Waves v14 Plugins Not Loading in Reaper

Support
1

Hey, Ever since I upgraded some of my plugins to v14, they won’t open in Reaper. They are scanning properly, but when I try to insert one onto a track it says that it can’t load the plugin.

All the plugins that were NOT upgraded (v13-10) work fine.

I’m running Reaper 6.66 on a M1 Mac, OS X Monterey 12.5.

Anyone else have this problem and find a solution?

Thanks.

2

I actually had the same problem. The solution, which seems ludicrous to me, is to open Waves Central and go to settings. Choose “Complete Waves Cleanup”. This uninstalls and deletes all Waves files except for the Waves Data Folder. It will require a restart. Once done, just reinstall everything and it should all work fine. I should add that I am running Window 11. I would assume this should still work on a Mac. Good luck.

3 Likes
3

Hi @79adam79

Welcome to the Waves Community forum.

I suggest starting with rescanning plugins in Reaper by following the instructions at the How to Find Your Plugins in Reaper.

If the issue persists, I suggest a Complete Waves Cleanup from Central and reinstall.

For any further assistance feel welcome to contact our Tech Support team.

Have a great day :partying_face:

4

I’m having an issue with Waves Harmony vst3 which is v14,it will not load into Reaper v6.75, but waves cental is version 13.5.3 im on windows 10, i’m waiting on waves support,

5

Hi @george4tape,

Waves Central latest version is 13.5.3 so the version you currently have is the correct one.

Tech support will reach out soon over email to make sure you can get your Waves Harmony plugin working.

6

Hi, Just saw this. I am having trouble with waves plugins in Reaper with windows 11. I saw your fix but have a question. I saw on the waves website that you cannot install your plugins more than once a year, In fact I tried directly uninstalling the plugins through maintenance on the app and the option is not there. Am I correct in assuming if I follow your fix I can then re-install the plugins?
Thanks,
Rich

7

Hey Rich,

It’s been awhile since I’ve had to do this but this should work for you. It’s a ridiculous solution but it worked perfectly for me. I will say though, that if it doesn’t, you can contact Waves support directly and they will help you. I had to do that once before and the customer support was fantastic.

8

Thanks, I will give it a shot.
update. Description states “uninstalls and deletes all Waves files except Presets, samples and other vital files”
I don’t know what that means but when I go back to my products they are still installed.

9

Hi @LordofLords,

If you still haven’t solved the issue, please Contact Technical Support directly to save your time and effort.

10

They need to sort this issue. It happens every time there’s an update. Waves Central will auto-select all plugins and I can’t deselect ones I don’t wish to update. Without fail it’ll update a whole load of them and then only half of them work until you do a full clean-up which is a nightmare if you have products with samples. This is in Studio One 5 by the way.

11

If you havnt solved that yet, then try uninstalling everything and re-install from v14 then v13, v12…, v11, v10 in that order. It worked on my Catalina OS macMini.

12

Posting this for future reference. It doesn’t seem that all v14 plugins have this issue with Windows 11 & Reaper, just select ones. The long short of the problem is you had an old version of a plugin in your project, and when you reinstalled the plugins on your new computer it’s a new version, and for some reason Reaper doesn’t think they are compatible. The fix below is how to revert the plugin to the previous version.

The fix I found is:

  1. Identify which plugins aren’t working, and make note of them.
  2. In Waves Central, go to Installed Products, and on the bottom click Legacy Versions.
  3. Download the Offline Installer of the last version you had working, for me it was v13.(It’s a big download, over 6 gb because it’s every possible plugin.)
  4. Extract and install on your computer, Waves Central should find it instantly.
  5. In Waves Central, click Settings then Complete Waves Cleanup, this will uninstall everything except for user data.
  6. Re-install all plugins on the current version you know work, and skip the problem ones.
  7. Go to Offline Installer, search and install the plugins you were having problems with.
  8. Once done, open Reaper >Properties >VST > Re-scan > Clear Cache & Rescan
  9. Restart Reaper.

This should fix the problem, personally I skipped step 5, which still works but it takes longer because Reaper is still having to struggle with the previously installed problem plugins, but it seems to figure itself out once it sees the reverted versions. Hope this helps!

1 Like
13

After reinstalling or updating Waves plugins, ask Reaper to “Clear/re-scan plugins”.

Go to to Cockos Reaper Forum and follow the instructions from “ivansc” user. Here’s a “copy/paste” of his/her answer if you’re too lazy :smiley:

"Go back into reaper and instead of pressing the re-scan button in the plugins/vst window, press the clear/re-scan button.

Explanation of why many people struggle with Waves plugins.
Waves plugins are NOT standard .dll files or any other conventional plugin format.
Waves use their proprietary waveshell system to convert THEIR plugin format to one that whichever DAW software you are running will understand. So when you add new Waves plugins, Reaper or whatever other DAW you are using will not see any change, as it is actually reading the Waveshell file, which doesnt look any different.
So you have to clear the existing stuff out of Reapers plugin lists and make reaper treat everything as if it was a new install. THIS allows it to pick up the new stuff you installed via Waves Central.
So:
Go to Options/Preferences/plugins/VST and press the clear/rescan button. Assuming that Waves Central has installed all the new stuff correctly, Reaper will find it. “”

It worked fine here!

1 Like
14

Hi @ronjappe,

Welcome to the Waves Forum.

Glad to see you solved the issue, do note that all those steps are available on our Rescan Waves plugins in Reaper article on the website.

You can also ask for assistance by Contacting Technical Support if rescanning per the mentioned steps does not work.

15

Man my vocal rider plug stopped loading after updating to 14. Lame!!!

16

Did you try and contact Tech Support to get their help???

17

This worked!! Thanks!!!

18

I get an error when scanning the Waves Shell in Reaper on my MacBook so my plugins won’t show up. I tried multiple solutions but no luck, then something else occurred to me - I have them already installed on my Mac Mini, on which they work fine, so is it the case that, even if I can get them to install correctly, they won’t work anyway since I need a second licence for them?

19

Hi @mindyourownb,

In order for Waves plugins to load both a valid license and installation will be required.

You can move your licenses on to a USB flash drive and use it when you switch computers by connecting it to the one you currently use.

You can also issue a second license if you wish to.