Windows: Renoise demo will not open "load pattrns shared library file error: 126"

Help, Support & Bugs
1

Hello,
I am trying the Renoise 3.5.1 demo. I have successfully installed the demo on my main PC, but on my laptop Renoise will not open. When I open Renoise I get this error

Renoise failed to load pattrns shared library file error: 126

Renoise then quits.

If I try to uninstall Renoise I get an error that not all files could be removed. The uninstall leaves behind files in “C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources”. If I manually delete this “C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1” folder the the Installer works without error, but then when I open Renoise I get the same error “Renoise failed to load pattrns shared library file error: 126”

I have tried downloading a new installer. I have restarted and updated my PC.
I am running as an admin, Windows 11 Pro 24H2, Intel i7-8550U 16GB RAM, SSD.

The laptop is a fresh install. This is the first application I have installed other than basics like Chrome, TerraCopy, Krita via Ninite.

  • Does Renoise have something like .Net it needs?

  • Are there older demo installers somewhere I can use?

2

Error 126 means something could not be found.

Could you post your Renoise log file here or sent it in a private message to me? Maybe it contains a hint what’s going wrong here.

You’ll find the log file at %APPDATA%/Renoise / V3.5.0 or V3.5.1 / Log.txt

3
Log files

============================================================
Version : Renoise V3.5.1 (Jul 11 2025)
Date : 2025-07-12
Time : 06:45:06
OS : Windows 10 (x86_64)

CPU: Found 1 enabled unit(s) with 4 core(s) and 8 logical processor(s) per unit. 4 cores, 8 logical processors are enabled in total.

Application: Showing the splash window…
Application: Initializing the API…

IPP: Detected CPU type: 0x46

WASAPI: Found input device: Microphone Array (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
WASAPI: Found output device: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

MIDI: Initializing DirectMusic…

GraphPort: Initializing Freeimage…

System: Using 'C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources' as resource base directory…

GraphPort: Running in DPI awareness mode: 1
GraphPort: Initializing DirectX…
GraphPort: Initializing the Font Engine…

Audio Plugins: Plugin server does exists. Can use the plugin server to scan plugins…

Player: Loading pattrns rhythm library from: ‘C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources\pattrns.dll’

Exception: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Error Message: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Application: Finalizing the API…

GraphPort: Releasing DirectX…

MIDI: Shutting down DirectMusic…

Closing log file…

============================================================
Version : Renoise V3.5.1 (Jul 11 2025)
Date : 2025-07-12
Time : 06:45:55
OS : Windows 10 (x86_64)

CPU: Found 1 enabled unit(s) with 4 core(s) and 8 logical processor(s) per unit. 4 cores, 8 logical processors are enabled in total.

Application: Showing the splash window…
Application: Initializing the API…

IPP: Detected CPU type: 0x46

WASAPI: Found input device: Microphone Array (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
WASAPI: Found output device: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

MIDI: Initializing DirectMusic…

GraphPort: Initializing Freeimage…

System: Using 'C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources' as resource base directory…

GraphPort: Running in DPI awareness mode: 1
GraphPort: Initializing DirectX…
GraphPort: Initializing the Font Engine…

Audio Plugins: Plugin server does exists. Can use the plugin server to scan plugins…

Player: Loading pattrns rhythm library from: ‘C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources\pattrns.dll’

Exception: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Error Message: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

============================================================
Version : Renoise V3.5.1 (Jul 11 2025)
Date : 2025-07-12
Time : 06:50:06
OS : Windows 10 (x86_64)

CPU: Found 1 enabled unit(s) with 4 core(s) and 8 logical processor(s) per unit. 4 cores, 8 logical processors are enabled in total.

Application: Showing the splash window…
Application: Initializing the API…

IPP: Detected CPU type: 0x46

WASAPI: Found input device: Microphone Array (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
WASAPI: Found output device: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

MIDI: Initializing DirectMusic…

GraphPort: Initializing Freeimage…

System: Using 'C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources' as resource base directory…

GraphPort: Running in DPI awareness mode: 1
GraphPort: Initializing DirectX…
GraphPort: Initializing the Font Engine…

Audio Plugins: Plugin server does exists. Can use the plugin server to scan plugins…

Player: Loading pattrns rhythm library from: ‘C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources\pattrns.dll’

Exception: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Error Message: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Application: Finalizing the API…

GraphPort: Releasing DirectX…

MIDI: Shutting down DirectMusic…

Closing log file…

============================================================
Version : Renoise V3.5.1 (Jul 11 2025)
Date : 2025-07-12
Time : 06:56:36
OS : Windows 10 (x86_64)

CPU: Found 1 enabled unit(s) with 4 core(s) and 8 logical processor(s) per unit. 4 cores, 8 logical processors are enabled in total.

Application: Showing the splash window…
Application: Initializing the API…

IPP: Detected CPU type: 0x46

WASAPI: Found input device: Microphone Array (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
WASAPI: Found output device: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

MIDI: Initializing DirectMusic…

GraphPort: Initializing Freeimage…

System: Using 'C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources' as resource base directory…

GraphPort: Running in DPI awareness mode: 1
GraphPort: Initializing DirectX…
GraphPort: Initializing the Font Engine…

Audio Plugins: Plugin server does exists. Can use the plugin server to scan plugins…

Player: Loading pattrns rhythm library from: ‘C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources\pattrns.dll’

Exception: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Error Message: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

============================================================
Version : Renoise V3.5.1 (Jul 11 2025)
Date : 2025-07-12
Time : 07:37:08
OS : Windows 10 (x86_64)

CPU: Found 1 enabled unit(s) with 4 core(s) and 8 logical processor(s) per unit. 4 cores, 8 logical processors are enabled in total.

Application: Showing the splash window…
Application: Initializing the API…

IPP: Detected CPU type: 0x46

WASAPI: Found input device: Microphone Array (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
WASAPI: Found output device: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

MIDI: Initializing DirectMusic…

GraphPort: Initializing Freeimage…

System: Using 'C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources' as resource base directory…

GraphPort: Running in DPI awareness mode: 1
GraphPort: Initializing DirectX…
GraphPort: Initializing the Font Engine…

Audio Plugins: Plugin server does exists. Can use the plugin server to scan plugins…

Player: Loading pattrns rhythm library from: ‘C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources\pattrns.dll’

Exception: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Error Message: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Application: Finalizing the API…

GraphPort: Releasing DirectX…

MIDI: Shutting down DirectMusic…

Closing log file…

============================================================
Version : Renoise V3.5.1 (Jul 11 2025)
Date : 2025-07-12
Time : 07:37:47
OS : Windows 10 (x86_64)

CPU: Found 1 enabled unit(s) with 4 core(s) and 8 logical processor(s) per unit. 4 cores, 8 logical processors are enabled in total.

Application: Showing the splash window…
Application: Initializing the API…

IPP: Detected CPU type: 0x46

WASAPI: Found input device: Microphone Array (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
WASAPI: Found output device: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

MIDI: Initializing DirectMusic…

GraphPort: Initializing Freeimage…

System: Using 'C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources' as resource base directory…

GraphPort: Running in DPI awareness mode: 1
GraphPort: Initializing DirectX…
GraphPort: Initializing the Font Engine…

Audio Plugins: Plugin server does exists. Can use the plugin server to scan plugins…

Player: Loading pattrns rhythm library from: ‘C:\Program Files\Renoise 3.5.1\Resources\pattrns.dll’

Exception: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Error Message: Failed to load pattrns shared library file. Error: 126

Application: Finalizing the API…

GraphPort: Releasing DirectX…

MIDI: Shutting down DirectMusic…

Closing log file…

4

the above is the contents of the log at “AppData\Roaming\Renoise\V3.5.1\Log.txt”
Apologies if I pasted too much, reading it in the forum I see its the same thing each time I tried opening it.

5

Does this file exist? Maybe it got quarantined by some anti virus software?
Do the permissions look okay?

Could be problematic to run Renoise as admin too. Or is this a regular user with admin rights?

6

the file exists. The permissions seem ok? Does a regular user need write?

image
image524×626 19.2 KB

My user is an admin, I am not opening Renoise as Admin.

One thing I noticed is Renoise on my other PC asked to open firewall ports, but this PC that did not happen. Not sure if it i relevant.

7

My antivirus is Windows Defender, I see no quarantine in its Settings.

8

this is what I see when opening Renoise demo 3.5.1. Then it closes.
image

9

Got it now. The DLL itself isn’t the problem, but its dependencies. This is a clean Windows installation - so no other app has installed them yet.

To fix this, try installing:
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

We’ll fix that properly in Renoise an upcoming update, so that those dependencies are not necessary to install.

1 Like
10

That fixed it! Thank you.
I suspected there was some kind of dependency my other PC already had installed.