Parawave Rapid Not Working In Cubase 15

[Caine123]

oh that is interesting, i might try to activate it on my notebook with a free activation to test if it works.

[wagtunes]

This is what I wrote to them through yet ANOTHER support ticket.

You people are worthless pieces of shit. I have tried 20 times to activate my license. It says it's activated on the prompt but still shows an X under activation. I want my money back or I will go to Paypal and file a claim. You have lost a customer and I will tell everybody I know not to buy anything from you.

[wagtunes]

Okay, I installed it on my other computer and it activates. It's Windows 10 Cubase 14.

So I don't know if it worked because it's Windows 10, Cubase 14, a new installation or any combination of the 3. All I know is it doesn't work on my main computer.

[VikingWarrior]

So as I didn't know about the updates, I just went to 1.8.10 which I assume is the latest one and it still works fine in Win 11, Cubase 15.

[Vortifex]

This is what I wrote to them through yet ANOTHER support ticket.

You people are worthless pieces of shit.

This made me laugh out loud

Sorry Wagtunes, not laughing at your misfortune. But you probably just reduced your already slim chances at getting a helpful response from them.

[HcDoom]

As much as I love Rapid and made a full album only with it - I switched to Zebra 3 and Serum 2. Uncertainty around will it work the following day is way to stressful.

[Teksonik]

This is what I wrote to them through yet ANOTHER support ticket.

You people are worthless pieces of shit. I have tried 20 times to activate my license. It says it's activated on the prompt but still shows an X under activation. I want my money back or I will go to Paypal and file a claim. You have lost a customer and I will tell everybody I know not to buy anything from you.

Okay, I installed it on my other computer and it activates. It's Windows 10 Cubase 14.
So I don't know if it worked because it's Windows 10, Cubase 14, a new installation or any combination of the 3. All I know is it doesn't work on my main computer.

So in other words you don't know what the cause of the problem is? Seems like calling Parawave "pieces of shit" was a bit premature. I'm not trying to defend them but that's one way to make sure you get zero support.

Rapid works fine on Windows 11 here but I don't own Cubase so maybe that's a clue....

[Teksonik]

I'll post this quote from Parawave back on Jan 8th of this year. Again not trying to defend them and I've been one of their most vocal critics in the past for their lack of communication but this certainly qualifies as communication:

Happy new year!

I want to clarify a few things brought up in this thread. Excuse me for the long silence.

Sales
First of all, there is no grand scheme to "rip someone off" like some indicate or interpret it. Especially in regards to Black Friday, some treat it like it is an elaborate recurring trick, but the major reason for the sale in the first place is that people expect and demand it. Yes, as a matter of fact, Black Friday sales are a yearly occurrence. Support requests for it do amass in that season. Which is understandable, since some are not willing to spend more than 100$ on a hobby product.

Fear of Shutdown
One of the favorite talking points is that we will eventually shut down and leave the users unable to activate and use Rapid. This has been a worry since 2016 and what can I say in the year of 2026? 10 years after the initial release. It will always be a worry. To ease your mind, consider this: It's not only highly illegal but also morally bankrupt if we would do so. There isn't really anything that could be said to refute this issue. Only a vow that this isn't a moral choice or solution I could personally accept. Even in the case of shutdown, I would put in unpaid time to guarantee a continuation or final DRM free version. Additionally for the future, generally, if any incompatibilities should arise, it is planned to offer "support updates" that will guarantee that it runs on newer systems. For example if a new Windows or MacOS version is released, a compatibility update will make it run there. Which leads to the next point.

Bugs and Issues
While it may seem that Rapid gets no bug fixes and ignores requests, this isn't the intention. If you noticed an issue, reported it and expected something akin to a day-one patch, this isn't how it works either. For example - There seems to be an ongoing issue with how the DAW Bitwig handles parameters. After some updates from them, a long list of parameters causes longer loading times. If there would be an easy fix, it would be delivered. Rapid offers VST and AU versions and delivers them according to their specifications. It works in every other DAW. So there is a direct correlation of the amount of parameters and slow down. But this isn't anything that could be influenced by us. There is no magic trick to make it faster. It is their (DAW Host) area of responsibility. It worked before. They changed something. It worsened performance. Unfortunately. If possible we would add a workaround or "hack" specifically for Bitwig but it just isn't reproducible and highly dependent on the Bitwig Version and setup used. I can only recommend to notify Bitwig support and suggest that they contact us. I think they even did, for a test version. There is no ongoing communication though, I would gladly help them out if questions specific to Rapid arise, that could improve the performance of many parameter plugins.

Updates
There isn't much of an excuse to offer here. Just that unforeseen things happen which sadly mess up schedules and deadlines. This was really unfortunate. An update was promised in April 2025, with a really tight schedule and no room to breathe. But in the final stretch there was a decision that resulted in chaos and a way longer delay. To be more concrete it was a redesign of the way the new MSEG feature was used. Not that it was the wrong decision, in the long term it will be better. Just badly timed.
It isn't easy to explain the reasoning or why it wasn't communicated better. There is just no excuse for it. Appeasing with false promises wouldn't be right at this point. Only the intention of : "There will be updates" can be said with certainty. No concrete dates, as there is no fixed schedule.


At last.

Please be aware that there are unplanned things happening and that there is a natural product cycle at play and that the amount of time spent is related to all of that.
The realistic assessment of the situation is that Rapid will not disappear. You will not lose access. Your support requests are read but not always answered (especially if the email can't be delivered) or the bug is related to 3rd party software.
The update frequency was always slow and it will not suddenly change. I'm sorry for the unfulfilled promises. Eventually there will be updates.

I still hope that you can enjoy using Rapid in the meantime.

[wagtunes]

Out of desperation, I tried something that shouldn't have made any difference at all. I ran Cubase 15 as an Admin. I then went through the whole process again. This time, the plugin authorized. I now know what the problem is and Parawave needs to fix this. When the plugin imports the license file it should NOT say the license is activated if it is not. It should detect that it was unable to write the file because of permissions. The user would then immediately know that the problem is Windows and they need to run their software as admin to avoid permission issues. But no, the software knows the file wasn't written properly but just proceeds with its happy face telling the user all is well. Every other plugin I have ever owned does this one basic thing so that we know there is a problem. This is basic programming 101.

That, combined with the fact that I will NEVER hear back from Parawave, who I have contacted numerous times before I finally posted here and then told them off, I stand by what I called them. They are a horrible company for support and I hope they go out of business.

Closing this out.