VST3 instruments/effects not appearing

[oiwad (tkc)]

[Edit: originally noticed with Reason 11 but it’s apparent for other VST3 plugins also]

Description:

I’ve just installed Renoise 3.3 and several VST3 instruments/effects (including: Reason 11, Dexed, and Ozone9 Elements) aren’t appearing in VST instruments nor effects.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to plugin view (or DSP pane)
2. Open list of instruments (or DSP effects)
3. Search for Reason/Dexed/Ozone

Expected results:

Listed VST3 plugins appear.

Actual results:

Listed VST3 plugins VST3 plugins do not appear.

Extras:

Due diligence:

• confirmed VSTs in correct directory
• rescanned VST directory
• removed/re-added VST directory
• ensured that Enable VST3 plugins is ticked
• tested that instruments/effects work in another DAW (Reaper)
• definitely in Renoise 3.3 (just in case)

Possibly useful:

• after re-scanning, status bar indicates “Found ‘1’ VST3 effects and ‘0’ VST instruments”
• the detected VST3 effect is Izotope Vocal Doubler

[oiwad (tkc)]

Some relevant logs (let me know if a complete log would be useful):

RemoteAudioPlugin: Instantiating 'H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.Audiomatic\Audiomatic32.dll'...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Creating pipes...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Launching plugin server process...

System: Launching Process: "C:/Program Files/Renoise 3.3.0/Resources/AudioPluginServer32.exe" 263624 C:/Users/tkc/AppData/Local/Temp/Renoise-0-263624/PipeMemory-52 RNS_PipeTrigger-263624-52 RNS_PipeWait-263624-52 C:/Users/tkc/AppData/Local/Temp/Renoise-0-263624/PipeMemory-53 RNS_PipeTrigger-263624-53 RNS_PipeWait-263624-53 --dpiawareness 1

RemoteAudioPlugin: Connecting to the server...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Creating server thread...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Creating plugin instance in the server...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Releasing 'H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.Audiomatic\Audiomatic32.dll'...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Stopping server thread...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Shutting down server process...
RemoteAudioPlugin: Disconnecting pipes...

VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.Audiomatic\Audiomatic64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.BeatMap\BeatMap64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.ChannelDynamics\ChannelDynamics64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.ChannelEQ\ChannelEQ64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.DMFC\DMFC64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.Europa\Europa64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.Grain\Grain64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\HIDLib.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\iZotope\iZOzone9Elements.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\iZotope\iZVocalDoubler.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.MasterCompressor\MasterCompressor64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.Monotone\Monotone64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)
VstPlugs: Trying to instantiate H:\production\audio\vst\Reason Rack Plugin.vst3\Contents\x86_64-win\Embedded\se.propellerheads.NoteEcho\NoteEcho64.dll
VstPlugs: Instantiate FAILED (DLL is no VST Plug)

[oiwad (tkc)]

Okay, following some advice I found that moving the VST3 plugins to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 resolves the issue.

Is this expected behaviour? Will it be possible to consolidate my VST3s in future?

[TheDamnChicken]

This is expected behavoir:

THis is directly from Steinberg: https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/115000177084-VST-plug-in-locations-on-Windows

I have no idea why it is like this though.

[oiwad (tkc)]

Yeah, was just made aware of that Steinberg policy. Weird one. In any case, issue resolved!

[retrothruster (Joonas Mäkilä)]

Nice, I will have to reinstall every plugin I have, and there are lots, what a stupid policy.

[oiwad (tkc)]

I was able to just copy the VST files directly across, you should be able to avoid any nasty reinstalls.

[retrothruster (Joonas Mäkilä)]

But it’s quite hard when There’s a ton of them in the same folder mixed with vst’s and not everything is named vst3

[oiwad (tkc)]

Yeah, I just searched the parent for *.vst3 and moved everything but I didn’t have much in there.

Someone suggested that I symlink the directory to keep everything in one place, maybe consider that?

[Lockdown (Juri Nello)]

You can try hard linking your vst3 folders instead of copying the plug-ins. This should work in most cases. Use the cmd command (running as admin)
and the mklink /J or /D command like explained here.

The policy thing is however rather related to match the requirements of MS.
They want all developers to use the systems given standard architecture for their apps. This is nasty, especially when you`re dealing with a small SSD for your OS . Theres a complex tutorial on YT how to customize your Windows for your use case via regedit. I don’t link it here, because one error in typing will force you to reinstall Windows from the first scratch.

[Jonas (Djeroek)]

Fyi; besides not setting the correct path for vst3, in windows 10 I had an issue with vst3 not appearing after scanning because of missing Microsoft visual C++ runtime packages.

Plugins that initially didn’t work; https://github.com/ryukau/VSTPlugins/releases

But did after installing; https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
from; https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

[Un0r1g1n4l-3n717y]

This got me really confused as well, no clue why Steinberg this was a good idea, but nevermind. Thankfully I don’t have lots of folders and VSTs to move.