Request/Suggestion: Plugin Manager for Categorization

[giordano]

Hi,
I found the current plugin categorization in my SoundBrige quite messy, especially regarding VST3, I try to explain

PROBLEM ENCOUNTERED 1 (CATEGORIZATIONS)
MY PERSONAL EXAMPLES: in addition to “right” folders like “Distortion” and “Delay” I have many other unintuitive cases:
– a category called “Instruments” but also a few others Instruments followed by name of vendor, for example “Instruments[u-he”
– one called “Analyzer” and another one much lowewr called “Analyser”
– some generic like “Fx”, “Fx[” and “Fx[Others”
– some others just with vendor names
– and others with different names but same meaning.
with all these categories it is very difficult to visually rely on them to choose the right plugin

PROBLEM ENCOUNTERED 2 (FILTER ON “SEARCH” BOX)
the filter on the “Search” box is based just on the name of plugins, and not also on the developer’s name.
in my opinion this could be a problem for some reasons:
BUNDLES: today there are several free bundles on the market that are worth downloading and using (Blue Cat, Melda, Voxengo, Dead Duck Software…), the problem is that just after the installation there is little chance that the user already know them by name, especially in the case of Airwindows plugins (a suite of almost 200 free plugins which is absolutely worth trying)
MEMORY: it often happens to say “Waves (or any other) has that suitable plugin but at the moment I don’t remember the name”
QUALITY/NAME PRESTIGE: imagine for example a guy who after accumulating many free plugins can afford some premium ones by big brand names, instinctively he will want to prefer them and he will go to search there first, but he will hardly remember how the various plugins are called, and also he hardly refresh his memory of how many, and which, he has by not seeing them all together under the same group.
BEGINNERS/SERIAL ACCUMULATORS: the reckless accumulation of plugins is now consolidated especially among beginners, the ideal would be to learn to use many less of them but much better (many of the problems above would be mitigated), while waiting for this to happen I believe that beginners may be the most interested, and the most discouraging at the same time, in approaching a new DAW like SoundBridge.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO PROBLEM 1
a plugin manager that allows to create, rename and delete categories, and also to move plugins from one category to another, for example if I have 5 tuners (I know…the example is deliberately exaggerated) in 5 different categories for example “utility”, “others”, “tools”, “John Smith Audio Effects” and “tuner”, I can move the first 4 into the tuner category, and delete the John Smith category (and mmaybe also delete the other categories…or maybe not)

POSSIBLE SOLUTION(S) TO PROBLEM 2
1 detection of developer name in addition to plugin name
2 possibility to add it manually, so for example SPAN becomes SPAN (Voxengo)
3 another list where plugins are indexed by developer and not by category
…maybe the combination of the point 1 and 3
factor that I take into consideration: I know that any possible addition to just the plugin name can bring the FX columns in SoundBrige to go wide too far, or if not to not contain enough information,
a possible solution could be, instead of expanding the list in column at the double click on the category, open a much bigger new window with more than one column, in a similar manner a click on “?” open the tutorial.

p.s.: with these tips my goal is not to make SoundBridge looks like other alredy existing DAWs wich I’m comfortable to use, but try to help make SoundBridge interesting for as many users as possible, there may well be an answer that makes me understand that the current system of VSTs organization the current organization system is the most suitable for the philosophy and workflow of this particular DAW, and I can also appreciate/embrace it, why not?

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