What about this thing that Magix installed called E-License Control Center? I don't remember that when I installed Sound Forge 16 before. I just tried to open Steinberg Spectra Layers and it is not working and opened E-License Control Center. Spectra Layers was bundled with my Sound Forge 16. This is really draconian and annoying. So, now I can't even open Steinberg Spectra Layers after installing it in the Sound Forge 16 bundle.

As you can see from the screenshot, it seems to have already captured Spectra Layers in the drop down. But, Spectra Layers won't open.

I want to shoot myself. After 20-minutes of playing with this E-License Control Center and going to Steinberg's site to see my account, it tells me that Spectra Layers is activated, but, it still does not work. I don't see a phone number for support for Steinberg on this or an easy way to fix this.

Frankly, I don't care about Spectra Layers. I'll never use this horrible designed non-user friendly software, but, could it be causing a problem getting Iztope Mastering Suite activated? Any idea if it is causing the conflict?

I'm absolutely disgusted. All the time I've invested in this and I can't even use it and I can't even have a seamless installation of Sound Forge 16 which should work without issues. Just draconian poorly designed and developed authentication software to make the consumer lose their mind. This is a horrible horrible experience dealing with this.

I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go for support. It may be time to go 100% Apple and just use
Logic and Garageband and just stop dealing with all these hassles. At least Apple support is better.

I'm just venting now. Excuse me, but, I am thoroughly disgusted. Please excuse my frustration. It sounds like it will take several weeks waiting for email responses and replys from Izotope and Magix and Steinberg and ELicense Control before I will get any help and they will probably tell me it is a legacy product and don't want to help. Buy something new. Like $1000 plug-ins. But, I will still have to deal with things like E-License Control Center, I guess. There's no support phone number to get E-License Support Center on the phone. What a mess and nobody cares about the end user.

Wow! I started testing my installation of Sound Forge 16 - remember this is on a clean Windows Installation - there's no corruptions - no conflicts - I haven't installed lots of other software. So, I started testing out the plug-ins that installed automatically from the Magix Sound Forge 16 Install file and I opened Izotope Ozone Elements. The program is blank. There's nothing in there. It opens to nothing. The Magix plug-ins work, however, but, not the 3rd party plug-ins. Look at this screenshot from trying to open Ozone Elements which is bundled in the installation of Sound Forge16 and note Izotope is not showing up in that awful E-License Control Center for the Steinberg Spectra Layers. What is going on???

More crazy stuff. I re-booted the computer several times. The Izotope Mastering Suite opens now finally to a strange screen I've never seen before in the other installs on my other computers which are all Windows 11, but, were installed a long time ago, but, they are receiving the same Windows 11 updates.

So, in Sound Forge, It has the drop downs, but, when I apply the Mastering Suite, like the Limiter or the EQ or the Exciter, it erases part of the file??? The only plug-ins that work are the native Magix plug-ins like Express FX and Essential FX. That long list of Magix plug-ins are the only ones that work properly.

Can somebody make some sense of this? I have all the Windows 11 updates installed and I'm on expensive loaded laptop computers. This is happening on an ASUS with 64GB Ram. It was about $2500. It's not a cheap lower end computer. It runs NVIDA graphics, etc with an AMD processor. NOTE, everything worked fine on this computer before except the SSD went bad and I replaced the SSD with a brand new Samsung SSD and it is working perfectly with all the other software I have loaded into it and seems to work fine with the Magix built-in plug-ins. It is definitely not a hardware issue. It's something going on with the installation of 3rd party plug-ins or the Ozone Elements and RX Elements would be working fine. They were automatic installs with Sound Forge16 from Magix's installation file.

The first 2 screenshots show the Izotope mastering suite EQ with adjustments and the 3rd file shows the Magix Essential FX Plug-In applied. Only the Magix plug-ins work without erasing part of the file and no controls appear at all for the Ozone Elements or RX Elements.

file of the magix plug-in that works

@Burton-Allan It's a little complicated. Currently you're also unlucky that Steinberg and Izotope are reorganizing the way they handle licenses.

As you already noticed, Steinberg had the E-Licenser System. To my knowledge, this system is too old for Steinberg's taste and it will be disabled at the end of 2024. Then you no longer can install SpectraLayers. And need to upgrade to a newer version (also before the end of 2024!). The newest version uses a different license system. The old system is then no longer supported at all.

In case you installed SpectraLayers before, your license is on your old, broken SSD. If I remember it correctly, you need to deactivate it on Steinberg's website first, in your old E-Licenser account settings to free it up again. Otherwise you cannot place it on your new hard drive. Like I wrote, you you need get this working before the end of 2024 or you're out of luck.

Izotope offers a separate Product Portal app. You need to download and install it, enter your serial number to register your software and then you can download or activate the software through it. Izotope was bought by Native Instruments some time ago and is currently integrated into their account and licensing system. So the way to register and activate your software can change in the future. They will probably use the Native Access app for that.

Hey, thanks, SP, for the information. Y'know, you'd think that when a merger happens, they'd send out a mass email to their subscribers/customers to let them know something like a change of ownership with more changes to come. I also heard something that Magix is bankrupt and was looking for a buyer. Their support and even pre-sales support is horrendous and slow probably because they have reduced staff.

I was also looking at Vegas Pro upgrade. I guess the developers are still employed hoping the new owners or investors will save Magix and/or their jobs. These are good products and the perpetual licenses make it even more desireable.

I would pay for the upgrade of Sound Forge Pro, but, it won't solve my problem, then, with Izotope. I never liked Steinberg Spectra Layers. I didn't find it user-friendly. I've been using some AI that drowns out unwanted sound that most of the time is acceptable, if not as precise as Spectra Layers, which I never mastered completely as a user. If it does the job better, I just didn't invest the time to learn the program, I guess.

I know I rambled on with my messages, but, where I'm at is that Izotope's licensing is not the problem. I finally got the software installed. But, it's the strangest thing as I explained. When I apply the plug-ins, they delete part of the files. I tried fine-tuning the presets, but, every time it processes, it removes part of the file. Never experienced anything like this.

On my other install and computer with Sound Forge 16, the Izotope plug-ins work perfectly. I guess I can create an image (which I should have done with the bad drive computer) to preserve it, but, I don't think that will work if I took an image of the program and files and tried restoring it on a different computer. I think these license softwares would make that impossible unless I first install the software on the computer where I am having a problem now.

This is all really disappointing news. I've been reluctant to invest in Vegas Pro because of what I heard about Magix. Is it true? And, while I am not heartbroken about Steinberg Spectra Layers, I don't see any new features
important enough to buy an upgrade to Sound Forge 18 and I wonder what kind of future and support the program has, but, I've been using it for years. I hate to have to look for another DAW. Who knows? The Izotope plug-ins might work with another DAW, but, now Izotope is changing gears, too, so, they may not install in the future.

Wow! Very upsetting and not a clear path on what to really do about any of this. Thank you for your update. Would love to know what the status of Magix bankruptcy is, if you know, as well. Thank You, SP!

@Burton-Allan Version 16 of Sound Forge is still fine. No need to upgrade. I'm still using version 12 and 15. I'm not sure why parts of your files get removed. Are you doing something different than with other plugins?

You can upgrade SpectraLayers directly at Steinberg. There is no need to buy a new version of Sound Forge for this.

The Vegas/Sound Forge/Acid team is from the US. It's the same team that worked for Sony and Sonic Foundry. In case they stop working for Magix, I think they will look for a new publisher or even publish the software themselves and carry on. At least Vegas seems to be somewhat widespread as a video editor. SoI don't think it will simply vanish.

Technically, Magix isn't bankrupt but is doing a self administrated insolvency. This can take months or even years. The point is that they have time for a internal restructure while their creditors have to wait for their money. And if I understood it correctly they don't need to pay the wages completely themselves and they don't need to adhere to protection against dismissal which makes it easier to reduce their staff.

The current Magix also isn't the "original" Magix. The original Magix renamed itself to Bellevue Investments about a decade ago.

There is a big conglomerate of different companies and sister companies and other investors around which handle all the assets. These are hundreds(!) of millions of Euros. It's all publicly accessible data. But of course, if they invested the money for 10 years or longer, but the last five years went bad for some reason and maybe they currently cannot access all of it to pay their creditors.

I'm not sure what the point of this all is, but my guess is, that they want to do a restructure with as little costs as possible and self administrated insolvency is probably the way to go.

Hi, SP, Thank You so much for the information. It's hard to make a choice or decision when you are completely in the dark. I feel like I'm dealing with open source software, but, one expects better from being a paid customer.

At my day job, you can wait 2-hours to get support or customer service at Quickbooks, but, a same day resolution. This emailing and waiting 2-3 days for a response and then another 2-3 days for a reply and having a month long back and forth to get support on an activation or ask a pre-sales question on Vegas or tech support really makes you feel like you are on your own completely. Truth is, it looks like I am. I'm going on Day 5 waiting for a response from Magix tech support, by the way. Nothing yet.

I really don't know what to do. I guess I'll try to re-install Sound Forge and all the plug-ins again, but, I don't think it will work because the registry is now corrupt with whatever the first install did and I don't really want to have to blow up Windows and start all over again with the SSD.

In addition to being devastated that I can't use the Izotope Mastering Suite, I can't even use Izotope Ozone which was bundled in Sound Forge 16 right now. The Steinberg problem is just icing on the cake.

I really don't know what to do. These companies just do not care about their customers to leave them abandoned like this and it is hard to feel sorry for their financial woes. They find money for everything they need, but, there is no priority to provide reasonable support for their existing customers. Just keep upgrading for junk upgrades and 3rd party tools that leave you on your own.

It's like maybe you are better off buying a shell DAW or even an open source DAW and just going to a company like Waves or something that is invested in just making and supporting plug-ins as their core business and answers the phone 6-days a week for customer/tech support and has Live Chat and 24-hour email response.

I'm just venting, but, I'm really frustrated. I don't want to have to invest in Pro Tools or $1000 for Izotope's flagship plug-ins or have to start with a new DAW. Just upsetting.

@Burton-Allan Do you have current graphic drivers installed? Just in case Ozone and other plugins need graphics acceleration? Maybe that is why you can only see the parameter view instead of the visual plugin interface.

I do mot know if this has anything to do with it, but Sound Forge 16 and 17 has an issue with third-party 32 bit VST-2 plug-ins. Most of a plug-ins window display would be hidden, making adjustments impossible. This was finally addressed in SFP-18, but there are still issues with some legacy third-party plug-ins.

I still use the multi-band compressor and imager and exciter from the iZotope Direct X Mastering Suite 2 that was included with SFP-10.. but that will only run in 32 bit SF.. (which is not an option in SFP-18) .You might try the x86 version of SF-16, Both 32 and 64 bit versions of SF can be installed and activated on the same PC without issue. They share many of the settings.

I am not familiar with the E-Licenser System. Does SLP (SeptraLayers Pro) open correctly in the stand-alone mode or is it just a ARA issue? . SLP works good on my WIn 10, PCs. SLP spectral-graph editing has a rather steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's a game changer. The 'Unmix' tools however are pretty much automatic though and 'usually' work well.

Hi, SP, well, I have an update for you. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! You better have images of your drives to restore on another computer or I will bet you will encounter this nightmare.

Step 1 - I un-installed everything and re-installed everything. No good. It leaves traces in the registry. I had to remove tons of everything manually that had anything to do with Magix, Izotope, Steinberg.

Step2 - I re-installed everything again Did not work. I blew up the computer and installed Windows again.

Step3- I went into old backups from several years ago of software I had and found the original download of Sound Forge 16 when I bought the program. NOT THE VERSION you can download from your account online. The original file I used. It's 1 file for everything and it installed smoothly. It installs Izotope Ozone and Steinberg and Melodyne, but, it does not have any newer updates in the account download.

When I got it installed, I tried to open Izotope RX-10 Elements and Ozone Elements 10. This time, it brought me to a screen to Log in and enter serial numbers as if I had bought them as add-on plug-ins from Izotope instead of bundled with Sound Forge. I clicked on the link and it asked me to install the Izotope portal, but, neither program is registered in an account for me because I never bought them direct from Izotope and I have no serial numbers and cannot proceed to activate the programs. I will have to go call Izotope. I installed their Izotope portal and it did have plug-ins I bought from Izotope in the past, but, when I clicked on Support - I get a screen apologizing that support can be slow and take several days.

SO, AS OF NOW, OUT OF LUCK ON INSTALLING THE BUNDLED IZOTOPE PROGRAMS and I won't know if this new company that bought Izotope will honor it or help me. Won't know probably for a week, I'm guessing,

NEXT PROBLEM: Steinberg. I don't really care. Same thing. It installed that E-License Installer and I will have to deal with Steinberg quickly (as you explained) to see if they will honor it and help me, as well. Steinberg seems to have some kind of customer service with limited hours like 4-hours a day or something. We'll see.

BUT, THE BIG GORILLA. THE IMPORTANT ONE. The Izotope Mastering Suite 32-bit.
THIS IS REALLY ALL I CARE ABOUT. I'M HEARTBROKEN.
Anyway, the program installs from the .exe file perfectly and it shows up in Sound Forge 16, but, when I try to use it, it brings up the Authorization Screen and crashes the entire computer. Completely freezes up and I have to reboot the computer.

1. Note it is installed on my other computer. Works fine. No problems. Been using it since I bought Version 16 even though it comes from Sound Forge 11 and it works in Windows 11.

2. I even have serial number for the Mastering Suite that Izotope customer service gave me a few years ago, so,
I could authorize it as a plug-in for Sound Forge 16. But, those nice people are gone now with the sale.

3. The reason the computer crashes is probably 1 of 2 things. Could be some Windows Update that is conflicting
with the installation process. It's already installed on the other computer, so, this computer has a new SSD and the
latest Windows updates.

4. The 2nd possibility for it crashing the computer is that the damn Izotope Product Portal is blocking it because
it came originally from Sound Forge 11 because 32-bit plug-ins are supposed to work in Sound Forge 16 and my other legacy plug-ins work fine on the other computer.

Basically, unless I can get the Mastering Suite working, I'm devastated and I have no confidence that Izotope's new owners are going to be helpful. I am devastated. Seems the best they are likely to do is help me activate
the Ozone and Rx Elements which are not crashing the computer - if they even do that.

I'm just devastated. I can't think of anything else to do. I can install the Mastering Suite without an issue, but, it
no longer will work in Sound Forge 16. It crashes the progam and the computer when I try to apply it.

I don't think I can make an image of the other computer and move Sound Forge 16 to this new SSD which is a different computer to preserve being able to use the program.

It's a big investment to buy Pro Tools or something and then the plug-in package that would be comparable to the Mastering Suite is the Izotope top of line around $1000 or more. I don't know what to do. I'm just really upset. Maybe it is time to buy Apple and start using Logic and Garageband. At least with Apple, you don't have to worry about support. You can speak to people and they are not going away. But, again, very expensive.

But, these companies buying and selling each other and really having no regard or care for the customers is just
outrageous. They really don't care about the customers. They just want to keep selling it by subscription insttead of perpetual and make you buy the newest and latest versions and even sabotage it to make the old versions
obsolete.

They buy a company and they don't even notify their customer base they are the new owners. I have purchased Izotope plug-ins. I have an account portal. You'd think they'd send an email to let people know they were sold. They don't even do that or have quality customer support or technical support that either answers a phone or an email in a reasonable time frame.

It's just horrible.Whether it's Magix or Izotope or Steinberg.

Anyway, if you have a suggestion on why it may be crashing or what to do, please let me know. It sounds like it will be several days before I make contact with Izotope to give you an update.

As for Magix, before my first post in this community forum, I'M STILL WAITING FOR MAGIX TO RESPOND AT ALL!! I sent a tech support message to Magix and a 2nd pre-sales customer question about buying the new Vegas version. I HAVE NOT BEEN CONTACTED BACK ON EITHER INQUIRY FROM MAGIX IN ABOUT A WEEK, SO FAR.

The crashing opening Izotope seems though like it might be related to a bug in Sound Forge you mentioned in working with the 32-bit plug-ins. It probably is not an Izotope issue and they are not going to troubleshoot my DAW. But, the mastering suite works fine in Sound Forge 16 on the other computer.

I'd buy Sound Forge 18 if I knew the Mastering Suite would work in it.

If you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks, SP.

@Burton-Allan Sadly, I have no idea how old the mastering suite is and whether it still works on modern Windows computers. I think Sound Forge 11 is from 2013, so that could be the problem. Maybe it's an alternative to install Windows 7 in a virtual machine (VMware for example) and install Sound Forge 11 and the Mastering plugins there.

The serial numbers for your Izotope plugins bundled with Sound Forge 16 are listed in the order confirmation e-mail you've received back then after you bought them. You'll need to look for it in your e-mail account. In case you never registered them with izotope they cannot do much.

In case you want to switch to Apple be aware that Apple often simply makes old software incompatible with their operating systems. For example, they removed 32 bit support completely and changed the processor architecture, so there you would be really lucky getting anything as old as 2013 to run.

Hi, SP, the Mastering Suite Bundle from Izotope was included by Sony in versions 11 and 12, as I remember. But, it worked perfect in Sound Forge 16 when I originally installed Sound Forge 16 on my other computer and still does. So, it is something new that is going on.

Based on what you said about some bugs in working with 32-bit VST plug-ins in version 16, I downloaded a trial of version 18 - the new one. Still having the same issue. Until Izotope responds back (could take awhile - sucks) there is possibility it is from some licensing thing because it also blocked off Ozone and RX-10 which were bundled in the version 16. So, where Sound Forge 16, in the past, installed without issues, now all the bundled plug-in software with Sound Forge Pro has issues installing from licensing.

Thank You for your suggestions. I'm going to look into that virtual machine, etc. Have not used one before, but, it may be something that can work. If you think of anything else, please let me know. Like I said, I have it running on Windows 11 on the other computer and had no trouble installing it before. This is happening because of something new, I'm guessing from a Windows Update conflicting with install process or from the licensing/3rd party Izotope process. I never was asked to install their Izotope portal before when installing Sound Forge to get Izotope plugins to work especially the 64-bit Ozone and RX-10 that bundle with that version.

Thanks Again for your feedback. Feel real alone out there. Nobody cares at these companies.

Hi, SP, just keeping you updated. It's horrible. Hey, I also noticed a post from someone else on installation issues with Sound Forge 16 and Acid Pro in the forums. Back to my situation,

Unbelievable. Still waiting for an email response from Magix, but, Izotope finally responded. Unfortunately, it sounds like Izotope and I will be exchanging replys for a month. This kind of support from both Izotope and Magix is disgraceful. They just don't care about existing customers. I'm an existing sucker. They want to find new suckers to buy new versions and sell it with practically no support. "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK" and after a 30-day trial, you are on your own.

Anyway, enough venting. Some more info that may be helpful for you or someone else to know:

The download version in my Magix account to re-install the software is not the original version when I bought it and they have an installer that automatically installs newer versions of the bundled software and not the versions from when you purchased it. So, it auto-installs Izotope RX-10 and Izotope Ozone 10. But, when Sound Forge was purchased, it was bundled with Ozone 9 and RX-8 and these bundled products do not appear in my Izotope Product Portal because they were not purchased directly by me from Izotope. So, I need to get both the program file installers and serial number keys from Izotope and see if they will work. This email reply stuff takes days to weeks, so, we will see if Izotope will help me out. Magix could care less. Ozone 9 and RX 8, I believe are 64-bit plug-ins, so, if/when installed, I would think they will work seamlessly.

Note also that the Izotope portal is going away and after installation, you are prompted to migrate to the Native Instruments portal. But, my Izotope portal is not accurate and missing some purchases, as well as, this Sound Forge bundle issue. So, I am dealing with that to correct it with Izotope. At this rate, by the time, we keep exchanging email replies, maybe Izotope and I will work this out in January or February. THIS SUPPORT IS HORRENDOUS!

The Steinberg Spectra Layers issue remains unresolved, as well.

More important to me, is the legacy Izotope Mastering Suite which is 32-bit. As mentioned earlier, I found my original copy of the installer file. But, either the file itself is corrupt or it has having a conflict with updates to Windows 11. Note it worked fine before in Windows 11 with Sound Forge 16 and still does on my other computer.

So, what is happening with this original installer file is I get the attached screenshots about the file being possibly
un-signed or an Administrator privileges issue, but, I am the only administrator on this personal computer. I googled the error and it seems to be buried somewhere deep in Windows and not an easy fix, but, does happen. It is not an easy permissions/security adjustment.

After trying some other workarounds with a 2nd copy of the file I found, it actually installs perfectly into the
Program Files x86 VST Plug-Ins folder, but, when I open a file in Sound Forge and try to apply one of the plug-ins
like the Exciter or EQ or Limiter, it brings up the "authorization screen" and freezes and crashes Windows and I need to re-boot, so, I can't open the screen and enter my serial number to authorize it. This problem makes no sense since Sound Forge 16 is supposed to work with external VST plugi-ins and it works fine with the file in my other computer.

I also downloaded Sound Forge 18 trial version to see if it improved the plug-in support from version 16. NO. It duplicates the same issue and it seems like Version 18 has not improved VST plug-in support or done any kind of improvement to anything except changing the bundled software from Version 16, basically. Version 18, by the way,
installs automatically, with Ozone Elements 11 and RX Elements 10, as well. Just newer versions of basically the same plug-ins from Izotope with not much change from the earlier versions.

I just can't believe this. Even the community. SP, you are the only one it seems that is out there responding to this. You are on your own. I don't want to work with companies that don't have my back. I have to find another product or solution with a painful financial expense I don't want to make right now. But, long term, there is no future working with Magix unless they sell it to a better company. Having no customer support or care for your customers is just not acceptable. Izotope is in a transition, but, at least they got back to me by now. Almost a week.

Magix has a responsibility to manage their 3rd party bundles with these companies and Steinberg and Izotope have to also take care when they make changes to their licensing validations. You can't just leave customers in hell like this stranded for a month or two of back and forth emails or just abandon legacy products they sold. I have 32-bit Waves plug-ins that install and work perfectly in Sound Forge, by the way. There's some disconnect between Magix and Izotope, but, neither seems to care about providing quality efficient support in a timely manner.

Just amazing. After about another 4-hours of trying every possible combination of things to do, I made progress.
Started by un-installing and then a very time consuming manual delete of all registry keys associated with Magix and Izotope.

I installed my Sound Forge 11 and at first, it didn't want to install, but, in the end, I got it installed and I got the Mastering Suite working. Amazing!

Then, I re-installed version 16 and it completed the install and is now working and picked up all my 32-bit plugins and is not crashing the computer. BUT, since Magix replaced the original installer with an updated installer, it installs Izotope Ozone version 10 and RX Elements 10 and those do not work because I don't have authorization codes for these versions.

Magix doesn't post them in their product portal - only the Sound Forge serial number - even though it automatically installs the Izotope plug-ins and they do not show up in the Izotope portal, either.

So, I have to wait,, maybe a week for these back and forth emails from Izotope to see if they will give me installation codes to activate Ozone and RX from the bundle that installed automatically.
 

SO, NO THANKS TO MAGIX SUPPORT AND NO THANKS TO IZOTOPE SUPPORT. At least after 3-4 days, Izotope has contacted me, so, I can reply back to a person assigned to my case. Magix still hasn't even responded to this or my other Vegas pre-sales question.

How do you sell something and create a portal without the codes or change the installation file?

Just really bad bad support. If this was FREE open source software, I would expect it, but, not from paid software.

I might as well use Audacity for free and just buy 3rd party plug-ins or something or Pro Tools is running a special for their DAW at $66 for the year or something and add all my plug-ins.

Just horrible horrible support hanging customers out to dry like this. You want to sell new versions, but, you abandon your customers after they pay money with no reasonable support in a timely manner, if at all. We'll see if Magix ever gets back to me. I didn't buy Vegas. No matter how good the developers were in creating the program, there is no customer support.

We'll see how long it takes Izotope to get back to me and if they honor their agreement with Magix and supply me with activation codes for the 64-bit Ozone and RX. Magix sure isn't helping me.

Disgraceful.

I am losing my mind. It stopped working again. That E-License Control for Steinberg Spectra Layers started scanning my computer when I re-booted and did some kind of update that caused a conflict. I deleted Spectra-Layers and the Mastering Suite plug-in seems to work again.

Just waiting on getting activation codes for Ozone and RX-10. So, that E-License Control is somehow involved in this problem, I think.

You said that Steinberg is ditching that license program the end of the year, SP? I'm not sure if I will even try to go and re-install it. I never found Spectra-Layers user-friendly. Do you use it much?

But, again, all these 3rd party bundles and Magix is nowhere to be found to support the customer.

Just disgusted. I hope I don't have any other issues. The Mastering Suite working again is more important than Ozone and RX, but, I hope Izotope helps me get those plug-ins going, too. We'll see.

@Burton-Allan I see in your screenshots that you enabled One Drive in Windows 11. This may be some cause of old programs running not correctly. It always tries to synchronize with the Microsoft Cloud in the background.

Maybe there is also a damaged Windows Registry because you deleted something which shouldn't have been deleted.

I think it's the best idea to reinstall Windows 11 from scratch. I think you can simply do this by holding SHIFT and then restarting the computer. Keep holding SHIFT until it opens the advanced restart options where you can select to reinstall Windows. It will then automatically redownload the newest version from the Internet.

You then need to delete everything from your SSD and deselect the One Drive option. In case Windows doesn't let you do this, try to disable the Internet connection during the installation.

Yes, I just went through a complete re-install of Windows. You could be on to something. But, it's not causing issues on the other computer from One Drive. I un-installed E-License Control and Steinberg and now it is working fine. I can use my Mastering Suite and Sound Forge 16 is stable. I'm just waiting now on Izotope to see if they will give me codes to enable Ozone and RX. All the other Waves plug-ins I have, some are 32-bit, are also working fine in Sound Forge 16. As you mentioned, the 32-bit plug-ins are not clean visibly from those bugs in VST in Sound Forge 16, but, the plug-ins work now. I'm thankful and happy I can use them and still see the drop downs to change the settings on the plug-ins.

But, I was hopeful when I downloaded the trial of Sound Forge 18, that they would have cleaned up and improved the VST integration for the plug-ins, but, there's no improvement in how it displays the 32-bit plug-ins. I would have considered upgrading to Sound Forge 18 for just that feature, but, there does not seem to be any improvement.

Will keep you posted on if Izotope helps me with Ozone and RX. You suggested a great idea, though. To create
a virtual machine. Never did that. I'm looking into trying to do it. Then, I would be able to keep the software forever and not have to worry about Windows 12 or some other future conflicts/issues.

Thanks, SP!

@Burton-Allan

Hi

In addition to @SP. observation about One Drive in Windows 11, it also looks like Windows Folder protection feature has blocked the running of the installer which appears to have been downloaded to the Desktop, instead of the default location preset of the downloader.

The desktop is a protected folder and should not have any software, add-ons, installers or documents installed/saved in/on it.

John EB
Forum Moderator

@Burton-Allan it seems Steinberg postponed the shutdown of eLicenser until May 2025. At least that's what their site is now saying: https://www.steinberg.net/licensing/elicenser-end-of-service/

So there is enough time for you to get SpectraLayers to work.

Hi, John, luckily I've gotten past that. I'm just waiting for Magix support or Izotope support to provide me with the authorization codes to activate Ozone 10 and RX 10.

They installed with the install file in my Magix account, but, the only activation code I have in my Magix account is for Sound Forge, so, those bundled applications don't work until they are authorized.

Magix is taking forever and I don't know if Izotope is going to help me with this. I have an Izotope portal, but, it only has plug-ins I purchased directly from Izotope, not these bundled Magix plug-ins. It will probably take around a week for an email from Izotope and Magix is taking forever to get back to me.

Since I un-installed ELicense Control and Steinberg, the rest works. Good to know, SP, that I have some time to figure that out.

BUT, I'M VERY INTERESTED IN THAT ERROR SCREENSHOT for future reference. So, if that is a Windows Protection Feature, how do I fix or defeat it if it ever happens again? I didn't change the destination. All I did was click on the .exe file to start the installation. How would I re-direct the file to install from a certain location. The file just un-zips itself to some default .exe action. How would I know what the default location preset of the downloader is or where to place the file to click on the .exe file?

I did not store the .exe file on my desktop. It was in a folder. Would it work if I put it in the Downloads Folder? How would I fix this error?

Thanks

@Burton-Allan

HI

. . . . I'M VERY INTERESTED IN THAT ERROR SCREENSHOT . . . .

Which one, you have posted 5 different images each with some error message?

I have taken the liberty of replacing the third image, in this comment, which was showing your email address.

Please do not post 'confidential' information, such as email addresses, contact numbers, serial numbers, order numbers etc, in the forum which is visible to anyone.

John EB