Audio/MIDI multitrack recording software
MultitrackStudio
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Latest release: 10.7, September 26, 2023
Manual : Plugin Manager

Plugin Manager

The Plugins section of a selector features a 'hamburger' button on the right. You can click it to pop up the Plugin Manager. Alternatively you can rightclick a plugin in the selector and choose 'Show in Plugin Manager'.

Plugin Manager window
Plugin Manager window

Hide from Effect/Instrument/MIDI Effect selector

MultitrackStudio tries to show plugins in appropriate selectors only, but it needs to err on the safe side. You can hide a plugin from some, or all, selectors manually.

Categories

Categories in effect selector
Categories in effect selector
You can assign category names to plugins. These categories will appear in plugin selectors. A 'My Compressor' plugin with a 'COMP' category name, for example, appears in effect selectors as 'COMP - My Compressor'. Plugins with a category will appear at the top of the list in plugin selectors.

It's best to use very short category names, so the names fit the selectors.

Override name

You can override the names that appear in selectors.

Override slot text

By default the first 4 or 5 characters of the plugin name appear in effect/instrument slots. You can override these texts. You might want to do this if a bunch of plugin names start with the same company name, for example.

Note: slot texts must be very short, typically not more than 4 or 5 characters.

Keyboard Focus

MultitrackStudio tries to prevent plugins from stealing keyboard shortcuts for transport control (see Controlling the Transport). If this causes problems you can check the Keybrd box to disable this feature.

Bridging

Note: bridging is available for Windows only.

VST2 plugins can run 'bridged'. Bridged plugins run in a separate process, so they can't crash MultitrackStudio. See also VST Plugins.

Note: you don't need to check this option in order to use a 32 bits plugin in 64 bits MultitrackStudio or vice versa. This is handled automatically.

Scaling

Note: scaling is available for Windows only.

Many VST plugin don't scale their UI, so they're very small on a 4k monitor. If the Scale box is checked MultitrackStudio will let Windows scale the UI if the following conditions are met:

  1. Windows system scale setting is 150% or higher.
  2. The plugin doesn't scale the UI itself (in a way MultitrackStudio can detect).
  3. The scaled UI will fit the screen.
  4. Windows 10 version 1803 (April 2018) or newer.
Note: scaling may not work correctly with some plugins.

The Scale option is on by default for VST2 plugins.

Sidechain input plugins

Some older VST2 plugins use a second plugin to pick up sidechain input. This does not work reliably on multi-core computers. This option adds a "Sidechain Plugin" box, you can load the input plugin here and use the MTS sidechain routing.

Under the hood
The plugin manager settings are stored in a file called "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\MtStudio\Plugins.txt" (Windows) / "/Library/Application Support/MultitrackStudio/Plugins.txt" (Mac).


VST2 Plugin folder

Windows: Specifies the VST Folder. All VST Plugins you want to use should be located in this folder or one of its subfolders. See also Customizing the VST folder.

Note: the 64-bit version will ask for permission to run "MtStudio.exe" as Administrator. That's to update the registry, so VST plugin installers can find the VST folder.

Mac: VST plugins are typically located in the user or system Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST folder, so there's no need to specify a folder here. You can specify an additional folder if you have one.