder so that something gets written to plugins.cfg the next time Audacity starts". But how do you know it is scanning if you see no scanning dialogue?



Gale

[major4579]

Gale,

I tried running the 1.3.10 version but ran into a problem so I can't really test the VST plugin problem.

1.3.10 starts without displaying the scanning box or the delay I saw when 1.3.9 was scanning. So that seems to be working better.

But if I check the 'rescan on startup' option 1.3.10 never completes startup. I can see the Audacity Process in my task manager consuming about 50% CPU and 13MB Ram, but no window ever appears - I have to end process on it. This happens even after a complete shutdown. Since 1.3.10 never completes startup, the rescan option never gets completed. The only way to get 1.3.10 to start is to delete the "C:Documents and SettingsuserApplication DataAudacity" directory.

Meanwhile 1.3.9 starts fine, and without the scan since I've added a VST plug-in. It also processes the rescan correctly.

Hope this helps.

John

[billw58]

Bill, you said "the only way I have found to stop the scan is to put a VST effect in the plug-ins folder so that something gets written to plugins.cfg the next time Audacity starts". But how do you know it is scanning if you see no scanning dialogue?

Gale:
I deduce that the scan is happening on every launch because I can get the hang just by putting a VST effect in the plug-ins folder and launching Audacity.

--Bill

[amhere]

this problem still exist in 1.3.11beta

[Gil Escalera]

I just loaded 1.3.11 (beta) on my WIndows XP laptop and the scanning for VST plug-ins runs every time no matter what.

Any resolve for THIS version yet

- Gil