Waves CR8 sampler

@accorman

I'm not aware of any issue with CR8. What actually goes wrong when you try using it Unify?

Also, the usual questions:

• Windows or Mac?
• Operating system version?
• Unify stand-alone or plug-in?
• If plug-in, which DAW?

I’m using Windows 10.

Stand alone Unify. 
I open the plug-in page in Unify and drag the .dll file from the into the window (this is the way I usually register my VSTs with Unify).
Nothing happens. No error message. The VST does not appear in the list.

Not tried it with the plug-in version of Unify in my DAW but something worth trying. 

UPDATE

Found the solution. I was using the wrong VST file.

Waves has a super-complex structure for their .dll and vst3

It took me ages to hunt down where it had been placed and when I did I selected the wrong one. 

Posted by: @accorman

UPDATE

Found the solution. I was using the wrong VST file.

Waves has a super-complex structure for their .dll and vst3

It took me ages to hunt down where it had been placed and when I did I selected the wrong one. 

Thanks for the update. Could you share some more details about how to do this, to help other users?

Sure, Waves products leave little control of where the VSTs are installed.

Of course, as long as they work that is not normally a big deal. In the case of Waves they install and work straight away. No complaints there.

However, Unify requires a certain knowledge of where the VSTs are on your system.

I have three Waves products (CR8, Audiotrack and H-Compressor). It appears (I could be wrong) that the Waves Central installer installs to a folder incrementing the folder names in the order you install them. The base folder is: Program Files(x86)\Waves

On my system I have subfolders:

WaveshellsV11, WaveshellsV12 and WaveshellsV13

There are also folders called Plug-Ins V11, Plug-Ins V12 and Plug-Ins V13 which contain .dll files. These are the ones I first tried  but didn't work with Unify.

In the WaveshellsV13 folder you will find a .vst3 with the catchy name of: Waveshell1-vst3 13.4_x64.vst3

Apparently that is the one you want to install CR8 on my system at least. But as I say, it may depend on the order you installed your software in Waves Central installer.

@accorman

Thank you for the details, but I think you're doing more than you need to. I hadn't looked into this for a long time, but I dug in again today.

Waves uses a single "shell" .dll or .vst3 for all their plug-ins at each version level, which gets installed into C:\Program Files\Vstplugins. Most DAWs are pre-programmed to scan that particular folder (which is one of several "pseudo-standard" VST folders on Windows), so they don't actually bother to mention it anywhere.

• The equivalent for VST3 is C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3.
• The equivalent locations on MacOS are /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST and /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.

To register all your Waves VST plug-ins into Unify, go to the Known Plug-Ins view, click Operations..., chose Select plug-in file(s) to scan..., navigate to C:\Program Files\Vstplugins (or appropriate equivalent location as listed above), select all files whose names begin with "WaveShell", and click Open.

After doing this (the operation may take several seconds), I suggest you you click on the "Manufacturer" heading to sort the Known Plug-Ins list by vendor name, then scroll down to find the Waves plug-ins near the bottom of the list. You may see multiple versions of several plug-ins, whose names indicate, e.g., "mono", "stereo", "stereo/5.1", etc. Unify can (presently) only use the stereo versions, so you might as well select all the others (hold down CTRL while clicking to select multiple items), then click Operations... again and choose Remove selected plug-in(s) from list.

@getdunne 

Indeed you are correct.

I guess the problem was that I didn't recognize the file names and I was fooled by the Waves folders names.

It is an old-age issue as to where plugins are stored. With a clean OS install you can organized but after a while it typically gets messy with folders such as "Steinberg\" etc. popping up if you install Cubase etc.

I am an early adopter of Unify and have learnt the "drag .dll/vst3" into the open plugin window.

I have never done a "scan for plugins". You live and learn. Thanks for the feedback.