How To Organize VST2 and VST3 Plugins in Ableton Live

Timestamps
0:00 Intro & Common Problems
1:17 Make A Plugin Folder In the User Library
2:20 Make A New Folder For Each Category
3:28 Why I Wrap VST2 Inside Ableton Groups
5:55 My Plugin Categories

MY MUSIC

SOCIALS

[Bass_computer]

Apologies if I'm not as concise as I could have been! This is an earlier video of mine. I added some Timestamps to help you find what you need:

0:00​ Intro & Common Problems
1:17​ Make A Plugin Folder In the User Library
2:20​ Make A New Folder For Each Category
3:28​ Why I Wrap VST2 Inside Ableton Groups
5:55​ My Plugin Categories

[Diirk]

Great tutorial, all the other ones on this topic sucked, but this was very helpful, thank you.

[vdifwqm]

Dynamics / EQ / Color / Modulation / Stereo Field / FX / Utility....I find these to be the best Folder Organizer phrases

[Tephomab]

Three years later, and this is still the best way to organize plugins in Ableton. Other DAWs have plugin managers that let you sort by manufacturer, category, type, etc.

[matthill]

This helped a lot and it's working perfectly. Before, I went the other route and was copying my VSTs to folders and Ableton still wanted to categorize by Manufacturer. ....so thank you so much!!

[azzy]

Amazing bro, thank you ! Exactly what I was looking for

[Natemasterflex]

Just go into your vst folder and make folders, then rescan them and your set. If you start making shortcuts within Ableton you are going to run into problems in the future. One with old projects, two with load times, collect all and save and other issues. Better to sort in finder. Just my 2 cents. 😀

[lucascrostarosa]

Quick little tip to create all these folders quickly: Right click on the folder that you're going to add everything to, Click open new terminal window here, paste in the following code.

mkdir Compressor;
mkdir EQ;
mkdir Reverb;
mkdir Mastering;
mkdir Dynamic\ EQ;
mkdir Channel\ Strip;
mkdir Filter;
mkdir Limiter;
mkdir Guitar;
mkdir Modulation;
mkdir Metering;
mkdir Multiband\ Compressors;
mkdir Pedals;
mkdir Pitch;
mkdir Stereo\ Tools;
mkdir Transient\ Tools;
mkdir Instruments;
mkdir Instruments/Additive;
mkdir Instruments/Subtractive;


mkdir stands for make directory

[mariusmusicandscience]

People that struggle sorting their VST2 plugins; try the Live Enhancement Suite by Dylan Tallchief. It's free, and it allows you to sort your plugins in seperate folders like mentioned in the video, except it pops up like a menu when you rightmouse click, which in my opion is very convenient. It also offers you to move the plugin chain horizontally by holding your middle mouse button, and way more. Really check it out if you want to have a way smoother workflow.

[Jerbs]

I downloaded the Ableton Live trial and was gobsmacked that there was no easy way to categorise plugins - "collections" is an option, but is limited due to having only a handful of slots. I came from Cakewalk, where you can simply right-click on a plugin and assign it to a category (Bass, Synth, Delay, etc...).

With Ableton, I can arrange VST2 by creating a 'Plugin' folder through Windows explorer, then making subfolders within that (Bass, Synth, Delay, etc...) and that structure shows within Ableton Plug-Ins. But it doesn't work for VST3, that still defaults to the categorising by author name. The workaround you provided will fix that and I don't have to worry about VST2 not working that way, as I can make the folder structure myself (per above) without resorting to chains/groups. I'll have 2 different locations to look in (Places and Plug-ins) but at least I can search via plugin purpose, rather than plugin author. Thanks!

[EdmundLabito]

This is why I love studio One. It does this automatically

[warrickcole]

Legendary!! Thanks for the awesome tips this is going to save me alot of time.

[JoelRdz]

Nice advice! Does this move the plugins out from their original folder? (in Library/audio...)

[evanpilgrim]

A good option too would actually to use the color system and rename the colors to the type of plugin it is. You'll be limited to the amount of colors (7) but I think it's another good way around it.

[sashazlobin]

Thank you so much! I've tried to struct by colors in Ableton, but it's not enough for me.

[jacotay]

This works, but is just moving it manually in ableton really the fastest way?

[subfifth]

Interesting solution--thanks for sharing! Definitely hard to keep track of what everything is, especially once one gets into bundles. Since this video is over a year old, I'm wondering how this solution has held up over time after plugin updates. Do the linkages break? Another solution I'm considering is just dumping all the plugins into a spreadsheet or something similar and tagging them that way. Obviously would suck to use a separate application, but I feel like it'd be easier to maintain and less likely to break. Anyhow, thanks again for the video!

[dilam]

Hi I loved your tutorial, but one caveat is that LIVE crashes if your VST3 plugin is updated.... you need to resave the preset with the new VST3 version event if the name is the same

[EmbersMusic]

Wow- pretty surprised that Live doesn't simply default by category like pretty much all other DAWs do (ProTools, Cubase, FL Studio, etc). What a hassle, but thanks for the tips for sure!

[jacotay]

I cant put a vst2 plugin into my custom folder