First, determine whether you need Audio Units or VST plugins. Apple Logic and MOTU Digital Performer users will want Audio Units, Cockos REAPER and Ableton Live users can use either AU or VST, and Digidesign Pro Tools users will want VST. Pro Tools users will also need some form of VST-to-RTAS wrapper program. fxpansion and mellowmuse both make such wrappers, we’ve had a lot of experience with the fxpansion wrapper and are happy with it at the moment.
First: Download the appropriate plugin from our website. If you have something like Stuffit/Unstuffit installed, try to download WITHOUT having Unstuffit automatically grab the file. Some versions of 3rd-party decompression tools corrupt our archives. Once the file is downloaded (you DO know where it downloaded to, don’t you?), you’ll need to find it and right-click (or click-and hold) to get the little popup context menu. Choose “Uncompress”. That should use the built-in Apple uncompress utility, which works fine with our plugs (which it should, since we use the Apple COMPRESS tool to build the archives)
Once the file is uncompressed, you should be left with a plugin ending in either .vst or .component. There may be a PDF manual included, too. Just put the PDF file in the same folder as your plugin, and put a copy in your documents folder or wherever else makes you happy.
If you’re using the .vst file, you’ll need to place that file in /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST on the hard disk that you booted from (Macintosh HD by default).
If you’re using the .component file, you’ll need to place that file in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components on the hard disk that you booted from (Macintosh HD by default).
If for some reason your user account is not an administrative one, you may not have access to /Library. In that case there is a /Library folder structure just like the one described above in your home folder. Place the plugins in the corresponding folders in your home directory if you can’t access the system Library. Use one place, or the other…don’t put the plugins in both locations.
For Pro Tools users, you will then need to run the VST-to-RTAS wrapper’s utility to scan for the new VST plugins and create the new RTAS plugs for PT to find.
That’s all. Re-launch your host and force a scan of the plugins if you’re host didn’t do it automatically…you should be good to go.
Scott