> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://presetmagician.gitbook.io/help/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://presetmagician.gitbook.io/help/manual/concepts/vst-worker-pool.md).

# VST Worker Pool

{% hint style="info" %}
If you receive a message that a certain number of VST workers failed to start, please open the [VST Worker log directory](/help/manual/reference/global-settings/vst-workers.md#open-vst-worker-log-directory) using the settings dialog. If you're unable to figure out the problem, please contact support.
{% endhint %}

PresetMagician loads VST plugins in separate [processes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_\(computing\)) (currently named `PresetMagician.RemoteVstHost.exe`) to ensure that a crashing plugin doesn't crash PresetMagician. Think of it as a certain number of mini-DAWs running in the background.

As opposed to your typical DAW workflow, where you would only load a few VST plugins per session, it's a common use case with PresetMagician to load many VST plugins per session, especially if you just started using PresetMagician and you're analyzing 100s of plugins.

The VST Worker pool is a pool of VST hosts to ensure that if one VST host crashes due to a plugin, the next one can quickly be used.  Also, some plugins don't properly unload, keeping memory from being freed. To counteract on this, PresetMagician shuts down a VST host after a certain number of processed plugins to free up used memory.

{% hint style="info" %}
Each VST host uses only about 10-30MB of RAM each for itself - the rest is consumed by your VST plugin(s) loaded into the VST host.
{% endhint %}

Also, the VST Worker pool allows for for a future feature where plugins could be analyzed and presets exported in parallel.