I’ve been using a VSTi called Predator (Rob Papen) in Renoise for a while now. Up until the newest version of Renoise, Predator worked like a charm. In the Renoise 2.8 beta it fails to load as instrument. Instead, it shows up as an effect. Clicking on it, it says that “The plugin ‘RPCX: Predator’ was cached as an effect but seems to be a synth.” Rescanning or restarting doesn’t seem to do much, and it repeats the error. The plugin is functional though, as I can simply load up an old song with VSTi already present (back when it still recognized it as an instrument) and copy/paste it to a new song. It’s a work around, but it’s such a hassle.
I’m using a legal version of both Renoise (2.8.0 b3) and Predator (1.6.2). Both installed as administrator.
I’ve exhausted every combination: 64bits renoise vs 32 bits predator - 32 vs 64 - 32 vs 32 - 64 vs 64. Running Predator single- or multicore doesn’t seem to matter either.
Deleting CachedVSTs_x86.db or CachedVSTs_x64.db doesn’t do much. Deleted everything relating to predator in regedit, no results.
I hope this can be fixed!
edit: reinstalling Renoise 2.7.1 with the newest predator (32bit, single core) makes it functional. Installing the Renoise 32bit 2.8.0 b3 after that breaks it again.
If Renoise thinks the plugin is an effect (for whatever reason), then it should show up in your list of Track DSPs.
Try to find Predator in your Track DSPs, then try to load it into a track as if it were an effect. At this point, Renoise should correctly detect that it is in fact a synth, and it should update its cache for that plugin. After that, you should then be able to load it normally as a synth.
Yes, it shows up in Track DPS effects. Even though I click it and it says the above message, it remains in the list and does not show up in the instruments section - even after rescanning, restarting, deleting the VST caches, reinstalling Renoise/Predator. I’ve had it disappear from dsp section in 2.7.1, like you describe. In 2.8.0b3, however, it stays there.
Could you email your VST cache to me so that I can examine it? I can hopefully manually fix the effect/synth flag in the plugin cache, and maybe force Renoise into properly detecting it as a synth.
For those having the same problem: it seems that either Renoise or Predator in their current state cannot automatically flag Predator as a synth in the VST cache.
It can be manually flagged as a synth in the VST cache, if you know how to do that. It’s a temporary fix, until the problem in either renoise or predator is found.
I’ve just installed the Predator demo on my Windows 7 machine, and I can confirm that the synth is incorrectly being detected as an effect. Doesn’t help if I re-scan my plugins or anything else. We will have to take a closer look this.
In the meantime, I helped Garp by manually fixing his plugin cache database. For anyone else who is having problems with Predator on Windows, here is how you can apply the temporary fix:
Open your Renoise plugin cache database in the SQLite browser.
This will be located somewhere like:
%appdata%\Renoise\V2.8.0\CachedVSTs_x86.db
%appdata%\Renoise\V2.8.0\CachedVSTs_x64.db
Etc… Might be a bit different on your system, but hopefully you get the idea. You can always get to this location from within Renoise itself, via the main menu: Help > Show the Preferences Folder
Go to the “Browse Data” tab in SQLite browser and locate the entry for Predator. Hint - use the search function: DocumentIdentifier = “Predator”. Search is case sensitive! The ID (“316” in my screenshot) will also probably be different on your system.
Change the “IsSynth” flag from “0” (false) to “1” (true). (See the screenshot below if this is not clear). Just double-click the IsSynth value and an editor dialog will appear where you can replace the 0 with a 1. Click “Apply changes”, then close the dialog.
Save the database and close SQLite browser.
Launch Renoise and now the plugin should correctly be detected as a synth.
I can confirm this happens for me too. I installed the 64 bit multicover version of Predator and it has shown up in the DSP list along with the actual DSP plugin PredatorFX.
