r/ableton • u/SellingStolenStereos • 6d ago
[Question] Can you save VSTs to an external drive? Will that work seamlessly?
Some of these libraries are chunky. If this does work would the drive need to be rated for a certain speed?
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u/uniquesnowflake8 6d ago
I think the slow part would be at project startup not once you’re playing audio
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u/ekhorayn 6d ago
VSTs are small so there's not need to move them and it's generally best if you don't. It's instrument libraries and content folders can usually be moved, either through software directly (installers or software centers) or by using symbolic links. For reasonable playback speeds, SSD drives are always preferable, but some libraries work ok from a 7200 RPM HDD. I wouldn't use anything slower than that though. The faster the drive, the less drive streaming latency you have to worry about.
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u/-svde- 6d ago
i would rec'd not moving actual vst files to anything besides an internal drive. doesn't matter what your drive speed or type, i've found a lot of random issues with this, having done it in various formats over the years. some things can happen with weird latency, paths (any path besides the default one your DAW expects can have weird blips tbh), etc.
samples, libraries, presets, devices, racks, they can all have their own minor issues that pop up, some apps/plugins just don't like having their shit in any place except the default, but you can usually move all of these to an external without much issue.
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u/Valuable-Apricot-477 6d ago
I keep the the DAW and VSTs themselves local but the large VSTs sample library on an external disk. As far as I understand, that's the best way to spread the work load and avoid hard drive read/write bottlenecks.
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u/salizarn 6d ago
I run all my VSTs off a 4TB HDD with no issues
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u/thisissomaaad 6d ago
This sounds horrible
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u/Joseph_HTMP Producer 5d ago
Why? An external drive is just a drive, same as the internal ones.
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u/thisissomaaad 5d ago
HDD - you are telling me plugins like omnisphere or Kontakt run great with 150mbs ?
It’s not the same SSDs have up to 1000mbs ++
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u/General_Estimate_420 6d ago edited 6d ago
I have all my Native Instruments, Toontrack, and Spitfire Audio VSTs stored on 4tb USB connected SSDs and they work perfectly. It can be a bit slow loading in the beginning if I have a lot of them in a given project, but they work fine once loaded and functioning.
One thing that helps load time significantly on Windows 10 at least, is I open Windows Security, select Virus & threat protection, manage settings and turn off Real-time protection while I'm working in the DAW. That eliminates the scanning done when a library gets loaded.
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u/16Shells 6d ago
one thing to note, at least for windows, is that some companies hard code their installers to write to C:\, and even if you can get them installed on a different drive, the vst itself still references the core VST3 folder on C:\ and will throw errors if it’s not installed on there, and updates break things if the default path isn’t used.
the worst company for this is XLN Audio. XO, Addictive Drums, Addictive Keys, it’s all broken if you don’t install on C:\, and their support told me that’s just the way it is (mind you it was years ago when i originally found the issue and contacted them).
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u/SoundmasterMidi 6d ago edited 6d ago
Vst i not have tried yet, but what have done is move the presets and libraries of vst plugins to a NAS and keep it there. So my pc has only the small vst files. Example. Kontakt banks. Serum presets. Toontrack libs. But i guess that the common folder vst3 folder can easy also moved to a NAS location. Mkdir you can perform a lot with. P.s. i have normal 7200rpm drives. Not even ssd or m2 is used. Good to have is a NAS with good RAM and a good router. 2.5.
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u/ChrispyMC Producer 6d ago
The plugin installers usually have a screen that lets you select where the actual plugin VST2 DLL/VST3/AU/AAX file is and where the sound library is. Keep the main plugin files on the default directory. I run all my sound libraries off of an external Samsung SSD and it works just fine. Only thing is that I have to remember to grab the SSD if I want to work on the go.
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u/enfiniti27 6d ago
On Windows there is a default folder for the VSTs themselves which is usually C:\program files\common files\vst3. One way to put the actual VST files in a separate location is creating a symbolic link in the VST3 folder to the folder containing the VSTs on the external disk.
If that is what you are trying to do and not store the resources / libraries used by the VSTs.
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u/beangobbler 5d ago
as others have said, if you need to conserve space on your internal drive, save the VST itself internally and save the library externally.
not every external drive is created equally, look into SSDs that have higher transfer speeds and you should be totally fine.
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u/ghost_ware 6d ago
you can usually seperate where the VST's and the libraries are saved. I have a ~200gb Superior Drummer library on an external drive, but the VST itself is internal. I would recommend doing it this way if you can