You install an audio plugin on a Mac by putting it in a plugin folder, and most of the time an installer does that for you. The confusion is that there are two folders with the same name, some apps read only one of them, and when a plugin does not appear there is no error telling you why.
Paths shown are macOS, on both Apple Silicon and Intel. Where a plugin format or an app behaves differently, it is called out.
macOS keeps audio plugins in a fixed folder per format. An installer drops each file into the right one for you. If you are copying a plugin in by hand, these are the folders your DAW or editor reads.
| Format | File extension | Folder it installs to |
|---|---|---|
| Audio Unit (AU) | .component |
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components |
| VST3 | .vst3 |
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 |
| VST (the older VST2) | .vst |
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST |
| AAX (Pro Tools) | .aaxplugin |
/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins |
Those are the paths at the top level of your disk. There is a second copy of each one inside your home folder, and that is where most of the trouble on this page starts.
Every one of those folders, apart from AAX, exists twice. There is a copy at the top level of the disk, in
/Library, shared by every user on the Mac, and a second copy inside your home
folder, in ~/Library, that belongs to your account only. The home-folder one is
hidden by default, so an install can look like it failed when the file is
sitting right there. It also matters because some apps read only the top-level
/Library. If in doubt, install to the top-level /Library and every
host will see it.
If the plugin came with an installer, use it. It puts each file, the AU, the VST3 and any
AAX, into the correct folder and asks for your admin password when it needs to write to the
top-level /Library. That password prompt is normal, not a security problem.
If all you have is the raw plugin file, copy it in yourself. Open Finder, press
Shift+Cmd+G to bring up Go to Folder, paste the folder path from the table above,
and drop the file in. If the folder does not exist yet, on a fairly new Mac the VST3 folder
often does not, create it with exactly that name.
Quit your DAW or video editor before you install. Most hosts scan for plugins only when they launch, so anything you add while one is open will not appear until you fully quit and reopen it. This one step accounts for a lot of "it did not install" reports.
System-wide in /Library needs an admin password and makes the plugin available
to every account. The home-folder ~/Library needs no password but installs it for
your account only, and it is the folder some apps ignore. When you have a choice, the top-level
/Library is the safer place.
The host scans for plugins at launch and, for Audio Units, validates each one before it will list it. A plugin that fails is quietly left out, with no message. Work through these in order.
As above, most hosts look for new plugins only when they start. Installing one while the app is running does nothing until you quit and relaunch it. This alone fixes most cases.
Open the folder from the table with Shift+Cmd+G and confirm the file is actually
there. If it is in the home-folder ~/Library and your app only reads the top-level
/Library, it will never appear. This is the single most common cause, and the next
section lists which apps are affected.
Not every app loads every format. Final Cut Pro takes Audio Units only, so a
.vst3 will never show up in it. AAX only loads in Pro Tools. Make sure the format
you installed is one the host actually supports. The
Final Cut Pro
and DaVinci
Resolve guides cover the specifics for those two.
Recent Macs run on Apple Silicon, and an Intel-only plugin may not load. Select the plugin
file in Finder and press Cmd+I. Under General it should read Universal or Apple
Silicon, not Intel only. If it is Intel only, look for an updated version from the developer.
Since macOS Catalina, an unsigned or unnotarized plugin can be blocked by Gatekeeper before the host ever sees it. If you got a security warning during install, that is the cause. Anything from a real developer will be signed and notarized and will install with no warning.
This one is for Audio Units. macOS caches which AU plugins it has seen, and a stale entry can
survive a reinstall and keep a working plugin hidden. Quit the host, then use
Shift+Cmd+G to go to ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache and move that
folder to the Trash. It rebuilds itself on the next launch and nothing is lost. To confirm the
system can even see the plugin, open Terminal and run auval -a, which lists every
Audio Unit macOS knows about. If yours is not in that list, the problem is the install or the
architecture, not the host.
This is the part that sends people in circles. A plugin shows up in Logic but is missing in
Resolve, from the exact same install. The reason is that the two apps do not read the same
folders. Logic, GarageBand, MainStage and Final Cut read both the top-level /Library
and the home-folder ~/Library. DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro, in practice, read
only the top-level /Library.
| App | Folders it scans |
|---|---|
| Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage | Both /Library and ~/Library |
| Final Cut Pro | Both |
| DaVinci Resolve | Top-level /Library only |
| Premiere Pro | Top-level /Library only |
So a plugin dropped into ~/Library can appear in Logic and vanish in Resolve,
with nothing to explain the difference. The fix is simple: put it in the top-level
/Library, which every one of these apps reads. If a plugin is missing in one app but
present in another, this is the first thing to check.
Once installing is sorted, the question is what is actually worth installing. For anyone cutting picture, the gap that comes up most is placing music somewhere real, the next room, down a corridor, out in the street, instead of dialling a low-pass filter and a reverb and hoping.
THALM puts music into a real acoustic space for film and video: the next room, down the hall, out on the street. You set a place on a cutaway of a building rather than dialling filters, and the walls, floors, distance and doorway do the work. It runs as an Audio Unit and a VST3, so it drops straight into the folders on this page and loads in Logic, Final Cut, Resolve and Premiere.
It is a Universal binary, signed and notarized, so it installs and validates with none of the trouble on this page. Hear the whole thing free in your browser first, no install and no account.
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