How to install Vst3 plugins (for Mac)

• Dec 28, 2023 - 16:15

I have tried in the past, with Magical8bitPlug2.vst3_.zip (it was made into .zip upon upload). I never can understand instructions for this. Can you please give me detailed instructions on how to do this? I would like to use this plugin for a lot of things.


Comments

In reply to by Asher S.

After you download a VST3 for your OS it will need to be installed in the same way that you would install any other software. For Windows the downloaded file would typically be a .MSI file which would then be run to install the VST into Windows.

Musescore will automatically find any VST installed as above and will make them available in the mixer. You may need to restart MS if you installed the VST to your OS whilst MS was already open.

I don't know if there are any compatibility issues as I have only tested Pianoteq 8. You could always download the trial version of Pianoteq as a test.

In reply to by Asher S.

I don't know Logic/Garageband.

Having installed the VST into your OS, you then open a score in MS4 and select the VST from the dropdown menu in the mixer.

musescore-4-mixer.png

Where you see the Sound MS Basic buttons click to choose a VST3 instead of MS Basic. Musescore will then open the VST's UI so that you can change the settings.

In reply to by graffesmusic

I hope this works out well for you.
This is open source: https://github.com/yokemura/Magical8bitPlug2 , made with Juce.
I compiled a Linux version for it (compiles fine), but it is not usable. (Perhaps this is just the combination Linux/Juce7. Anyway, i will not spend more time on this.)
I can recommend the (free - but not open source) socalabs plugins if you are into this 8 bit synth thing.
https://socalabs.com/
Edit: it does work on Linux if build with Juce 6.1.6 (does not work with Juce 7x)

In reply to by Asher S.

I made C:/Audio/VST/Magical8bit and unzipped to there. My VST3 folder in MS4 preferences is C:/Audio/VST (shown in previous post pic) and everything worked after restarting MS4.

I deliberately used a folder on my hard disk which is not synced to my Microsoft OneDrive as I don't want these files to be backed up.

Pianoteq 8 went through a full Windows installation and MS4 picked it up without any files in my VST folder so I guess that this is the difference between an install and an unzip.

(and it's no trouble! We're all learning.)

In reply to by yonah_ag

Still no luck.
What I’m currently doing: putting the vst3 file in library/audio/plugins/vst/vst
Setting the musescore vst3 directory there.
VST is not an option in the mixer, alone with sound fonts and muse sounds.
Do you have a Mac anywhere that you can try to install this with? Everyone who tries to help uses windows lol

In reply to by yonah_ag

Sorry, they don’t say anything about history install it, and directly say that they didn’t include an installer, so it would be very difficult to explain the installation process. Then they said I would just have to google some things 😏

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