installing STAB.

Double-click STAB-macOS.dmg. A window opens showing the items below. Most people need only the first one.

STAB.vst3

The VST3 folder, see the two places below

Ableton Live and most other DAWs

STAB.component

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Logic Pro, GarageBand

STAB.app

/Applications

Optional. Runs on its own, with no DAW at all.

STAB.vst3 does not open. Double-clicking it does nothing at all, and that is normal. It is not a program you run. It is a part your DAW loads, so you only ever drag it. STAB.app is the one that opens when you double-click it. That is the standalone version, and putting it in a plugin folder will not make STAB show up in your DAW.

There are two places macOS keeps plugins. Either one works, and which you have depends on how your other plugins were installed.

Shared

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

At the top level of the disk. For everyone who uses the Mac.

Just yours

~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

Inside your own home folder. Never asks for a password.

To open either one, press Shift-Command-G in the Finder, paste the path, and press Return. If you already have other plugins installed, one of those two folders exists already. Put STAB in that same one. If Finder jumps to a different folder when you paste a path, that folder does not exist yet. Make it: right-click an empty spot, New Folder, and name it VST3 (capitals, no space). Do not use the folder called VST without the 3. That one is for old plug-ins, and Live will not find STAB there.

The shared folder asks for your Mac password, because it belongs to the whole computer. That is expected. Use one folder or the other, not both, or you will end up with two copies of STAB.

Can't find either one?

Do this instead. It always works, and nothing is hidden.

1. Make a new folder anywhere you like. In Documents is fine. Call it Plugins.
2. Put STAB.vst3 inside it.
3. In Live, open Settings › Plug-Ins and set VST3 Plug-In Custom Folder to the folder you just made.
4. Click Rescan.

Apple has checked and approved STAB, so macOS will not warn you about it and there is nothing to allow. If you do see a warning that the file is damaged or comes from an unidentified developer, either the download did not finish or the file is not ours. Tell us rather than working around it.

Unzip STAB-Windows.zip, then copy what's inside into place.

STAB.vst3

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Ableton Live, FL Studio and most other DAWs

STAB.exe

Anywhere you like

Optional. Runs on its own, with no DAW at all.

STAB.vst3 is a folder, not a file. Copy the whole thing, not the contents. If there is no VST3 folder there yet, make it.

Copying into Program Files asks for administrator permission. If you would rather not give it, put the folder anywhere you like and tell your DAW to look there. In Live that is Settings › Plug-Ins › VST3 Plug-In Custom Folder.

Windows does not block plugins the way macOS does, so there is no warning to click through and nothing to allow.

A DAW only looks for new plugins when it starts. If yours was open while you installed, it has not seen STAB yet. Quit it and open it again.

Ableton Live

Live 10.1 or newer. That is the release where Live gained VST3 support, so Live 9 and early 10 will not see STAB at all.

1. Open Settings. That is Cmd-comma on Mac, Ctrl-comma on Windows. Go to the Plug-Ins tab.
2. Turn Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders on. It usually already is.
3. Click Rescan.

   If you have never used a plugin in Live before, the Plug-Ins panel in the browser needs an Activate click first, before anything at all shows up.

4. Browser › Plug-Ins › STAB. Drag it onto a MIDI track.

Only one plugin window at a time?

Got BASS too? Put STAB and BASS in the same folder. Live looks in one place for VST3 plugins, so a plugin left in a different folder does not show up.

Live closes a plugin window the moment you open another one. That is a Live setting, not the plugin, and it is the one to change if you want STAB and BASS open side by side.

1. Open Settings, Cmd-comma on Mac, Ctrl-comma on Windows, and go to the Plug-Ins tab.
2. Under Plug-In Windows, turn Auto-Hide Plug-In Windows off.
3. Leave Multiple Plug-In Windows on.

With Auto-Hide off, a plugin window stays open until you close it, whichever track is selected.

FL Studio

Options › Manage Plugins › Find more plugins. STAB then appears under Generators.

Logic Pro and GarageBand

These use the .component, and validate it on the next launch. Load it from the Instrument slot of an instrument track, under AU Instruments.

STAB is an instrument, not an effect, so it only loads on a MIDI or instrument track. It won't drop onto an audio track in any host.

STAB plays in full from the first open. Some time in the first month, click the line on the bezel under the screen that says NOT ACTIVATED. A panel opens over the screen.

1. Copy the licence key from your Gumroad receipt email. It is four groups of eight, like XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX.
2. Paste it into the panel. Cmd-V on Mac, Ctrl-V on Windows, or the PASTE button. Upper or lower case, with or without the dashes, all fine.
3. Press ACTIVATE. STAB asks Gumroad once, says ACTIVATED, and puts the panel away.

That is all. From then on that machine never touches the network for this, and an update never asks again.

Where the key is

In the receipt email, in a box above the download links. Bought before the key existed? Open the download link in that same email: the key is on that page now. It is also in your Gumroad library if you have an account. Own both STAB and BASS? Each has its own key. The STAB key goes in STAB and the BASS key in BASS.

What if I don't?

Nothing, for a month. After that the sound drops out for two seconds every thirty, and the MIDI and WAV chips open the panel instead of handing over a file. Paste the key and it lifts within a second.

Other machines

The same key works on every machine you own, as many as you like. Logic Pro and GarageBand from the App Store keep their own settings folder, so if you activated in Live, activate once more from Logic. Same key.

KEY NOT FOUND means a typo, or the key for the other plugin. NO CONNECTION means try again online: the check needs the internet for one second. Still stuck? Get in touch with the key and the email you bought with.

To play your own instruments with a pattern STAB generated, drag the MIDI chip above the pattern grid straight onto a track. The WAV chip beside it drags the audio the same way. It is 24-bit, in time, and loops cleanly.

Dragging is the way to do this, not a shortcut. Some DAWs, Ableton Live included, ignore MIDI sent out of an instrument plugin. Dragging works everywhere.

Playing your own MIDI through it

STAB plays its own pattern whenever your DAW is playing. A clip you dragged out is a copy of that pattern, not a replacement, so on the default setting STAB's pattern comes back as soon as the clip stops.

1. Put the clip on the STAB track itself. A clip on another track plays whatever instrument is on that track.
2. Click the small button right after the STAB logo until it reads IN. STAB now plays only the notes it receives, from a clip or a keyboard, and goes quiet when they stop.

AUTO, the default, lets a clip take over while it plays and brings the pattern back after it. SEQ ignores incoming notes. Using the clip on a different instrument instead? Press PAUSE, top right, or mute the STAB track, so its own pattern stops.

1. Restart the DAW. Properly quit it, not just close the project. This is the answer most of the time.
2. Check the folder. Open the path above and make sure STAB.vst3 is sitting directly inside it. Not in another folder within it, and not still in the disk image or zip.
3. Check the format. Logic and GarageBand read only .component. Everything else listed here reads only .vst3. And STAB.app is not a plugin at all, so if that is what you moved, no DAW will find it.
4. Rescan. In Live that is Settings › Plug-Ins › Rescan. Ableton's own page on this is VST/AU plug-in doesn't appear in Live's Browser.

Still nothing? Get in touch with your operating system and your DAW, and you'll get an answer.

One purchase covers Mac and Windows. Both files sit on the same download page, so if you work on both, take both. One licence key activates every machine you own, so install it wherever you work.

New computer? Open the receipt email you got when you bought STAB and use the same download link. It serves the current files, so a later download picks up any update for free. Opening it from a different computer may ask you to type the email address you bought with. That is Gumroad checking it is you, not a broken link.

You can also make a free Gumroad account with that address at any time, including long after buying, and the purchase will be sitting in your Gumroad library. Simplest of all, copy the STAB.vst3 folder straight off the old machine.

Lost the email? Get in touch from the address you bought with, and the receipt gets resent.

STAB does not check for updates or install them on its own. A new version is just a new copy of the same file, so putting one in place is the same drag-and-replace as the first install.

Quit your DAW first. Windows in particular refuses to overwrite a plugin file that's currently loaded.

Get the current files from wherever you got them the first time: the download link in your Gumroad receipt email, or your Gumroad library if you made an account. Both always serve whatever is newest, so there is nothing to hunt for.

macOS

Drag the new STAB.vst3 onto the old one and choose Replace. Same for STAB.component or STAB.app if you use those.

Windows

Copy the new STAB.vst3 folder into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and choose Replace the files in the destination when Explorer asks.

Start your DAW and you're on the new version. Rescanning is for a plugin your DAW has never seen; an update doesn't need it, though running one never hurts.

Anything already dragged out as MIDI or WAV is a plain file at that point, untouched by an update. Projects with STAB on a track open the same way they always have.

Not every release gets an email. To check what you're running, tap the STAB logo in the plugin, or read the fine print under the screen on the compact layout, either shows the build number. Behind, and you're due for the files above.

STAB installs no background service and phones nowhere after the one activation check. Delete STAB.vst3. Delete STAB.component and STAB.app too if you copied them. Then restart your DAW.

The activation is one small text file, ~/Library/STAB/license.txt on Mac or %APPDATA%\STAB\license.txt on Windows. Leave it and a later reinstall is already activated. Delete it too if you want nothing left; the key still works whenever you come back.