Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—SOLVED

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Rick Cornish
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by Rick Cornish »

OK—As I was working with MOTU and Plugin Alliance support, I ended up testing EVERY AU plugin I own that uses the DP "shell" to access and save presets. (That was fun. :roll: )

All my AU effect plugs that provide factory presets in the preset menu that's within the DP "shell" just give me a system beep when I select "Save Preset…" … EXCEPT:

Softube Saturation Knob, when I select "Save Preset…" it lets me go through the save routine, but, after I click "save", pops up a system error message that says: "Access Denied. Insufficient access privileges for the operation. (-5000)" I checked permissions for all nested folders and all show I have permission to read and write.

And… (drum roll, please)…

Valhalla Shimmer… which works perfectly.

As I dug a little deeper, I discovered that the Valhalla presets are stored at HD>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets>>>Valhalla DSP, LLC>>>Valhalla Shimmer/
Presets for most of the other AU plugs are stored at HD>>>User>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets>>>[BRAND]>>>[PLUGIN].

On the advice of a support tech from Plugin Alliance, I tried moving my Plugin Alliance preset folder FROM HD>>>User>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets TO HD>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets. This fixed the problem! :dance:

I will try this with the other AU plugins that are having this problem.

Note that presets for MOTU plugs are stored within the User folder.
Last edited by Rick Cornish on Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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DP 11 on M2 Mac Studio (64mB mem. + 2tB int. SSD + two 2tB ext. SSDs, and Mac OS Sonoma). VIs from MOTU, Spectrasonics, NI, UVI, 8dio, Soniccouture, East West, Spitfire, Heavyocity, Vir2, and more; plus Waves 14, Brainworx, iZotope, Wavesfactory, Oeksound, Final Mix, JST, SPL, PSP, UVI, Valhalla DSP, and other FX plugs, Roland A-88, Apogee Quartet, iCON Platform Nano, Genelec 1032a and Westlake BBSM4 monitors, Gibson HR Fusion III. rickcornish.net
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—SOLVED

Post by bayswater »

Odd that a User preset would have to be saved in the System wide folder. I guess no one really thinks of the Mac as a multi user computer, but I'd expect the various developers to ensure that presets (and anything else) could be saved in either folder for those that was to organize their files that way.
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—SOLVED

Post by stubbsonic »

Does DP seek to write presets on one location and seek to read them in another?
Or will it just be that once you point DP to the root library/audio/presets location it will just default to reading/writing there first?
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by Rick Cornish »

stubbsonic wrote:Does DP seek to write presets on one location and seek to read them in another?
Or will it just be that once you point DP to the root library/audio/presets location it will just default to reading/writing there first?
Good questions, and both well above my pay grade. I still have an open TechLink with MOTU, so perhaps answers will come.

Meanwhile, I'm now able to save user presets for my 9 Plugin Alliance Presets, so that's something. The rest do not follow the same protocols and I've been thus far unable to find where they store their presets:
Adam Szabo: Phazor
Apple: AU Roger Beep, AU Dynamics Processor, AU Matrix Reverb, AU MultiBand Compressor, AU Pitch, AU Reverb, etc.
Auburn Sounds: Panagement CM
Audio Assault: The Punch
TDR Labs: Proximity

On we go…
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

Rick Cornish wrote:As I dug a little deeper, I discovered that the Valhalla presets are stored at HD>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets>>>Valhalla DSP, LLC>>>Valhalla Shimmer/
Presets for most of the other AU plugs are stored at HD>>>User>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets>>>[BRAND]>>>[PLUGIN].

On the advice of a support tech from Plugin Alliance, I tried moving my Plugin Alliance preset folder FROM HD>>>User>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets TO HD>>>Library>>>Audio>>>Presets. This fixed the problem! :dance:
This is very useful information. I can't wait to try this with some of the plugs I'm having this issue with!
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

Well this is interesting! I did some digging. While I was weeding out the plugs I have not purchased after running the latest UAD-2 update installer, I came across a plug called "UAD Precision Channel Strip."

This plug has two methods to load/save presets: the sort that is built in to the plug GUI, and the "DP Shell" that is part of DP's window surrounding the plug.

Clicking "Load Preset" from the GUI preset menu brought up lots of options, including nested presets in folders named after mix engineers, etc. All those presets are found at HD/Library/Application Support/Universal Audio/Presets/UAD Precision Channel Strip/ Inside that folder called "UAD Precision Channel Strip" (which exactly matches the name of the plug in as it appears in DP's plug-in chooser) you can see folders used for the hierarchy within the GUI's preset menu.

Now... for the DP Shell preset menu for this plug-in:

First there was a much more limited list of presets in that menu. I could not find any of the presets by using "Find" (system files included) on the hard drive. I suspect maybe they're embedded into the AU itself. As expected, choosing "Save Preset..." simply gave an error beep. Likewise "Reveal Presets in Finder..." did nothing. And this will be important later... there was NO "User Presets" nested menu inside the DP shell preset menu.

So I investigated and found there were some UAD plug-in presets located here:

HD/Library/Audio/Presets/Universal Audio/

Within this folder were folders named after specific UAD plug-ins and inside those folders were the presets for the plug-ins. I noticed there was no folder named "UAD Precision Channel Strip" so I created one. The system asked me to authorize before I could create it. I now had this folder on my hard drive: HD/Library/Presets/Universal Audio/UAD Precision Channel Strip/

When I went back to DP and to the UAD Precision Channel Strip plug-in, choosing "Reveal Presets in Finder..." took me into the folder I had just created which was empty. I I then chose "Save Preset..." which ppened a dialog all set to save in the folder I just created. I saved the current state of the plug-in as "Test Preset". When I went back to the DP Shell preset menu for the plug, there was now a nested submenu at the top of the preset menu called "User Presets >" and "Test Preset" was a menu item with it!

Bottom line here, what seems to happen is if you create a folder named exactly what the plug-in name is in DP's plug menu, DP will then automatically find that folder and designate it for presets. Then once you've saved your first preset into it, the "User Presets >" submenu item will appear. I'm guessing maybe this is the standardized MacOS method for AU presets with the preset folder syntax being:

HD/Library/Audio/Presets/<Manufacturer Name>/<Plug-in Name>/

The Manufacturer and Plug-In name must be exactly correct, but I suspect that if you use how each presents itself in DP's plug-in chooser, you're good here.

Anyway... interesting stuff. Hope that helps. I just did this on yet another UAD Plug-In and it worked. I guess one downside is that to having BOTH preset load/save methods working is you may save presets in either and you might forget which place you saved. The presets won't appear in both places... one or the other. So having the DP Shell preset menu not working might force discipline on you to use the plug-in GUI's menu and thus all your presets will for sure be in that location.
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

Okay... just tried this on a plug for another developer/manufacturer and it worked.

The theory seems to be that if you have a plug that is now allowing you to use DP's "shell" preset menu (the preset menu built into DP's plug in window), if you create a folder that matches the below syntax using the manufacturer name and plug-in name EXACTLY as show in DP's plug-in menu, it will become functional and soon as you save a preset the "User Presets >" submenu will appear.

Here's a graphic to make it clear. In this case, The Wall had a non-functioning DP shell preset menu. After creating the folder show below, it was functioning. DP immediately finds it with "Reveal Presets in Finder..."

Image

UPDATE: I'm kind of excited about this. I think this might have cracked the mystery. Just did this with Exponential Audio R2 and it worked. For that plug no "User Presets >" submenu appeared since there were no pre-existing "generic AU" presets. The saved presets appeared in the root preset menu.
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

ANOTHER DISCOVERY!!!

Okay this is pretty wild. It seems like in order to create the AU preset folder for a plug so that DP's shell preset menu can load/save plugs, all you need to do is create the Manufacturer folder inside HD/Library/Audio/Presets/ !!! DP will take care of the rest!!

For example, I just created a folder inside HD/Library/Audio/Presets/ named "Nomad Factory". When I go back to DP and choose EITHER "Reveal Presets in Finder..." OR "Save Preset..." from Nomad Factory's AMT Amp Leveling plug, DP creates the folder named after the plug AUTOMATICALLY!

So it looks like as long as the manufacturer folder exists, DP will create a specific folder for the specific plug-in automatically. Manually creating the folder inside the manufacturer folder doesn't appear to be necessary! Below is a QT that shows DP creating the folder:

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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by bayswater »

This certainly clears up some confusion. I tried doing what you did, but in User/Library/Audio/Presets using a MeldaProductions folder. DP didn't look there when I tried to save a preset and it issued the usual "bump" sound when I tried to save a preset. But it did work the same way as your tests in HD/Library/Audio/Presets (which didn't actually exist on my MBP until I created it).

I noticed that Logic looks for the User folder rather than the HD folder, and IIRC, some other DAWs do too. Logic doesn't find presets in the HD folder, and DP doesn't find them in the User folder. (And, of course, the OS sets it up the way Logic does it). So for those using multiple DAWs, it might be easier to just use the developers preset dialogs, or maybe put a symbolic link in one of the the two Audio folders pointing to the other. If everything is done in DP, clippings is an alternative.

The manual covers this in a way, but omits the crucial step about creating a folder. MOTU should add this given other plugin manufacturers don't always create the necessary folder at the time of installation.
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by Rick Cornish »

Wow! Thanks James for digging into this. Great discoveries! I hope to find time to try this on some of my other plugs this week.


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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

Rick Cornish wrote:Wow! Thanks James for digging into this. Great discoveries! I hope to find time to try this on some of my other plugs this week.
I'm pretty certain it will work. Just create a folder named for the manufacturer EXACTLY as it appears in DP's plug menu at that location.

I tried it on several plugs and it worked every time. As I said, the only dilemma might be that if you were using BOTH methods you might forget which way you saved the preset. They're stored in different locations.
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by buzzsmith »

Following, and did anyone try with any Spectrasonics VIs?

I'm hit or miss with Trilian, Stylus and Omnisphere.


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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by Rick Cornish »

buzzsmith wrote:Following, and did anyone try with any Spectrasonics VIs?

I'm hit or miss with Trilian, Stylus and Omnisphere.


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Spectrasonics instruments all have robust built/in patch browsers, so I can’t imagine why you’d want to use MOTU’s very bare-bones shell instead.

This discussion is focused solely on non-MAS effect plug-ins that do not have their own built-in preset browser and must use DP’s shell for accessing and saving presets.

If you’re having a problem with your Spectra VIs, you might want to start a separate thread. I’m sure someone here could help.



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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

Rick Cornish wrote:Wow! Thanks James for digging into this. Great discoveries! I hope to find time to try this on some of my other plugs this week.
Hey Rick... did you try this method yet? Honestly, I have not yet come across an AU plug-in for which this did not work. I think this is particular bugaboo is squashed.
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Re: Unable to Save AU Plugin Presets—PARTIALLY SOLVED

Post by James Steele »

buzzsmith wrote:Following, and did anyone try with any Spectrasonics VIs?
Yes... did it just now. Absolutely works with Stylus.

1. Go into the HD/Library/Audio/Presets
2. Create New Folder (put in admin password when requested)
3. Name the Folder "Spectrasonics"
4. Go to DP's preset menu for Stylus and choose "Save Preset..."
5. DP will create a folder called "Stylus RMX" inside the "Spectrasonics" folder.
6. Save the Preset.

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