Waves plugins not found by Reaper

[Lophophora]

Hello,

I have been using the Waves Gold pack for years without any problem. Today I decided to download a single Waves plugin for a trial demo, using Waves Central. I installed it and activated it.

Upon launching, Reaper cannot find the Waves plugin anymore... After trying to clear the vst cache and re-scanning, I discovered that Waves has created a directory named "Plug-Ins V9", containing a shortcut named "PlugIn Settings - new location" but when I select this shortcut, Reaper doesn't seem to use it.

Can anyone help? I will also try contacting Waves but I would like to solve this quickly...

[EpicSounds]

clear cache and rescan plugins

[Lophophora]

Originally Posted by Lophophora

After trying to clear the vst cache and re-scanning, I discovered that Waves has created a directory named "Plug-Ins V9", containing a shortcut named "PlugIn Settings - new location" but when I select this shortcut, Reaper doesn't seem to use it.

I had tried this already.

[ivansc]

are you using waves central or the "old" installer?

And are you 100% sure you are pointing reaper at the right folder to find the waves shell file?

[Heart Doctor]

Waves Central will place the WaveShell file for VST2.4 plugins in the folder "c:\Program Files\VSTPlugIns".

Use Windows Explorer and verify that this folder exists and that it contains the WaveShell file. Depending on your OS and the plugin version, these files are named "WaveShell-VST 9.6.dll" or "WaveShell-VST 9.6_64.dll".

Add this folder to the plugins path in the REAPER Preferences. Then click [Clear cache/re-scan].

If you want to use a different plugins folder, you can simply copy or move the WaveShell DLL file to the other folder.

For more information, see my posts in the following thread:

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=169447

[Lophophora]

The problem is that Reaper (or most probably Windows actually) didn't let me select the right file/directory: when I clicked OK, it was like nothing happened and the explorer window was still opened, back to the C:\ root directory.

I finally solved the problem involuntarily by selecting one particular wave plugin dll instead of the waveshell file, and for some strange reason it was all ok again.

Thanks for your answers.

By the way, what is the difference between VST2 and VST3 plugins?

[Heart Doctor]

Originally Posted by Lophophora

By the way, what is the difference between VST2 and VST3 plugins?

This is discussed in the following thread:

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=170971

In short: You can do everything in REAPER using VST plugins. VST3 is not required. This is different in Cubase where VST3 is a must for sidechaining.

In more detail: The VST standard for audio plugins has been introduced by Steinberg in 1996. So this is an "old" standard. It is very common and almost every plugin is available in this format. By the way, when we speak of VST today we usually mean its latest release VST2.4.

The VST3 standard for audio plugins was introducted by Steinberg with Cubase 4 in 2006. Although this was 10 years ago, most other companies started to offer this format only a few years ago. Many VST plugins are still not available in the VST3 format. So VST3 can still be regarded as a rather new standard.

"New" can be good and bad:

The good thing is that VST3 is more powerful than VST2. In Cubase this makes a big difference: You can easily use sidechain inputs without complicated routing (quadro trick). In REAPER, however, sidechaining is possible without any tricks even for VST plugins.

The bad thing is that some VST3 plugins are still buggy in comparison to their VST counterparts. Also, REAPER supports VST3 only since version 5. It is fair to assume that VST support in REAPER is more reliable than VST3 support.

I personally use the following plugin formats:

• REAPER 5: VST (no need for VST3)
• Cubase 8.5: VST3 if available, otherwise VST

[Lophophora]

Thanks for this summary!

[Gianfini]

Originally Posted by Lophophora

The problem is that Reaper (or most probably Windows actually) didn't let me select the right file/directory: when I clicked OK, it was like nothing happened and the explorer window was still opened, back to the C:\ root directory.

I finally solved the problem involuntarily by selecting one particular wave plugin dll instead of the waveshell file, and for some strange reason it was all ok again.

Thanks for your answers.

By the way, what is the difference between VST2 and VST3 plugins?

Let me understand now you can run Waves plugin 9.6 in Reaper with no problems? I had to reverto to 9.3 with the offline installer to get them all back...

[Lophophora]

Yes, I just clicked on one Wave plugin name (I don't remember which one) and Reaper got them all back again.

In case this may be useful, here is the copy of Waves support answer to my request:

Thank you for contacting Waves Tech Support.

Please note that Reaper is not officially supported with Waves v9.6, however the plug-ins still might work.
See V9 supported hosts at this link and system requirements at this link.

Make sure your host scans the appropriate dll:
Navigate to the WaveShells (dll backup) folder located at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Waveshells
Copy the appropriate file:
WaveShell-VST 9.6.dll - into the path your 32 bit host scans plug-ins from.
Or, WaveShell-VST 9.6_x64 - into the path your 64 bit host scans plug-ins from.
Re-scan your plug-ins.
Upon scanning, when prompted to locate V9.6 plug-ins folder, navigate the window to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Plug-Ins V9

Hope this helps.

[atza]

What i have is that every Waves plugin is listed twice under the same exact name and only one of them works, so i always have to guess and most of the time I choose wrong one and have to replace it with the other...