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Updating plugins in existing Live sets

Every new version of Beam comes with its own set of plugins, which may or may not contain fixes or new features. Here is how to deal with existing Live Sets after you downloaded and installed a new version of Beam.

Note that although we obviously want you to always enjoy the latest Beam features, never update Beam if you are in the middle of a tour. See using a separate partition for tips to ensure a working performance setup.

Rule of thumb​

After updating Beam, you don't need to update the plugins in your existing sets, unless

  • A later version of a plugin has new features or fixes that you need, or
  • The newer Beam app shows an error that the old plugins are no longer compatible (this rarely happens, for example with major version updates between 0.# and 1.#).

In other words​

When you update Beam, it will create a new plugin folder in your User Library, containing all the latest plugins. The previous versions will remain available in the older plugin folder and your existing Live Sets will now contain plugins from an older version of Beam. This is ok!

You can selectively update plugins to newer versions or add plugins from a new plugins folder to your existing set if you want. This means that your set might contain plugins from different Beam versions. It is our responsibility that the latest version of the Beam app always keeps supporting all older plugin versions.

For tips about cleaning up sets that contain multiple version of plugins, see Cleaning up.