Zynewave.
Luc MvHi. I am a total newbie with Podium. I just discovered it yesterday. I like the software, but I came here to discuss a big problem I ran into that is a total deal breaker: scanning for plugins.
Most DAWs are terrible at that for that matter. But who knows, maybe I can convince Podium developers to solve its particular problem.
I have literally hundreds of plugins. If you make music on the computer, you probably know that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of free plugins out there. I collect them. I have a large number of them.
I have them all neatly arranged in folders, sorted by category. The problem with Podium is, 32bit and 64bit versions are in the same directory. I have Podium 32bit because most free plugins are 32bit (many of them are really really old). So I installed Podium 32bit. So when I tell Podium to rescan my plugin directory, it chokes on every 64bit plugin and throws not only one but FOUR error messages at me. It’s always a 64bit plugin that causes the problem, no doubt about it at this point. So the routine goes like this:
1) Menu Project
2) New project
3) Change the option from “Load plugin database” to “Update and load plugin database.” That step is always necessary because it is reset at every new attempt.
4) Click “Create project”
5) Let Podium scan the plugins, it chokes in seconds.
6) Click “OK” in the topmost error message.
7) Click “Abort” in the other error message.
8) Click “OK” in the error message that says that the plugin has been put in quarantine.
9) Click “OK” in, oh my God, YET ANOTHER ERROR MESSAGE that says that a plugin “has performed an illegal operation.” Actually, it’s just a repetition of a previous one.
10) Go back to step 1.
That becomes insane very fast. I am never going to get a full catalog of my plugins at that pace.
What do I want? Catch the error and move on with the rest of the operation. Maybe present a report at the end , informing that “These plugins failed for some reason.” But please don’t force me to restart the process over and over forever because that is just not viable. Under those circumstances, I will just give up.
BTW, I use Linux, running Podium on Wine. It works. If you can just keep it working, that’d be great.
Thank you for reading.
kingtubbyIf I understand you correctly, then you really ought to have your 32bit and 64bit plugins in separate locations. Probably not what you want to hear though…
JoeMcReaganHi, agree with kingtubby.
I had to separate the 32 and 64-bit plugins out on my system recently to get round this issue on another DAW, so I’m guessing it’s a pain to do but something necessary.
Luc MvI am testing another DAW today. The name doesn’t matter. I am not promoting it.
It does these two wonderful things:
1) It doesn’t spend forever scanning all my plugins to build a catalogue. No. Why does every other DAW insist on that fool’s errand? It just uses the plugin folder information I provide to add a corresponding entry to the navigation menu. No scanning. Since my plugins are all neatly organized by folders and categories, it’s very easy to find the one I want.
2) I installed the 32bit version. When I try to open a 64bit plugin, the DAW just tells me that is not allowed because it’s a 64bit plugin. It doesn’t crash.
Now that is a good design.
ZynewaveHi Luc,
If you are using Podium Free, then there have been updates to the full version since then that improves the scan/import. I just tried scanning my x64 plugin folder from Podium 3.4.2 x86, and the import dialog shows a counter status message “Skipped x files that are not x86 compatible” without requiring restart. I do recommend though that x86 and x64 plugins are kept in separate directory trees.
Please note that Linux is not officially supported by Podium. I have no experience with Linux so I can’t test or comment on anything related to Linux. Current Podium version 3.4 can run on Windows XP even though minimum officially supported OS is Windows 7. Microsoft has ceased support of building for Windows XP in their latest Visual Studio developer tool, so to be able to take advantage of future dev tool improvements I will need to upgrade the dev tools and abandon XP support. This may mean that the future Podium version 3.5 will not run on Linux.