Waveform Pro version 13.5.13 Constantly Crashing (and Biotek 2/3 was crashing WF before the update)

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Sweeto-k wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 5:47 pm
GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:40 pm
jabe wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:01 pm 13.5.8 is still available from the website. Sign in, go to your downloads, scroll down to choose PAID DOWNLOADS, then to Waveform 13.5. Click it, and it's still 13.5.8.

13.5.13 is under Public Beta.
That's good to know. Weird, I looked for prior versions. I'll check for prior versions of Biotek and Attraktive too. On my old laptop, the VST versions are older.
Sweeto-k wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 10:49 am
GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:57 am
Sweeto-k wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 12:31 am Its happening to me too ( only have free version)
It seems to randomly sujest any VST3 plugin I am using at the time from the ones Im using be it 3rd parry or even Tracktions own Attracktive.
I have no way of rolling the updates back on my system and WF has just become totally unusable since updating to 13.5.13.
What OS you using? My old laptop was upgraded from Win 10, then upgraded to 11, and my new laptop was preloaded with 11. Anyway, I'm learning that 11 has a lot of built in security features, and supposedly, that's been causing a lot of problems.

13.5.8 has been running smooth as silk for me. I'm stress testing my new laptop and WF by loading tons of plugins, and it hasn't crashed.

If you want the installer file for .8 shoot me a pm. I don't really know if there's a difference between free and pro, but my guess is, if you paid, when you authorize, that's when you get the extra bells and whistles.

I'm annoyed AF about Biotek and Attraktive. I have tons of plugins, and only those two crash WF. I'm gonna write Tracktion support after I gather some screenshots and crash logs. What a PITA.
I am running Windows 11.
Came installed on my i7 laptop.
WF has been running fine without any problems or crashes since WF 12 using all the same plugins other than the recent addition of Attraktive which didnt crash before the update.
I have sent Tracktion support 2 crash logs and am waiting for a response.
If I dont hear back or find any solution then I may be intouch for that previous version.

What is really annoying is if it is found to be Attraktive I have 2 almost finnished projects using it.
Although in saying that WF is also crashing where I am not using it in tracks.
I contacted support yesterday.

You can get the installer file directly from tracktion, per above.

Heads up about Win 11 updates- I got a popup to update Kontakt Player 8, so I went to the Kontakt Download Manager- Windows' "Smart App" flagged the file as suspicious. Not only did it kill the update, it killed the working .exe file for Player 8. On a hunch, I copied the Player8.exe file from my old computer to the new and it's working again.

On my old laptop, a bunch of Izotope plugins were flagged as viruses. But they still work in WF.

You can disable Smart App, but can't turn it back on UNLESS YOU REINSTALL WINDOWS.

It sucks when you're in the middle of a project, and things go bad. My old laptop is an i7 with 32 gigs of ram, but it couldn't keep up with a lot plugins. My new laptop has an i7 "Ultra" chip, and is handling things very well, resource wise.

I'm gonna hunt on the tracktion site for older versions of Biotek and Attraktive.
Thanks for the PM.
So I unistalled WF and reinstalled the older version and unfortunatly now I just get CPU overload from any project I open.
What ever is happening has now made me question to continue to use WF as was about to upgrade to the pro paid version but now not so sure. which is a shame as for reasons I cant fathom out its just become to unstable and problematic.
I also dont get why if the last uodate is still in beta form it was released in the download manager as if it was a fully tested update.
I have heard nothing from support.

I am sure Atraktive has a part to play and am just trying to work out how to kill it from my system.
If I cant or fix WF then im afraid I'll dump it alltogether
In my experience, the Waveform developers have been pretty quick in fixing things. They could be contending with playing catchup, with all the stuff MS keeps dropping on us.

I've thought of going to another DAW at times, but, not only would there be a new learning curve, there's no guarantee another DAW would work. Reaper devs supposedly work on fixes overnight. I'm just not willing to learn a new DAW.

When things are acting weird, I do a system cleanup. If your computer has an Assitant, you can cleanup up your temp files, prefetch files, and a bunch of other stuff.

I use 2 free programs that seem to work well: Revo Uninstaller and Revo Registry cleaner. Both free. Maybe if you do a system cleanup, things will smooth out.

I've learned the waveform.settings file can really screw things up. If you have, or had different versions of WF, there can be multiple .settings files, and deleting one isn't enough. You have to delete them all.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can find the waveform.settings file, rename it to Waveform.setings.bak. When you open up Waveform, it should look like a fresh installation. If it doesn't that means there's another .settings file- you can do a wildcard search in Explorer and type *.settings and look for another Waveform.settings file.

The quick way to find the settings file is in WF's settings page: File locations, then at the very top, you can click "show settings folder." Within that folder is the settings file. It's kind of like the registry for WF, and there seems to be a record of everything you do within WF. I just looked at mine usining Notepad, and I still have entries for Biotek and Attracktive. I'll wait on tech support to deal with that.

Sometimes a reboot clears things up. If you use Chrome, that's a real resource hog, and suck up resources from WF.

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Good. Things are smooth for me. I'm annoyed about Biotek and Attraktive, being I paid for Biotek and its upgrade, plus some expansions. I'll just wait for tech support.

Not kidding, I've been dealing with tech/software problems for over 2 months.

Good thing Biotek/Attraktive weren't my go-tos. I normally forget I have Tracktion plugs. I'm discovering that they're pretty good.

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I don't understand why all the earlier releases of Waveform and plug-ins have been removed from the website. I've always felt it was a potentially useful resource.

I've still got installation software versions from the days when it was called Tracktion and every version is installed on this PC from 6 onwards.
[W10-64, T5/6/7/W8/9/10/11/12/13, 32(to W8)&64 all, Spike],[W7-32, T5/6/7/W8, Gina16] everything underused.

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GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:18 pm Good. Things are smooth for me. I'm annoyed about Biotek and Attraktive, being I paid for Biotek and its upgrade, plus some expansions. I'll just wait for tech support.

Not kidding, I've been dealing with tech/software problems for over 2 months.

Good thing Biotek/Attraktive weren't my go-tos. I normally forget I have Tracktion plugs. I'm discovering that they're pretty good.
Having been a mac user for a few years because of past work stuff
I forgot how windows likes to keep stuff that you think you got rid of.
So with your jolt to my old memory I
Seem to have fixed everything for now.
Went through windows registry and removed all instances of WF
Reinstalled 13.5.8
Ran perfectly.
Decided to reinstall Atraktive just to see if it caused any issues.
And it is running without any crashes or CPU overload.
So as you sugested it must have been stuff left in the registery causing issues.
So so far so good.
Just hoping for another of their promo sales and will take the plunge with that licence.

Thanks again for the help.

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jabe wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:01 pm 13.5.8 is still available from the website. Sign in, go to your downloads, scroll down to choose PAID DOWNLOADS, then to Waveform 13.5. Click it, and it's still 13.5.8.

13.5.13 is under Public Beta.
If I'm just using the free version, does that mean there is no way for me to go back to a previous version? I've been having the same constant crashes on my windows 11 pc

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GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 5:59 pm
cupcakemusic wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 4:20 pm Check your video drivers, try to download from official website, "Example; AMD for Radeon card/chipset or Intel for Intel chipset"
...While troubleshooting the Biotek issue yesterday, a screen popped up saying, "updating your Intel Arc Video drivers."
... I just checked my video driver version, and it's not up to date, according to Intel's site. I just ran the HP diagnostic tool, and that says I'm up to date on everything, and my OS is good etc, etc.
I remember that in past threads it was mentioned an option in Waveform to change graphics rendering being handled by OpenGL or Direct2D or Software rendering, and issues with the stability of WF could be solved by using Software rendering instead of OpenGL or Direct2D rendering. Try also this!
Classical guitar --> Line Audio CM4 @ SSL12 --> KDE-Plasma @ Debian-Linux --> Waveform PRO 13.5

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themetalwizard wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 2:16 pm
jabe wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:01 pm 13.5.8 is still available from the website. Sign in, go to your downloads, scroll down to choose PAID DOWNLOADS, then to Waveform 13.5. Click it, and it's still 13.5.8.

13.5.13 is under Public Beta.
If I'm just using the free version, does that mean there is no way for me to go back to a previous version? I've been having the same constant crashes on my windows 11 pc
A good question. You will have had to join the Tracktion website, but I've no idea what you'll be able to see. Some items listed in my PAID DOWNLOADS list were freebies, so perhaps Waveform 13.5.8 is current on yours. Have a good search on the site andsee what you can find. I'mguessing that if you receive an installation from any source it should be okay for you, soI think we can safely get you 13.5.8 one way or another
[W10-64, T5/6/7/W8/9/10/11/12/13, 32(to W8)&64 all, Spike],[W7-32, T5/6/7/W8, Gina16] everything underused.

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jabe wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 9:26 pm
themetalwizard wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 2:16 pm
jabe wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:01 pm 13.5.8 is still available from the website. Sign in, go to your downloads, scroll down to choose PAID DOWNLOADS, then to Waveform 13.5. Click it, and it's still 13.5.8.

13.5.13 is under Public Beta.
If I'm just using the free version, does that mean there is no way for me to go back to a previous version? I've been having the same constant crashes on my windows 11 pc
A good question. You will have had to join the Tracktion website, but I've no idea what you'll be able to see. Some items listed in my PAID DOWNLOADS list were freebies, so perhaps Waveform 13.5.8 is current on yours. Have a good search on the site andsee what you can find. I'mguessing that if you receive an installation from any source it should be okay for you, soI think we can safely get you 13.5.8 one way or another
I ended up being able to redownload the old version by looking in my download history after uninstalling the new version! I'm definitely keeping it this way until I know 13.5.13 is stable.

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GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Tue Sep 30, 2025 7:07 pm
nealdc wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 9:11 pm My 13.5.8 Pro was rock-solid.
13.5.13 is crashing. A lot.
Afraid I've not taken a lot of time to figure out any possible links to anything, but I have had F-'em loaded most of the day. When it wasn't crashing anyway...
And didn't have Biotek loaded. Installed but not loaded.

crowquill wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 11:41 pm All versions before the latest update were very stable. Version 13.5.8 practically never crashed. After the 13.5.13 update, which I installed two days ago, Waveform frequently crashes when opening most VST plugins, sometimes even several times a day. I'll install the previous version tomorrow while I wait for a fix.
Since reverting back to 13.5.8, WF seems to be stable. But Biotek and Attraktive still crash WF.

It's weird that the Tracktion Download Manager doesn't have 13.5.8 available for d/l anymore.

If either of you need the installer file for .8 shoot me a pm, and I'll upload it to the cloud.

I totally get being a bit paranoid about getting a file from a stranger, so no biggie. Oh, I only have the Windoze installer.
I actually found the 13.5.8 installer files. Thank you! But much appreciated.

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jabe wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:01 pm 13.5.8 is still available from the website. Sign in, go to your downloads, scroll down to choose PAID DOWNLOADS, then to Waveform 13.5. Click it, and it's still 13.5.8.

13.5.13 is under Public Beta.
As of today, .8 isn't available. T3,4,7 and WF 11, and only the latest version of WF is available.

There's no rhyme or reason to this. I told tech support that, andecdotally, .13 is unstable, so they take down the last stable version??

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Sweeto-k wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 8:02 pm
GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:18 pm Good. Things are smooth for me. I'm annoyed about Biotek and Attraktive, being I paid for Biotek and its upgrade, plus some expansions. I'll just wait for tech support.

Not kidding, I've been dealing with tech/software problems for over 2 months.

Good thing Biotek/Attraktive weren't my go-tos. I normally forget I have Tracktion plugs. I'm discovering that they're pretty good.
Having been a mac user for a few years because of past work stuff
I forgot how windows likes to keep stuff that you think you got rid of.
So with your jolt to my old memory I
Seem to have fixed everything for now.
Went through windows registry and removed all instances of WF
Reinstalled 13.5.8
Ran perfectly.
Decided to reinstall Atraktive just to see if it caused any issues.
And it is running without any crashes or CPU overload.
So as you sugested it must have been stuff left in the registery causing issues.
So so far so good.
Just hoping for another of their promo sales and will take the plunge with that licence.

Thanks again for the help.
Well, here's my update, the tldr is, I'm still SOL.

I'm reluctant to hack my registry now, mostly because it's a new computer, and I don't want to screw things up even further.

I personally think the secret lies in the waveform.settings file. When I look at it in notepad, there's still references to Biotek and Attraktive. It's like WF's registry.

I'm debating whether to uninstall WF, but to really clean a program out, you have to dig into AppData, etc, to flush out every instance of it, then, clean up your registry, and, make sure there's no waveform.settings files. On my old computer, I had 3 versions of Tracktion/WF and didn't know the .settings file (the most recent one) effects ALL instances Tracktion/WF.

Did Support ever get back to you? They finally answered a few days ago, and my case is being "elevated" to a higher level of support. I'm pretty pissed, bc I've spent hundreds on Biotek 2 and 3, plus some expansions that are totally useless to me now.

If I wasn't so deep into reinstalling all my plugins, I'd reformat the whole drive. Separate issue, but iLok is asking for a usb dongle. I've never had to use one.

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GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Sat Oct 11, 2025 8:16 pm
Sweeto-k wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 8:02 pm
GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:18 pm Good. Things are smooth for me. I'm annoyed about Biotek and Attraktive, being I paid for Biotek and its upgrade, plus some expansions. I'll just wait for tech support.

Not kidding, I've been dealing with tech/software problems for over 2 months.

Good thing Biotek/Attraktive weren't my go-tos. I normally forget I have Tracktion plugs. I'm discovering that they're pretty good.
Having been a mac user for a few years because of past work stuff
I forgot how windows likes to keep stuff that you think you got rid of.
So with your jolt to my old memory I
Seem to have fixed everything for now.
Went through windows registry and removed all instances of WF
Reinstalled 13.5.8
Ran perfectly.
Decided to reinstall Atraktive just to see if it caused any issues.
And it is running without any crashes or CPU overload.
So as you sugested it must have been stuff left in the registery causing issues.
So so far so good.
Just hoping for another of their promo sales and will take the plunge with that licence.

Thanks again for the help.
Well, here's my update, the tldr is, I'm still SOL.

I'm reluctant to hack my registry now, mostly because it's a new computer, and I don't want to screw things up even further.

I personally think the secret lies in the waveform.settings file. When I look at it in notepad, there's still references to Biotek and Attraktive. It's like WF's registry.

I'm debating whether to uninstall WF, but to really clean a program out, you have to dig into AppData, etc, to flush out every instance of it, then, clean up your registry, and, make sure there's no waveform.settings files. On my old computer, I had 3 versions of Tracktion/WF and didn't know the .settings file (the most recent one) effects ALL instances Tracktion/WF.

Did Support ever get back to you? They finally answered a few days ago, and my case is being "elevated" to a higher level of support. I'm pretty pissed, bc I've spent hundreds on Biotek 2 and 3, plus some expansions that are totally useless to me now.

If I wasn't so deep into reinstalling all my plugins, I'd reformat the whole drive. Separate issue, but iLok is asking for a usb dongle. I've never had to use one.
So far so good with 13.5.8 after the reinstall and will not be changing.


No still no update from support.
I have read over on Facebook that it is a issue with Juce. And they advised to install 13.5.8 if you are "having issues"


I also checked the download history within my Tracktion account after reading above about older versions no longer available and find it surprising they have removed 13.5.8 if they know of problems with the latest version.
I for one will not be a guinee pig for their testing if they take so long to answer support queries and I have to dig around the internet for answers.

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Sweeto-k wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 11:53 am
GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Sat Oct 11, 2025 8:16 pm
Sweeto-k wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 8:02 pm
GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:18 pm Good. Things are smooth for me. I'm annoyed about Biotek and Attraktive, being I paid for Biotek and its upgrade, plus some expansions. I'll just wait for tech support.

Not kidding, I've been dealing with tech/software problems for over 2 months.

Good thing Biotek/Attraktive weren't my go-tos. I normally forget I have Tracktion plugs. I'm discovering that they're pretty good.
Having been a mac user for a few years because of past work stuff
I forgot how windows likes to keep stuff that you think you got rid of.
So with your jolt to my old memory I
Seem to have fixed everything for now.
Went through windows registry and removed all instances of WF
Reinstalled 13.5.8
Ran perfectly.
Decided to reinstall Atraktive just to see if it caused any issues.
And it is running without any crashes or CPU overload.
So as you sugested it must have been stuff left in the registery causing issues.
So so far so good.
Just hoping for another of their promo sales and will take the plunge with that licence.

Thanks again for the help.
Well, here's my update, the tldr is, I'm still SOL.

I'm reluctant to hack my registry now, mostly because it's a new computer, and I don't want to screw things up even further.

I personally think the secret lies in the waveform.settings file. When I look at it in notepad, there's still references to Biotek and Attraktive. It's like WF's registry.

I'm debating whether to uninstall WF, but to really clean a program out, you have to dig into AppData, etc, to flush out every instance of it, then, clean up your registry, and, make sure there's no waveform.settings files. On my old computer, I had 3 versions of Tracktion/WF and didn't know the .settings file (the most recent one) effects ALL instances Tracktion/WF.

Did Support ever get back to you? They finally answered a few days ago, and my case is being "elevated" to a higher level of support. I'm pretty pissed, bc I've spent hundreds on Biotek 2 and 3, plus some expansions that are totally useless to me now.

If I wasn't so deep into reinstalling all my plugins, I'd reformat the whole drive. Separate issue, but iLok is asking for a usb dongle. I've never had to use one.
So far so good with 13.5.8 after the reinstall and will not be changing.


No still no update from support.
I have read over on Facebook that it is a issue with Juce. And they advised to install 13.5.8 if you are "having issues"


I also checked the download history within my Tracktion account after reading above about older versions no longer available and find it surprising they have removed 13.5.8 if they know of problems with the latest version.
I for one will not be a guinee pig for their testing if they take so long to answer support queries and I have to dig around the internet for answers.
I bit the bullet and uninstalled WF yesterday. I backed up the WF.settings file, and there's an "export user settings" option somewhere on the settings page. I looked into the registry, and there's way too many instance of Waveform (Biotek is in there, but not Attraktive).

Weirdly, after reinstallation, I was sent directly to the Welcom page, but didn't have to enter my credentials, to authorize WF. Reinstalled Biotek, and crash. I give up. Good thing I had my settings files backed up.

I honestly think it's more a Windoze problem, than a WF problem. Everything is still good on my old computer. The preloaded W11 is super protective of files they think are suspicious. But, it's inconsistent. On my old pc, a bunch of Izotope plugins were flagged as containing a virus, where they weren't on the new one.

I'm probably more annoyed because I paid to upgrade Biotek in July, bought some expansions (dark, cinematic stuff). Some of the expansions worked with Attraktive, but I have neither on my new laptop. Otherwise, power-wise, the new laptop is a beast.

I was looking for a plugin manager of some kind, as reference for all my plugins, and kvr has one: https://www.kvraudio.com/kvr-studio-manager I have an astounding 400+ fx plugins, and over a hundred instruments (many, many are free).

I've found some cool synths, like Momentum and Vital. VPS Avenger costs, but it's on sale for ~$119 If you're into tweaking (I'm not), it might be worth a look. I'm getting by on some expansions I bought, when it was on a super sale around the holidays last year.

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I don't use Biotek or Attractive that much, but I opened them up at the weekend after following this thread. Waveform couldn''t see the vst3 version of Attractive any more but opened the vst ok. Biotek opened ok. The fm algorithm box stayed blank, so something is up with the UI side of things (it was fine last time I used it, ages ago)

Aside from those, I have been having some random hiccups recently also. Some crashes for unknown reasons. A very strange issue where certain plugin UIs were unusably laggy which I eventually fixed by resetting my Nektar lx61, and removing a midi map (which by the way had no connection to anything UI or plugin related)
Rendering tracks dialogue will sometimes include the 'only marked region's option, and sometimes not, which is frustrating. I can't nail anything down to this latest version, but these are newish problems. No show stoppers, just annoyances.

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Also, CPU usage was all over the place (in Task Manager) like constantly jumping up and down, so Windows? Waveform? PC?

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