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Old 03-06-2023, 01:16 PM   #1
mcoyle
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Default HOW TO: Install Waves Versions 9-13

As an old macOS/Avid user, I have collected over the decade several thousand dollars of Waves plugins. Using these under Linux/Reaper has been problematic. I recently spent a fair amount of time experimenting to get all my Waves plugins installed and authorized. I took detailed notes and made many mistakes that forced me to start over. Below is my best attempt to outline the steps I took to install Waves versions 9 through 13 in Linux using Wine and yabridge. While I use Reaper, I believe these instructions will work for any DAW.


Goal: Install and authorize Waves plugins, versions 9 and up under Wine in Linux. While activating versions 10 through 13 is straightforward, installing version 9 plugins has always been problematic and is the main goal of this post.

Assumptions:

Your computer is dual boot Windows/Linux
You have a working Wine and yabridge install.
You are already familiar with bridging WinVST plugins.

If your computer is not dual-boot, it may be possible to use a Windows vm in Virtualbox and then mount the virtual drive in Linux, but I have not tried this.

Starting from scratch, I'm assuming you do not have any Waves plugins installed in Windows. (If you do, just suffer through the next little bit).

While booted in Windows, go to Waves, login to your account, and then select Downloads in the upper right corner.

Download the most recent installer (currently V13.5.3). If you have version 9 plugins, scroll down and also download the Version 9 Legacy installer.

Install the most recent version of Waves Central.

You do not need to run the Legacy installer because you can install all your plugins with the newest Waves Central. But you will need to unzip the Legacy installer so Waves Central has access to the Installers folder.

Using the most recent installer, install all your version 10, 11, 12 & 13 plugins. Do not activate any of them. In fact, if they are already authorized, deactivate them if you wish to use them in Linux.

If you have version 9 plugins to install, select Offline Installers (1) from the left side of the Waves Installer. At the bottom of the window, select Install from an Offline Installer (2). Navigate to the Waves Legacy installers and select the Installers folder (3).




After loading, you should see a list of all the version 9 plugins. Select and install all the plugins for which you have a license. Again, do not activate any of them, and if some are already authorized, you must deactivate them before using them in Linux.



At this point under Windows, you should have all your plugins installed, but none of them have been Activated.

The most recent installer for Waves Central will be used under Linux to activate the plugins, so unless you want to download it again, copy it to a shared partition or thumb drive. You will not need the Legacy installer in Linux.


You can now boot into Linux.


----------------------------

Goal in three broad steps:

Step 1: Use Waves Central to install and active versions 10-13 plugins.

Step 2: Manually copy over from your Windows partition the installed files for the version 9 plugins.

Step 3: Launch Waves Central and activate the version 9 plugins.

Step 4: Pray to the Audio gods.



First, let's make a backup copy of your current wine install

Code:
cp -r ~/.wine ~/.wine-backup
In order for Waves Central to work, you need to install an additional utility called Powershell for Wine.

It's two simple terminal commands.

Code:
wget https://github.com/PietJankbal/powershell-wrapper-for-wine/raw/master/install_pwshwrapper.exe
Followed by:

Code:
 wine install_pwshwrapper.exe
After downloading and installing, you'll be left with an open powershell terminal on the screen. Close the window to complete the process.

Installing Waves Central 13.5.3

Either download the installer again, or access it from the earlier Windows download.

To install, open a terminal, type wine and drag Install_Waves_Central.exe onto the terminal window. (note: there is a SPACE after the word wine in the terminal. Your path will vary, but it should look similar to:

Code:
wine '/path/to/the/installer/Install_Waves_Central.exe'
After hitting ENTER, the powershell terminal will open, the splash screen for Waves Central will appear, and the program will be installed. Do not waste 10 minutes of your life by missing the checkbox for approving the licensing agreement as I’ve heard some people have done <cough, cough>.


After installing, the app will ask you to login. My Linux distro is Ubuntu and I use Firefox. Waves Central was unable to recognize the login under Firefox snap. I had to uninstall snap and install the Firefox deb. ( How do you do that? ). Apparently, something about the sandbox Snap version of Firefox keeps it from 'talking' to Waves Central. So if you have problems getting Waves Central to login to your account, it may be a browser problem. This part is very annoying and at times, I had to click back and forth between the browser and Waves Central several time before the login was accepted.

Once you have successfully logged into your Waves account, install and Activate any version 10 through 13 plugins you wish to use under Linux. Regarding activation, you will not have access to any USB thumb drives, so you must activate to Windows.

I do not own any version 14 plugins, though I see no reason why they shouldn't work.

We will worry about the version 9 plugins a little later.

At this point, your 10-13 plugins are installed and activated. You can now quit Waves Central, close powershell, any type Control-C in the terminal if needed to quit everything.

Next, we'll ask yabridge to scan for the new Waves plugins.

Type in the terminal:

Code:
yabridgectl sync
If you've had success, you should see the addition of the WaveShells listed. Launch your DAW and test to see if the Waves 10-13 plugins are there.

During testing, I repeated this process several times, and once you get over the hurdle of logging in, the installation and activation of v10-13 was routine. Hopefully, you've gotten this far and your confidence is high because the version 9 plugins are a little trickier.



No matter how many tutorials I have attempted, I have never gotten my version 9 plugins to install under Linux. Waves Central would load the legacy installers, but the process would always fail. So I had this idea. What if I manually copy the version 9 files and folders over to Linux from my successful Windows 10 install?

So that's what we're going to do in the following steps. For this section, I didn't use terminal commands to copy folders. I just opened two file browsers side-by-side (I happen to use Nemo) and drag-n-dropped from the Windows partition to the dive_c folder. This was all done as my regular user and there were no permission issues.

Please note: the very last folder is a catch-all for presets, IRs, and various support files that vary based on the plugins you install. Everyone's will be different and you just need to sort through it.

This image below is just a reference of how I had my file browsers set up.





Below are the Windows 10 folders you need to copy to Wine's drive_c:

Code:
/Windows10/Users/YOUR USER NAME/AppData/Roaming/Waves Audio/Preferences/V9PluginFolder_ScanView.txt 
/Windows10/ProgramData/Waves Audio/Central/V9
/Windows10/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/WaveShell1-VST3 9.92_x64.vst3
/Windows10/Program Files/VSTPlugIns/WaveShell1-VST 9.92_x64.dll
/Windows10/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/VST3/WaveShell1-VST3 9.92.vst3
/Windows10/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/WPAPI/WaveShell1-WPAPI_1 9.92.bundle
/Windows10/Program Files (x86)/VSTPlugIns/WaveShell1-VST 9.92.dll
/Windows10/Program Files (x86)/Waves/Plug-Ins V9 
/Windows10/Program Files (x86)/Waves/WaveShells V9 

/Windows10/Program Files (x86)/Waves/Data  <---Look in here for items of interest like IRs, Presets, etc.
While browsing folders, you may see others for version 9 and be tempted to copy them.
Don't.
Please just copy the folders I've listed above.

Once you are finished, the last step is to activate the version 9 plugins.

Launch Waves Central (wine '/path/to/Waves Central.exe')

Login again if you're not already.
On the left side, select Licenses.

Select all the version 9 plugins you wish to use in Linux and hit the Activate button.
Once completed, quit Waves Central, close powershell, Control-C is needed to get back to the terminal prompt.

Let's see if yabridge syncs them.

Code:
yabridgectl sync
If you see the additional WaveShell for version 9, Ta-da!

Launch your DAW and confirm the plugins are there.




Obviously, this is a crazy method to get the version 9 plugins in Linux, but I have not found another. There are lots of little things that can go wrong (like a Snap browser), but I think the bones of this tutorial are good. If you don't have success, start over and persevere.

To return to your original wine setup to start over, type in a terminal

Code:
cd ~
rm -R ~./wine
cp ~./wine-backup ~./wine
You can then try again, or give up.
I completely understand both emotions.

Post Script: A real concern of mine was that somewhere down the line my wine install would get corrupt and I would lose my Waves activations, so I did a test where I deliberately broke the drive_c.

I was able to deactivate the plugins without access to the activated partition, then I was able to reactivate on a new partition. This makes sense given how often a Windows NTFS drive craps out. So I feel overall, even in the worst case, you're not going to lose anything but your time.

Good luck and let me know how it works in the comments. I'm certainly no pro at this, but I'll help you best I can.
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Last edited by mcoyle; 06-30-2023 at 05:41 AM.
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Old 03-09-2023, 06:15 AM   #2
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Default Waves on Linux with Reaper

Hello mcoyle,
great that I found your post today! I have the same problem. I am in the process of switching to Linux and have recently installed Ubuntu Studio for this. Reaper also runs with div. VST instruments. Like you, I have invested some money in Waves plugins (before the $29 time). Waves plugins are the sticking point for me to move to Linux. I have read quite a bit about this now. Robert from Yabridge for example says that only the plugins V12 work. Otherwise one finds only older contributions to this topic. Yesterday I had tried the 1st installation of Waves Central V12 with Wine, but there came the message because of the missing Powershell. Meanwhile I had also seen the contribution of Piet Jankbal. Pleased that it worked for you with the Powershell!

Question: You write that the activation on Linux does not work via USB stick? My licenses are on a USB stick.
Many greetings from Germany,
Dannyp

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Old 03-09-2023, 06:25 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dannyp View Post

Question: You write that the activation on Linux does not work via USB stick? My licenses are on a USB stick.
While in Windows, open Waves Central and deactivate all the licenses on your USB thumb drive. This will mark them as available on Waves' server.

Then, when you're done installing the plugins in Linux, you activate the plugins to 'Windows 10' not a USB thumb drive.

Do one as a test to get familiar with the routine.
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Old 03-09-2023, 06:48 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcoyle View Post
While in Windows, open Waves Central and deactivate all the licenses on your USB thumb drive. This will mark them as available on Waves' server.

Then, when you're done installing the plugins in Linux, you activate the plugins to 'Windows 10' not a USB thumb drive.

Do one as a test to get familiar with the routine.
Ah, ok, now I understand. I will try it out today. Thank you very much for your effort and research!
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Old 03-10-2023, 11:55 AM   #5
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Default Linux with Waves

Hello,
after 2 days of testing I can allow myself to make a statement about Linux with Waves PlugIns.
1. the installation according to your instructions worked well. My Bravebrowser crashed only once when logging into the Waves Acount. The 2nd time it worked. Started Waves Central and installed and activated all plugins.
2. sync all plugins with yabridge also worked.
3. i can use the Waves plugins V12 - V14.
Problems:
1. many V12 plugins are missing, although they are all installed. They do not appear in the list.
2. the preset browsers do not work - after opening Reaper crashes.
3. studiorack can be opened but cannot load plugins into slots - Reaper crashes. You can load presets into Studiorack, but only once, when trying to load a new one, Reaper crashes. Funnily enough, Studiorack also loads plugins that I don't even see in the list and can't load individually.
4. i load a plugin and try it, after a while Reaper crashes. Or when loading the second plugin.

Conclusion:
Now the following questions came to my mind:
1. can I work efficiently with Linux and my Waves plugins?
2. do I want to spend a lot of time with Linux trying and testing and without any real result or do I want (need) to produce music with Windows ?
3. will Waves release a Linux version in the near future?

I have high regard for such great people as Pietjankbal (Powershell) and Robert from Yabridge and the Wine folks, but I just have too much money installed in Waves to do without. I am not a programmer and I don't know where the problems described above come from. I suspect it could be Wine or even Reaper....

Question to mcoyle:
Do you have any other ideas?

I love Linux and my Ubuntu Studio and the freedom behind it, but for music production I will not be able to use it (yet). Too bad. I will use it for everyday work, but for music I have to boot to Windows.
Kind regards,
Danny


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Old 03-10-2023, 01:00 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dannyp View Post
I love Linux and my Ubuntu Studio and the freedom behind it, but for music production I will not be able to use it (yet). Too bad. I will use it for everyday work, but for music I have to boot to Windows.
Kind regards,
Danny
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Waves + yabridge can work as mcoyle and I can demonstrate (mine are V14 only so no experience with anything earlier) but my advice to anyone having been there and gotten the t-shirt is to not bother (however educational the process of getting them up and running is). Even Robbert of yabridge says "If you can avoid Waves, that would be for the best." Just because you can get them up and running doesn't mean that they will behave in critical situations.

My own advice has always been to move to native plugins as much as possible. There is nothing you cannot achieve between reaplugs, x42, lsp, airwindows or the many jsfx offerings. Name a Waves plugin and I or someone else here can name a native Linux plugin or cross-platform jsfx that is just as good/better or, if absolutely necessary, a yabridge plugin that actually runs perfectly. But, again, we are at the mercy of wine for things continuing to work in the future.

If you really need Waves (why?), use them on Windows or MacOS. I bought H-reverb and IR-L because they were ridiculously cheap (and I'd successfully gotten the demos running on Linux) but they are no longer installed.
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Last edited by chmaha; 03-10-2023 at 01:19 PM.
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Old 03-10-2023, 04:30 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chmaha View Post
Waves + yabridge can work as mcoyle and I can demonstrate (mine are V14 only so no experience with anything earlier) but my advice to anyone having been there and gotten the t-shirt is to not bother (however educational the process of getting them up and running is). Even Robbert of yabridge says "If you can avoid Waves, that would be for the best." Just because you can get them up and running doesn't mean that they will behave in critical situations.

My own advice has always been to move to native plugins as much as possible. There is nothing you cannot achieve between reaplugs, x42, lsp, airwindows or the many jsfx offerings. Name a Waves plugin and I or someone else here can name a native Linux plugin or cross-platform jsfx that is just as good/better or, if absolutely necessary, a yabridge plugin that actually runs perfectly. But, again, we are at the mercy of wine for things continuing to work in the future.

If you really need Waves (why?), use them on Windows or MacOS. I bought H-reverb and IR-L because they were ridiculously cheap (and I'd successfully gotten the demos running on Linux) but they are no longer installed.
Hello and thank you for your assessment! Which plug-ins or which manufacturer is better or worse, I do not want to judge. Everyone must decide for himself and if he is happy with his choice, so much the better! I have now also tested some in Ardour. But I have to agree with you that Windows plugins are better off in Windows DAW's. However, it was worth a try and I learned a few things, so it wasn't wasted time. If the major manufacturers ever release Linux versions, I'll be sure to be there.
Best, Danny
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Old 03-11-2023, 05:09 AM   #8
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Also meant to say that Waves does not behave well after you close the DAW. It keeps the wineserver running in the background so when you try to shut down your machine it sits for 1m30s waiting for the process to end before finally killing it. You can do a wineserver -k on the relevant wineprefix after leaving the DAW. There was also another issue but I can't remember at this point.
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Old 03-13-2023, 12:51 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chmaha View Post
Also meant to say that Waves does not behave well after you close the DAW. It keeps the wineserver running in the background so when you try to shut down your machine it sits for 1m30s waiting for the process to end before finally killing it. You can do a wineserver -k on the relevant wineprefix after leaving the DAW. There was also another issue but I can't remember at this point.
Dear chmaha,
thank you very much!
Danny
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Old 06-15-2023, 03:54 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chmaha View Post
Name a Waves plugin and I or someone else here can name a native Linux plugin or cross-platform jsfx that is just as good/better or, if absolutely necessary, a yabridge plugin that actually runs perfectly.
I'm looking for replacements/alternatives to the following waves plugins:
- Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain
- SSL G-Master Buss Compressor

Thanks
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Old 06-15-2023, 11:14 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zfigz View Post
I'm looking for replacements/alternatives to the following waves plugins:
- Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain
- SSL G-Master Buss Compressor

Thanks
I've been looking at ACMT plugins -- they look like really good potential options that might cover some of the ground you are looking for.

https://www.acmt.co.uk/
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Old 06-15-2023, 11:48 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zfigz View Post
I'm looking for replacements/alternatives to the following waves plugins:
- Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain
- SSL G-Master Buss Compressor

Thanks
Presswerk by U-He is a great native Linux compressor. When I moved from Windows to Linux I needed something to replace PSP's Vintage Warmer that I used mostly as a buss compressor.

It turns out that Presswerk is far superior, and can be used as a straight compressor, a tape saturation emulator, and really slick tone shaper using parallel compression with HPF on the dry side.

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Old 06-15-2023, 12:16 PM   #13
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Forgot about Presswerk, I agree it's great! Love U-he!
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Old 06-15-2023, 01:03 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by subsound View Post
Forgot about Presswerk, I agree it's great! Love U-he!
Besides Presswerk, I did also buy all of OverTone DSP's (Before Mike created ACMT) plugins except for the AF2-10/M EQ.

I have never tried to get my one single Waves plugin, the DBX160 compressor, to work in Linux. If I had more money tied up in Waves plugins though, I would give it a try.
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Old 06-30-2023, 02:05 AM   #15
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BTW, @mcoyle, you might want to edit your first post and change references from yaboot to yabridge. They are very different things
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Old 06-30-2023, 05:45 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chmaha View Post
BTW, @mcoyle, you might want to edit your first post and change references from yaboot to yabridge. They are very different things
Wow! yaboot! As Obi-Wan said, "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long long time."

Thanks for catching that.
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Old 12-01-2023, 06:17 PM   #17
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@mcoyle -- what version of wine were you using (sorry if I missed it!)?
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Old 12-01-2023, 06:28 PM   #18
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Here ya go:

Code:
> wine --version
wine-8.21 (Staging)
I just followed the instructions on the yabridge page.
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