Another Waves Codex Failure Story

[Kindred]

My impression is that he didn't authorized the plug-ins proiperly. And he never posted any reply to the several suggestions, and even didn't clarify what was wrong. He simply stated: "I literally cannot even get this software to install!". So, what can possibly go wrong with an installer that worked for pretty much everybody else?

And the dialog described, he just have to point to the plug-ins folder inside the Waves folder. Is he doing that? Doesn't seem so, but nobody knows.

Yes, as mentioned in my post, I tried pointing to every single folder on my hard drive even remotely associated with this program. Does nothing.

I ended up giving up in frustration but about 10 minutes with Serum put a smile back on my face so all good

When I have time I will remove every trace of it from my computer and try installing from scratch.

However this confirmed my general experience that the bigger the company, the more annoying and dysfunctional their installation/authorisation process...if you type in the error message I received, it is clearly not an isolated problem for Waves software.

[Robmobius]

You didn't demo first?
Silly boy.

Yes, demo'd. Demo worked. Full version didn't.

How did the demo worked and the full version don't? It's the same software, the same installer, etc. - nothing changes

The only thing that changes is the authorization, which changes from a temporary one (that lasts for seven days) to an infinite one.

That's what I was thinking... I reckon OP has botched the authorization. Or could be a faulty usb as was also mentioned.

[Mushy Mushy]

If it's not an isolated problem, this should (or could perhaps) be good news for you. There should already be a solution.

[Ingonator]

Hmmm...USB flash drive? Maybe that is the problem. At this stage I just selected the computer option (there were two options, USB & computer)

Why do you need a USB to run the software btw?

Wave repalced te iLok protection with a normal USb flash drive. Anyway you usually only need this if you want to use the license on different computers.
Another way would be sending the license from the HD on the first computer back to teh Cloud and install it from the Cloud to the HD on the other computer (same if you want to go back to the other computer again...).

[Kindred]

You didn't demo first?
Silly boy.

Yes, demo'd. Demo worked. Full version didn't.

How did the demo worked and the full version don't? It's the same software, the same installer, etc. - nothing changes

The only thing that changes is the authorization, which changes from a temporary one (that lasts for seven days) to an infinite one.

That's the weird bit...I registered in the online Waves site - no problems - accepted the code. Did the license centre thing and then when I opened Cubase it started giving me this message about locating the folder. If it turns out that this is because I should have selected the USB option instead of the computer option I won't be happy.

Anyway I will try starting from scratch in a few days when I get some time.

[Kindred]

oh well at least I am not alone getting this error -

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=422697

[Ingonator]

My impression is that he didn't authorized the plug-ins proiperly. And he never posted any reply to the several suggestions, and even didn't clarify what was wrong. He simply stated: "I literally cannot even get this software to install!". So, what can possibly go wrong with an installer that worked for pretty much everybody else?

And the dialog described, he just have to point to the plug-ins folder inside the Waves folder. Is he doing that? Doesn't seem so, but nobody knows.

Yes, as mentioned in my post, I tried pointing to every single folder on my hard drive even remotely associated with this program. Does nothing.

I ended up giving up in frustration but about 10 minutes with Serum put a smile back on my face so all good

When I have time I will remove every trace of it from my computer and try installing from scratch.

However this confirmed my general experience that the bigger the company, the more annoying and dysfunctional their installation/authorisation process...if you type in the error message I received, it is clearly not an isolated problem for Waves software.

The Waves installer installs plugin files at two different locations. First is the single plugins at a certain folder in e.g. C:\Program Files\Waves. You usually do not have to care about those files.
Second is that it installs a file like WaveShell-VST 9.3.DLL in your VSTPLUGINS folder which is the only DLL file you need to have there for ALL Waves plugins. This automatically will load the single plugins when you use it in your host (and those single plugins should appear there while in some hosts a sub-folder called WavesShell is created at the plugin list of the host).

The Waves v9 Installer is usually asking for locations of the general folder (in Program Files), the locations of the 32-bit WavesShell plugin and the location of the 64-bit WavesShell plugin. Usually it is not necessary to mess with the files after the installation (which means they should be at place you selected during the installation).

Usually the installer will also install the VST3 and AAX WavesShell plugins to the default locations (in Windows at C:\Program Files\Common Files).
If you use a host that could use both the VST2 and the VST3 plugin (like Cubase or Studio One 2) the VST2 plugin will be disabled and only the VST3 plugin will appear in the host. If you only want to use the VST2 plugin you would need to delete the VST3 WavesShell plugin (found at e.g. C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3).

[lfm]

Hmmm...USB flash drive? Maybe that is the problem. At this stage I just selected the computer option (there were two options, USB & computer)

Why do you need a USB to run the software btw?

That's just optional and not your problem.
It's for if using several computers mostly, and want to move licenses with you as you work on different machines.

As said, contact Waves support...quite responsive.

[kbaccki]

I went through waves install hell myself last night, just to get the Codex demo installed and running. I'm on Win7 x64 here. In my experience:

1.) First try at install was a fail. It starts with InstallShield warning that it "can't verify the origin and integrity of this application". Hmm. Disconcerting. After manually inspecting the Waves and VeriSign certs I cross my fingers and proceed with the install.

2.) After install I launch the license manager, throw the demo license on USB (machine is not an option if your wireline LAN adapter is disabled... i.e., even if you have a wireless dongle).

3.) Launch Reaper and I immediately get "Please select 9.3 Plug-Ins Folder" file chooser dialog. Huh?! What folder? Where? What are you asking me? Foolishly (I suppose) I select the VST folder where WaveShell.dll is installed (actually, it asked twice, and I selected once for x32 VST, and again for x64 VST). Did I do this right? Is it going to work? No idea..

4.) The folder select dialogs go away, but for the life of me I can't get EITHER WavesShell nor Codex to show in Reaper FX dialog... VST, VSTi, nothing. OK... maybe I pointed Waves at the wrong plug-ins folder??? Exactly which "plug-ins folder" is it confused about??? Is it looking in my Roaming documents sub-folder? Somewhere else? Ok, after much googling and poking around the file system it turns out that there is a folder located in the main Waves install location called... "Plug-Ins". Waves puts the plugin .bundle files there, and... well... you need to tell WavesShell that that's where... uh... it needs to look.

5.) OK, install #1 was a fail. Let's wipe everything and redo the whole shebang. Uninstall Waves, leave the demo license on the USB drive. This should be easy... after uninstalling and reinstalling Waves, Waves install no longer appears under "All Programs" in the Start menu. Oh, it's installed alright... but the menu items were never recreated (they were created in the first install, then deleted on uninstall, then not created at all). Wooohooo! This is getting good.

6.) OK, verify I can see the demo license on the USB stick in license manager... check! Skip reaper for now, let's just try to load WaveShell directly with SAVIhost... yes, it loads, and what do you think it asks me??? Oh, it needs to know where the mother !&@^*#! "plug-ins" folder is!!!!! BWAAAAAHAHAHAAAHAHA!!!!! But this time I'm prepared!!!!! Ha, jokes on YOU, Waves! I promptly point WaveShell at C:\Programs ...\Waves\...\Plug-Ins or whatever the folder is called... SUUCCCESSSS!!!!! I think get a dialog from WaveShell asking which plugin to instantiate. Holy mother of mercy. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this.

7.) Close down SAVIhost, open Reaper 32-bit. No WaveShell, no Codex... Open 64 bit... no WaveShell, no Codex. OK, click on the "clear VST cache/complete rescan" button... 10 minutes later... I have Codex running in Reaper.

All told, I'd say I spent a solid 30 minutes just getting it installed and running in Reaper. Not quite sure how any of you just do a 2 or 3 click install, but I can assure you this install process doesn't quite work, or work seamlessly on all (generic) systems.


To the OP... my experience on the second install NOT creating menu items, maybe that's your problem??? Uninstall the whole thing, and clean Waves entirely from your system. Go into regedit and just start deleting stuff with extreme prejudice. Now reinstall Waves from scratch. Worth a shot.

[blueman]

I've been through similar issues with the latest 9.x upgrade--now requiring the Ethernet to be enabled for HD option. I'm over it. I will keep the Waves plugs I have and stop buying from them in the future; there are too many other options, as good or better, that don't require all of this hassle

[JJ_Jettflow]

I went through waves install hell myself last night, just to get the Codex demo installed and running. I'm on Win7 x64 here. In my experience:

1.) First try at install was a fail. It starts with InstallShield warning that it "can't verify the origin and integrity of this application". Hmm. Disconcerting. After manually inspecting the Waves and VeriSign certs I cross my fingers and proceed with the install.

2.) After install I launch the license manager, throw the demo license on USB (machine is not an option if your wireline LAN adapter is disabled... i.e., even if you have a wireless dongle).

3.) Launch Reaper and I immediately get "Please select 9.3 Plug-Ins Folder" file chooser dialog. Huh?! What folder? Where? What are you asking me? Foolishly (I suppose) I select the VST folder where WaveShell.dll is installed (actually, it asked twice, and I selected once for x32 VST, and again for x64 VST). Did I do this right? Is it going to work? No idea..

4.) The folder select dialogs go away, but for the life of me I can't get EITHER WavesShell nor Codex to show in Reaper FX dialog... VST, VSTi, nothing. OK... maybe I pointed Waves at the wrong plug-ins folder??? Exactly which "plug-ins folder" is it confused about??? Is it looking in my Roaming documents sub-folder? Somewhere else? Ok, after much googling and poking around the file system it turns out that there is a folder located in the main Waves install location called... "Plug-Ins". Waves puts the plugin .bundle files there, and... well... you need to tell WavesShell that that's where... uh... it needs to look.

5.) OK, install #1 was a fail. Let's wipe everything and redo the whole shebang. Uninstall Waves, leave the demo license on the USB drive. This should be easy... after uninstalling and reinstalling Waves, Waves install no longer appears under "All Programs" in the Start menu. Oh, it's installed alright... but the menu items were never recreated (they were created in the first install, then deleted on uninstall, then not created at all). Wooohooo! This is getting good.

6.) OK, verify I can see the demo license on the USB stick in license manager... check! Skip reaper for now, let's just try to load WaveShell directly with SAVIhost... yes, it loads, and what do you think it asks me??? Oh, it needs to know where the mother !&@^*#! "plug-ins" folder is!!!!! BWAAAAAHAHAHAAAHAHA!!!!! But this time I'm prepared!!!!! Ha, jokes on YOU, Waves! I promptly point WaveShell at C:\Programs ...\Waves\...\Plug-Ins or whatever the folder is called... SUUCCCESSSS!!!!! I think get a dialog from WaveShell asking which plugin to instantiate. Holy mother of mercy. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this.

7.) Close down SAVIhost, open Reaper 32-bit. No WaveShell, no Codex... Open 64 bit... no WaveShell, no Codex. OK, click on the "clear VST cache/complete rescan" button... 10 minutes later... I have Codex running in Reaper.

All told, I'd say I spent a solid 30 minutes just getting it installed and running in Reaper. Not quite sure how any of you just do a 2 or 3 click install, but I can assure you this install process doesn't quite work, or work seamlessly on all (generic) systems.


To the OP... my experience on the second install NOT creating menu items, maybe that's your problem??? Uninstall the whole thing, and clean Waves entirely from your system. Go into regedit and just start deleting stuff with extreme prejudice. Now reinstall Waves from scratch. Worth a shot.

One thing I learned about the Reper/Waves combo that may be helpful is that after adding any Waves plugin, you need to rescan the plugins and you must use the "Clear Cache/rescan" option found in Options menu/Preferences/Plugins/VST.

Even if you have Reaper set up to scan for plugins on setup, it will read the Waveshell being there but your plugins will not appear until you do the above.

[Gitai_from_Waves]

Hey Guys,


When you are prompt to locate the Waves plugins folder you need to locate just that and not the folder with the WaveShell.

On PC:

C:\> Program Files (X86)>Waves>Plugins

On a Mac:

System HD>Applications>Waves>Waves plugins.

If the prompt window does not go away then this means that the WaveShell 9.3 (in this case) cannot find plugins that are associated with this exact version.

In this case my suggestion is to start fresh- You can remove Waves on a PC from the Control Panel and then Programs & Features or if you are running a Mac you can use the Waves Uninstaller which is located in: System HD>Applications>Waves>Utilities

Once everything is removed, download a fresh copy of the latest V9 installer from: http://www.waves.com/downloads/v9

and when installing make sure you select only what you own or wish to demo (and have license for).

Let me know if this does not work.

[jdnz]

One thing I learned about the Reper/Waves combo that may be helpful is that after adding any Waves plugin, you need to rescan the plugins and you must use the "Clear Cache/rescan" option found in Options menu/Preferences/Plugins/VST.

Even if you have Reaper set up to scan for plugins on setup, it will read the Waveshell being there but your plugins will not appear until you do the above.

you can avoid the pain of rescanning every plugin by manually editting the vstplugins.ini file - remove the waveshell line and the immediately following lines for each waves plugin.

not ideal I'll admit, but I'd rather do that than have it scanning everything for no good reason

[fluffy_little_something]

Hey Guys,


When you are prompt to locate the Waves plugins folder you need to locate just that and not the folder with the WaveShell.

On PC:

C:\> Program Files (X86)>Waves>Plugins

On a Mac:

System HD>Applications>Waves>Waves plugins.

If the prompt window does not go away then this means that the WaveShell 9.3 (in this case) cannot find plugins that are associated with this exact version.

In this case my suggestion is to start fresh- You can remove Waves on a PC from the Control Panel and then Programs & Features or if you are running a Mac you can use the Waves Uninstaller which is located in: System HD>Applications>Waves>Utilities

Once everything is removed, download a fresh copy of the latest V9 installer from: http://www.waves.com/downloads/v9

and when installing make sure you select only what you own or wish to demo (and have license for).

Let me know if this does not work.

Why do you use such a stupid system to begin with? Others don't...

[Fleer]

To separate the men from the boys