So in my inbox this morning comes a note from Waves Audio: they have a new VSTi called “Element”. I go get demo authorization, download the “license” to their license manager program, etc. After updating the manager program, finally it installed on my computer!
Except, here’s the problem, it shows up as a VST plugin, not a VSTi. So, of course, when I play a MIDI keyboard, nothing happens (even with a preset loaded).
Another funny thing, I’ve run it twice, and twice it has frozen my (generally reliable) Win7 computer.
This isn’t so much a request for support, I guess, as it is a warning. I have never had this “VST/VSTi” problem with any other plugin/company, so rather than blame ReNoise, I’m assuming Waves simply doesn’t know how to do VSTi’s properly (I believe this is their first?).
Anyway, I might contact Waves to see what they say about it. If any of you have a different (or similar) experience, I’d love to hear about it. This “Element” is billed as a rich, full-featured “analog-sounding” synth in the $200 range (intro price is $99). I was excited just long enough to be very disappointed when it became apparent that the VSTi is a hot mess. I was tempted to try out the “stand alone” version, but I don’t want my computer to freeze again!
That synth is pretty much a joke for 200$…there are MUCH better VA synths in that price range. I’d check out what people at KVR audio are saying about it. lol
Well that’s odd. So can you not play any notes with the plugin - it’s being used as an effect? You could try setting up an alias, and that might work, unless you’ve tried it already.
The funniest part is them paying a guy from the band Dream Theater to endorse it, as if that’s going to convince any producers to buy it. u-he Diva beats this synth in every way possible, and costs less too.
On the third attempt to just load it (not even use it), it has again frozen things (just ReNoise this time, not all of Windows … yet).
I frankly have neither the time nor inclination to help Waves Beta test their new software. There are many other great synths out there, some of which are still on end-of-year sale, and all of which are competently programmed enough to appear as actual VSTi’s. At the end of this whole experience, all that has changed is I think less of Waves the company. I think I’m going to go uninstall it now… as soon as I reboot to clear everything that got frozen!
When I got Rob Papen’s Predator, it showed up in the effects section rather than the vsti. When I tried to run it, Renoise came up with a dialogue that said that the effect it was trying to run was an instrument, and would I like to rescan it as a vsti. I did so, and now I have no problems.
I have had problems with Waves plugins in the past. Sometimes the license center would wig out and I wouldn’t be able to use the plugins. Other times I would open a plugin and it would crash Renoise without warning. Their effects are top of the line, but I would be wary of any other software they are peddling.
Kvr will be negative about everything though… It doesn’t look like a bad synth it does look like it was, “inspired by z3ta.” I already have a lot of synths though… + I have demo’d a lot of their stuff in Renoise, and yep… I have had problems with their shell.
Yeah the waves shell has always been a pain in the ass. If you can find alternatives for Waves plugin, it is highly recommended to go for the alternative and avoid the Wave version.
Element demo is working as expected here, win7 64bit, renoise 32bit. Nevertheless i got sth. like very short gui freezes during song playback as of lately . Could be coincidence though, just telling.
I’m running Win7/64 with Renoise running 64; I got the plugin to “run”, but Renoise sees it as a VST, not a VSTi, so MIDI notes never reach it.
I like running Renoise in 64 bit, especially since I ReWire it to a HUGE Reason rack in 64 bit quite often.
Your experience is ALMOST enough to make me try it in 32 bit… ALMOST, but no. I don’t want to (in my view) degrade my workflow just to get one little VSTi to work.
Some people on KVR are also having problems getting it to work. Others there are posting examples of the synth “in action” and, while it sounds nice, it doesn’t really seem to stand out above other mid-to-high end synths… at least IMHO.
Well then I guess the reason it won’t work on my system is a mystery. Regardless, I’ve installed and rebooted multiple times to get it to work. Since then, I have installed the LUSH101 trial, and IT is working great! So I’ve moved on…
I think I’ll edit this whole thing and say, “I wish waves shell worked a lot better than it did.” It bothers me as much as syncrosoft elicenser… I just think those two softwares, waves shell and elicense are like peas in a pod… and imho, that is not a good thing for them.
The waves plugins are a good quality, but their wrapper and distribution model is a total pita, and I’ve decided to permanently remove waves from my list of things I am interested in.
