Plug-ins Preferences

On this tab, you can access a number of options for managing your VST plug-ins.

You can specify where WaveLab Elements should search for your VST plug-ins and which ones it should ignore. It also allows you to choose how your VST plug-in controls respond to mouse actions and how frequently graphics are updated.

If you use your own file structure to organize and save VST plug-ins, this dialog allows you to gain full control over which plug-ins are loaded and which are ignored. This is useful if you want to deactivate a particular plug-in or if you want to ignore plug-ins that you never want to use with WaveLab Elements.

  • To open the Plug-ins Preferences, select File > Preferences > Plug-ins.

General Tab

Search Standard VST Plug-in Shared Folders

If this option is activated, WaveLab Elements searches for VST plug-ins in the default VST plug-in folders.

Information About the Searched Folders

Click on the info icon to see in which folders WaveLab Elements searched for plug-ins when it was launched. If you cannot find a plug-in in WaveLab Elements, this helps you to determine whether you have specified the correct folder, for example.

Additional VST Plug-in Folders (WaveLab Elements Specific)

Lets you specify additional folders where VST plug-ins can be found.

Ignore Plug-ins Located in the following Subfolders (Separate Folder Names with a Semicolon)

Lets you specify folder names that WaveLab Elements skips when searching for VST plug-ins.

Do Not Load the following Plug-ins

Lets you specify plug-ins that WaveLab Elements does not open. Enter the file names, without path and without file extension. Write each plug-in on a new line.

If you put the character * in front of the name, any plug-in that contains the name is ignored.

Force Plug-in Detection at Next Launch

Analyzes the plug-ins when launching WaveLab Elements the next time. To reduce the start time of WaveLab Elements, the plug-ins are not analyzed every time WaveLab Elements is started. However, WaveLab Elements keeps a list of plug-ins and updates this automatically when a date or size change is detected.

Keep Plug-ins in Memory until WaveLab Elements Quits

If this option is activated, the plug-ins are kept in memory even when they are no longer used. This results in a faster reopening of plug-ins. However, if you use many plug-ins, too much memory could be used after a specific time, which slows down the application.

Faster Graphics Refreshing (Consumes More Computer Power)

Refreshes the graphics of VST plug-ins more quickly.

VST Plug-in Knobs

Lets you set the mode for using knobs in plug-ins. You can set the mode to Circular, Circular Mode (Relative Movement), and Linear.

Organize Tab

Plug-ins list

Displays the hierarchy of the plug-ins in WaveLab Elements. Here, you can specify whether a plug-in is available on the plug-in selection menus and/or the Final Effect/Dithering panel and Playback-Processing panel of the Master Section.

You can add plug-ins to the Favorites list, create shortcuts for plug-ins, specify custom categories, and decide whether to use the generic user interface or the plug-in specific user interface.

The Precision column displays the processing precision of each plug-in. 64-bit float plug-ins are capable of double precision processing. In other effects menus throughout WaveLab Elements, plug-ins that are capable of double precision processing are marked with 64 F for 64-bit float.

Note

Processing in 64-bit float means double precision but slightly longer process time than 32-bit float.

Expand/Collapse

Expands/Collapses the folder tree.

Search field

Allows you to filter the plug-ins list for names.

  • Click in the search field, and enter the text that you want to search for.

  • To switch the focus from the search field to the plug-ins list, press Down Arrow.

  • To switch the focus from the plug-ins list to the search field, press Ctrl/Cmd-F.

Filter menu

Allows you to only display plug-ins that have certain properties.

  • Show All Plug-ins displays all plug-ins.

  • Show New Plug-ins only displays recently detected plug-ins.

  • Show 32-bit float Plug-ins only displays plug-ins that are capable of 32-bit float processing.

  • Show 64-bit float Plug-ins only displays plug-ins that are capable of 64-bit float processing.

  • Show Plug-ins with a Custom Category only displays plug-ins that have a custom category.

  • Show Plug-ins without a Custom Category only displays plug-ins that do not have a custom category.

Remove “New” Status

Resets the new status of the recently detected plug-ins.

Show Changes

Refreshes the plug-in tree according to the current settings.

Sorting

Determines how the plug-ins are sorted. The other parameters act on that hierarchy.

Compress Hierarchy

Merges all items into a single submenu if a submenu and all its submenus contain less than a specific number of plug-ins (Threshold).

The Threshold value determines the minimum number of items that are needed to compress the hierarchy.

Create Submenus Based on Prefixes

Creates a submenu that is labeled as the prefix if several items in a submenu start with the same prefix.

The Threshold value determines the minimum number of items that must start with the same prefix that are needed to create submenus that are labeled as the prefix.

Merge Single Submenus

Merges submenus that contain another submenu with only a single item in it.

Category Renaming

The category labels used to create the hierarchy are supplied by the plug-in manufacturers. In this section, you can change the category name. This can also be useful to merge two categories into one, by renaming these two categories with the same name.

Submenu with Recently Used Plug-ins

If this option is activated, the Recently Used submenu is shown.

The Maximum Size value determines the maximum number of plug-ins on the Recently Used submenu.

The Independent Recently Used Plug-ins Menu option determines whether the Recently Used submenu is global to all places where plug-ins can be selected, or if it is local to each context.

Ignored Plug-ins

Opens the Ignored Plug-ins dialog, where you can see plug-ins which were not loaded. This dialog lets you instruct WaveLab Elements to rescan these plug-ins at the next launch. This is faster than a full rescan.

Number of Plug-ins

Shows the number of plug-ins that are available in WaveLab Elements.