How to Uninstall Soundtrack Pro from Your Computer Effectively

How to Uninstall Soundtrack Pro from Your Computer Effectively
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Getting Rid of the Extra

The Final Cut Studio is supposed to be a “one stop shop” for professional video post-production, including all of the tools that you need to take your project through the final process. This means Color for color correction, Motion for motion graphics, Final Cut Pro for video editing, and Soundtrack Pro for sound editing. Soundtrack Pro is not as large or as involved as some audio mixing programs, like Pro Tools, which could mean you’d like to remove it from your computer but keep the other programs which are a part of the same package. There is no standard way to uninstall Soundtrack Pro from your computer, or at least a method that is offered by the software package. Instead, you have to move outside the normal challenge to strip the software from your computer completely. Here is a step-by-step process on how to uninstall Soundtrack Pro from your computer as well as the rest of its associated files.

Not Just Deleting

If you just want to remove Soundtrack Pro from your computer, without actually uninstalling it, you can delete the program which will make it unavailable for use. Simply drag it to the Trash and then empty the Trash. This does not actually uninstall the program from your computer but instead will just render it unusable - you should use an installing program to complete the process.

Actual Removal

Since Soundtrack Pro is part of the Final Cut Studio you will want to use a program that is designed to remove programs that are a part of this package, or a program that is simply designed to uninstall software. FCS Remover is an application that allows you to remove everything from your computer that is a part of this package or an associated program that is part of a related package, such as Final Cut Express and Final Cut Server. When it is removing the software, it will leave the essential files the software has created or modified, such as your projects, rendered files and captured footage.

The default for FCS Remover is going to be to delete everything that it is set for, which is Final Cut Pro/Express,

FCS Remover Just for Soundtrack Pro

Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Color, Live Type, Compressor, Cinema Tools, Qmaster, Final Cut Server and Shared Files. You will want to check just Soundtrack Pro and make sure all others are unchecked before you hit the Remove Selected button. In the Preset option at the top, you should choose Maximum Compatibility if you do not intend to reinstall the program you are deleting, and select All if think you’ll reinstall the program in the future. Once you do choose to remove Soundtrack Pro you will be asked to confirm your decision, and it will then go through the removal process.

Other Files

This will only uninstall Soundtrack Pro itself, so you may need to go through and identify the files associated with the program that you will be unable to use now that it has been deleted. This goes beyond just the active files that are used when interfacing with Soundtrack Pro as it can also mean deleting the user preferences for the program too. To do this you can start by going to ~/Library/Preferences and then deleting the com.apple.soundtrackpro.plist file. After this go into ~/Library/Caches and then delete the com.apple.audiounits.cache file. There may be other files present if the ~/Library/Application Support/Soundtrack Pro folder still exists, yet this should be eliminated with the uninstall process.

Your Workflow

This process will functionally remove Soundtrack Pro from your computer, and will also eliminate this step in the Final Cut Studio workflow. If you are in your Final Cut Pro project and intend to send it over for audio mixing, you will be unable to do this because your computer will be unable to find the intended software. This does not mean, however, that you cannot use an alternative program for audio mixing in its absence. You will not have the automatic communication that you had between the two post-production programs previously, yet you can still have the audio of your project interact with a different piece of software. To do this you will instead have to export your project’s audio independently according to the requirements of the program, and then export from that software for reinsertion into your video editing project. This can complicate the audio mixing process a bit, but it can also add to your abilities because you will not be limited by the features of Soundtrack Pro and can instead move up to something like Pro Tools.

References

Article written based on author’s own experience.

FCS Remover, https://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcsremover/

Soundtrack Pro 3: Troubleshooting Basics, https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3659

All screenshots courtesy of author.