I spoke with a support agent via a support ticket and they recommended I post this here regarding the lack of VST2 backwards compatibility with plugins that are version V15 or newer.
Currently, if I update from V14 to V15, it removes all the VST2 plugins (which are working fine in their V14 versions), which shouldn’t be happening as this ruins backwards compatibility for almost all projects in my archive of projects.
I, as I assume the majority of producers do, have multiple project versions saved at different stages of each project and each project has many tracks (sometimes 100+), with multiple Waves plugin instances in each track. The officially recommended solution of downgrading to V14 and then manually adjusting all plugin instances in all projects one by one to VST3 and copying over the settings is an impractical, impossible solution that would take an eternity to implement. Because of this, I request that we need to have the option to solely update VST3 plugins going forward or have it built into the update script to leave past VST2 plugins intact.
To solve this issue globally for everyone, the official Waves instructions would need to change from the convoluted and impossible solution that is currently offered to:
- Install V14 (or whatever the latest version was that worked for the DAW being used) so the working VST2 plugins install for backwards compatibility.
- Upgrade VST3 PLUGINS ONLY to the latest version (to V15 or whatever the latest future version is as they’re introduced, such as V16, V17, V18, etc.).
— we would need an option to solely upgrade VST3 plugins unless Waves wants to build it into the update script directly to leave past VST2 plugins intact
We need Waves to stop automatically removing the VST2 plugins and only update the VST3 plugins. This solution needs to be implemented for backwards compatibility. It should be a clear winner when compared to the currently offered solution which makes no sense to officially post publicly for producers of any skill level.
I view it as a bug that V15 automatically deletes my past VST2 plugins. If Waves doesn’t want to automatically leave the VST2 versions untouched when upgrading, we at the very least need the option to select whether we update VST2 and VST3 plugins together, or whether we solely update VST3 plugins exclusively.
Please take this seriously as it is a very serious issue and I’m sure I’m not the only one pointing it out as everyone is affected. This includes producers of all skill levels who use your plugins, who are inevitably also upset over this.