SF Pro 16 General VST3 (particularly iZotope) Issues Resolved

craig-d wrote on 8/17/2022, 4:17 AM

Hi everyone! There have been a lot of conversations about the vst3 issues (especially with iZotope Ozone 9 and RX 8 Elements) since 16.1 and later...the issue is quite easy to resolve. The problem is that due to the re-hauling of the VST3 Engine, our vst3 plugins are assigned new plugin IDs in our registry, so it looks like many of our VST3 plugins won't load. All we need to do is re-scan our plugins manually. You can do this by clicking Options > Preferences > VST Plugins and click Refresh. Keep in mind that this scan will take some time, as again most of the plugins are being given new plugin IDs, but after that initial scan, your plugin scan at startup should be faster than they've ever been in SF. I hope this is helpful for you all!

Comments

walter-howerton wrote on 8/17/2022, 8:19 AM

This was one of my first troubleshooting steps. It does not fix the problem; VST3 plugins still do not work in SF Pro 16.1.x. The program crashes upon trying to use VST3 plugins.

walter-howerton wrote on 8/17/2022, 9:02 AM

Because of the statement in this thread that the horrific problem that causes SFPro 16 to be unusable has been resolved, I re-accomplished the steps that reportedly resolve the problem. They still don't resolve the problem. SFPro 16 still crashes upon attempting to use VST3, no matter how many times one Refreshes the Options>Preferences>VST Plugins.

john_barr wrote on 8/17/2022, 2:30 PM

The crashes are causing people to give up Sound Forge. If nothing is done, Sound Forge will be a memory only.

craig-d wrote on 8/18/2022, 1:45 AM

hi! wow...this is strange, as i have tried this on every system i have access to and it worked every single time, plus i asked each user who filed a ticket in the last week to try it and so far it has also been successful for all that have responded back. is it possible for you @walter-howerton and @john_barr to perhaps send a video showing your manual rescan, and then the error with selecting a vst3 plugin? this would be most helpful, as i could get this to the developers and we can determine if there is another issue happening as well. also, if you need, i'm happy to get you an installation file for build 16.0 build 106, which was the last build before the vst re-haul.

walter-howerton wrote on 8/18/2022, 8:18 AM

hi! wow...this is strange, as i have tried this on every system i have access to and it worked every single time, plus i asked each user who filed a ticket in the last week to try it and so far it has also been successful for all that have responded back. is it possible for you @walter-howerton and @john_barr to perhaps send a video showing your manual rescan, and then the error with selecting a vst3 plugin? this would be most helpful, as i could get this to the developers and we can determine if there is another issue happening as well. also, if you need, i'm happy to get you an installation file for build 16.0 build 106, which was the last build before the vst re-haul.

Step one: Re-scan. Options > Preferences > VST Plugins, click Refresh

walter-howerton wrote on 8/18/2022, 8:21 AM

hi! wow...this is strange, as i have tried this on every system i have access to and it worked every single time, plus i asked each user who filed a ticket in the last week to try it and so far it has also been successful for all that have responded back. is it possible for you @walter-howerton and @john_barr to perhaps send a video showing your manual rescan, and then the error with selecting a vst3 plugin? this would be most helpful, as i could get this to the developers and we can determine if there is another issue happening as well. also, if you need, i'm happy to get you an installation file for build 16.0 build 106, which was the last build before the vst re-haul.

Step two: Close Sound Forge Pro 16.1
Step three: Reboot the computer
Step four: Open Sound Forge Pro 16.1, and any audio file, then try to apply any VST3 plugin...


Note that I have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling, both Sound Forge Pro and ALL my third-party plugins (which are iZotope, if that's relevant).

john_barr wrote on 8/18/2022, 2:16 PM

Hi craig. I installed Waves 14. Sound Forge takes a while to open and VST2 plugins open faster than VST3. But everything works.

I have not tested izotope.

john_barr wrote on 8/18/2022, 6:26 PM

Sound Forge has issues with VST3. Waves 14 plugins showed all VST2 and only 3 VST3. In Preferences, some plugins were not recognized. Clicking on Refresh does not fix it.

craig-d wrote on 8/19/2022, 2:45 AM

Hi @john_barr thank you, that's great info! I just updated to Waves 14 and I can see that all of the individual plugins that are updated to Waves 14 only show in VST2. All of my other Waves plugins that run on 13 and earlier show up and work in VST3 without a problem. I've written with a few guys that are running studios and using Sound Forge and this is their experience as well. It seems (at least, at the moment) that the issue isn't a problem with all VST3 plugins, as all of our other VST3 plugins seem to be working great...but, the problem can be narrowed down to Waves (in particular, the plugins that are updated to Waves 14).

Before I updated my Waves to version 14, all of my Waves vst3 64 bit showed up and worked...so I believe it's an issue with Waves version 14 plugins...please let me know if that's not your experience, as I will talk to the developers today and if your experience is different then they will need to know what else to look for. Thanks again for your feedback, it really helped to narrow it down!

john_barr wrote on 8/19/2022, 8:34 AM

I uninstalled Waves 14 and installed Waves 10. VST3 plugins show and open, but some don't work.

Sound Forge takes several seconds to open.

I don't know if the problem is with Waves or Sound Forge.

  

john_barr wrote on 8/19/2022, 8:46 AM

In Preferences, I clicked Refresh and some plugins were not recognized.

john_barr wrote on 8/19/2022, 10:35 AM

I just installed Adobe Audition 2022 (22.5). It opens fast and all Waves 10 plugins worked fine.

john_barr wrote on 8/19/2022, 7:34 PM

Waves 14 plugins work in Audition 2022. VST3 only.

Sound Forge works fine with VST2 only.

john_barr wrote on 8/21/2022, 8:11 PM

Steinberg discontinues support for VST2 plug-ins. Magix should go that way.

craig-d wrote on 8/22/2022, 2:13 AM

hi @john_barr. Thanks for the additional info! I spoke with the developers and they think they have identified the issue with the Waves 14 plugins, and they will work on that specifically so our Waves users (of which there are many!) can use their vst3 Waves 14 plugins again. Thank you again for the great info!

john_barr wrote on 8/22/2022, 6:39 AM

I think the problems with plugins will be solved in Sound Forge 17 only. Version 16 was one of the worst.

rraud wrote on 8/22/2022, 10:57 AM

Steinberg discontinues support for VST2 plug-ins. Magix should go that way.

I disagree. There are thousands of VST-2 plugs-ins that would no longer run in Sound Forge. Many do not have VST-3 versions or equivalents, Not to mention the cost and time finding a 'suitable' VST-3 replacement Many of my 'go-to' plugs are VST-2 (not to mention Direct X).

Version 16 was one of the worst.

I would not dispute that.

john_barr wrote on 8/22/2022, 11:40 AM

Hi rraud. I saw the information on the Steinberg forum:

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/vst-2-discontinued/761383

john_barr wrote on 8/22/2022, 11:44 AM

Audition and Reaper work with VST3 only.

SP. wrote on 8/22/2022, 11:48 AM

@john_barr This just means that Steinberg no longer provides support for developers who use the VST2 SDK to develop plugins. As long as no Windows update breaks VST2 plugins there should be no problem in using them.

john_barr wrote on 8/22/2022, 12:31 PM

In the future, VST2 will no longer be supported and VST3 will be standard.

john_barr wrote on 8/22/2022, 12:32 PM

I hope Sound Forge doesn't get stuck in the past.

rraud wrote on 8/22/2022, 12:54 PM

Audition and Reaper work with VST3 only.

Reaper still works with VST-2 plugs. I do not know about Audition.

Sorry for getting more off-topic.

SP. wrote on 8/22/2022, 1:06 PM

@john_barr U-He and Bitwig developed on new, open plugin format called CLAP. Maybe this will become a new standard in the future. There is some hype around it.