Jim's right, you want the maximum flexibility possible, and his approach is one that can do that for you. The main thing is that you need to control what plugins get scanned by whatever DAW apps you have on your machine. I'm running Sonar 32-bit and 64-bit along side Cubase 32-bit and 64-bit along side Reaper 64-bit along side some other 32-bit apps that can use VST plugins. The more granular control I have per app, the better. Just group them into as many groups as you need to that make sense for the configuration of DAW apps that you have on the same machine. :)
I'll just add the following as an example:
If you are using jBridge with another DAW, such as Cubase, then you may want to use another directory. Sonar has BitBridge, of course, but it also can automatically wrap plugins in jBridge on-demand (per plugin) -- it's brilliant and seamless. However, Cubase, for example, does not. You have to wrap the plugins separately with a tool included with jBridge in order to use them with Cubase x64. Not a big deal, but those generated files need to go into a separate directory that Sonar will not see, since Sonar will either wrap a 32-bit plugin in jBridge automatically or run it inside BitBridge (the default). What you don't want is to have both the externally-wrapped jBridge plugins loaded with the BitBridged version of the same plugin, for example.
Thus, you'd create a new VST directory somewhere that contains "jBridged" plugins just for loading up in hosts that don't have native jBridge support (again, Cubase, but there are other uses for jBridge which is beyond the scope of this post that would be relevant as well).
Hope that makes sense. :)
If you don't also use Cubase or any other DAW app, then ignore what I just wrote. :)
Now, another quick note for the Reaper x64 folks who also use Sonar: it's also helpful to separate out the jBridged plugins since Reaper has its own Bridge, which is actually quite excellent by the way. So again, consider using an additional jBridged VST folder when using it along side Reaper x64's own bridge.
Bottom line, is that your particular configuration of DAW apps may be different than what I (or anyone else here) might use, so you have to think big picture and configure your directories to match the needs of those different apps. Again, the more control you have, the better. I'd honestly suggest you sit down with a piece of paper and draw a diagram of all the relevant DAW apps (and I'm including any app that can load VST plugins, including plugins that can load plugins) you will install on your machine, and break down and group all the plugins that come bundled with each app, all your third party plugins, wrapped plugins, bridged plugins, etc., so you can then organize them into the directories that make the most sense for your needs.
Good luck!
post edited by eratu - 2010/03/29 20:25:21