There’s been some discussion about people not liking some of the new versions of plug-ins that are installed with newer iterations of Pro Tools automatically - Var-fi being one such plug-in. Some they want the old version instead of the new AAX one. Follow these simple steps to install older versions (and keep the new one) on your Mac.

Download the Old Version

Most of the legacy installers are still available on the Avid site - for the D-Fi bundle go to http://secure.digidesign.com/services/avid/kb/downloads.cfm?digiArticleId=41772&localeCode=en

Get To The Old .dpm Files

Once you’ve downloaded it then double click on the .dmg file and you’ll get this window.

Then right mouse click on the.pkg file as shown below and choose ‘Show Package Contents’

You will then see the window below on the left, you may need to expand the file structure to see all the contents. Open the contents folder and double-click on the Archive.pax.gz to extract. It will then extract the archive as shown on the right. What you need are the .dpm files.

click to enlarge

Install Into Pro Tools

Then navigate to Mac HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-ins

click to enlargeMove Varifi.aaxplugin to the ‘Unused Plug-ins’ folder (or anywhere you like for that matter) and replace it with the VariFi.dpm dated 4 Dec 2008. I’ve also renamed my new version to Varifi 2.aax so I know which is which at a glance.

Reboot Pro Tools and there you have the old version of Var-fi.

This works on any plug-in.

If you’re a Windows user and know how to explore .exe files then let us know, so our Windows users can use the same trick.