Wave Arts plug-ins are not standalone applications, instead they “plug-in” to a host audio editor application. You must run an audio editor or workstation application such as Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton Live, Cubase, Reaper, FL Studio, Tracktion, Bitwig, Media Composer, Edius, Sound Forge, Audition, Samplitude, Nuendo, WaveLab, Digital Performer, Studio One, Audacity, etc. (there are a LOT of choices). If you need to get started, you can try Audacity, which is free and runs on both Mac and Windows. Wave Arts plug-ins support popular plug-in formats including VST/AU/AAX, detailed in this FAQ entry.
The requirements may differ per plug-in (see the requirements on the individual product page for details).
Requires a host program that supports audio plug-ins. iLok licensing is supported but not required. Free products don't support iLok.
Macintosh – AU, VST3, AAX formats
Windows – VST2, VST3, AAX formats
Windows 7 and 8 likely work but are not tested. Legacy installers are available that support 32-bit formats and older MacOS.
The formats supported vary per product. Please consult the requirements section on the product page for details.
Our latest offerings support AU, VST3, and AAX on MacOS (64-bit only), and VST3 and VST2 and AAX on Windows (64-bit only).
Older products supported 32-bit architecture and DirectX, RTAS, MAS, and AAX DSP formats, but we discontinued support for these formats.
MacOS:
User presets for v7 plug-ins can be found in:
/Users/USER/Library/Application Support/Wave Arts/PLUG/PLUG Presets.xml
User presets for Power Suite 6, Master Restoration Suite 6, Tube Saturator 2, and Dialog 2 can be found in:
/Users/USER/Library/Application Support/Wave Arts/PLUG/PLUG Presets.txt
where USER is your username and PLUG is the name of the plug-in.
Windows:
User presets for v7 plug-ins and Power Suite 6, Master Restoration Suite 6, Tube Saturator 2, and Dialog 2 can be found in:
C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Wave Arts\PLUG\PLUG Presets.txt
User presets for Power Suite v5, Master Restoration Suite v5, Tube Saturator v1, and Dialog v1 can be found in:
C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Wave Arts\PLUG Presets.txt
where USER is your username and PLUG is the name of the plug-in.
To completely remove Wave Arts plug-ins from a Mac remove the relevant plug-in files from:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (AU)
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST (VST2)
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 (VST3)
/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-ins (AAX)
Legacy plug-ins supported MAS and RTAS format. You can find those in the following folders:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/MAS (MAS)
/Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins (RTAS)
If you are removing all Wave Arts plug-ins, you may also remove any “Wave Arts” folder found in /Library/Application Support and /Applications.
See this post about how to open your Library folder.
On Windows, open the Control Panel, select Programs and Features, and select the entry corresponding to the Wave Arts plug-in or bundle you want to remove. Then click the Uninstall button.
The Library folder on MacOS is where plug-ins and other important files are stored. There is a system wide /Library folder in the top level of your drive, and a per user ~/Library folder in each user's home directory, which is hidden by default. You can access either Library folder by first selecting the Finder option Go -> Go to Folder. Then enter /Library to open the system Library folder, or enter ~/Library to open your user Library folder.
When you click “Add to Cart” from any product page, the product will be added to your cart and you'll be redirected to our shopping cart page where you can revise product quantities and enter discount coupons. Clicking checkout opens the secure payment popup window, powered by FastSpring. You can use a variety of credit cards, Paypal, or Amazon Pay, as payment methods. The charge will appear on your statement as “FS wavearts”.
After purchasing a plug-in or suite you will receive an email receipt with a product serial number (looks like WA-PPP-XXXX-XXXX where PPP is a product code), which you will need to unlock the product.
Most users will have already downloaded and installed the product and used the time limited demo, but if not you can download and install the product from our downloads page. When installing you have the option to use Wave Arts licensing or PACE/iLok. If using Wave Arts then simply enter your serial into the plug-in Register option to unlock. If using iLok you'll need to fetch an activation code which can be done from your account page or the registration page.
See the FAQ entry How do I unlock/register my plug-in for more information.
You must purchase a license (a serial number) for the number of people using the plug-in, or the number of machines it is installed on, whichever number is smaller.
For example, a single user can install the plug-in on multiple different machines, but if two people are using the plugs simultaneously on different machines, you should purchase two licenses.
You can choose to use either Wave Arts licensing or Pace/iLok for copy protection with some exceptions. Our free plug-ins support Wave Arts licensing only. You may also use any combination of Wave Arts and Pace/iLok licensing for different formats or machines.
When using Wave Arts licensing, you can register the plug-in on a maximum of three machines, Mac and/or Windows. If you get an error saying that you have used up your maximum registrations, you can request more from your account page. You can also unregister an existing installation (Tools -> Unregister) which will decrement your usage count.
For Pace/iLok licensing, your redeem code will provide a single license which can be transferred to an iLok dongle or to a machine – cloud licensing is not yet supported. v6 products provide a single activation per license, v7 products provide two activations per license. You can contact us to request an additional license.
Our official policy is that plug-in sales are final once the product is registered/unlocked. If you are unhappy with your purchase please contact us.
We encourage you to try before you buy. We offer unrestricted 30-day trials for you to evaluate our plug-ins prior to purchasing.
Yes, we permit a one-time license transfer. If you are using Wave Arts licensing, you will need to remove the plug-in(s) from your computer, pass along your serial number(s) to the new user, and inform us of the new user info. Please note you cannot split up bundles into individual products when transferring licenses. If you are using Pace/iLok, you can transfer your iLok license to another user. Note that ilok.com charges $25 for the license transfer.
Yes! Students, faculty, staff and educational institutions get 50% off our regular retail prices. Please provide us with a valid ID or proof of status via email, and we will email you back a coupon link to our secure online store which will apply the discount when you make your purchase.
As proof of academic/educational status, we’ll accept any one of the following:
Yes, our e-commerce provider FastSpring requires payment of sales tax where applicable in the US, and VAT where applicable in European countries.
If you're in Europe, VAT tax will be added on top of the purchase price. Also, our e-commerce provider charges a premium rate for currency conversion. Both these factors can increase the price when purchasing from overseas.
This page summarizes information about upgrading, mostly links to other FAQ entries.
Click here to learn HOW to purchase an upgrade
The following links describe specific upgrade options to v7 products:
The following links describe upgrades from the following legacy products:
Power Suite 5 plugins - TrackPlug 5, MasterVerb 5, MultiDynamics 5, FinalPlug 5, Panorama 5
Master Restoration Suite 5 plugins - MR Noise, MR Hum, MR Click, MR Gate
Dialog 1
If you have other questions not answered above, please contact us.
We offer reduced upgrade pricing from legacy products to the latest versions, which can be discounted further during promotions.
The easiest way to purchase an upgrade is to login to your account, find the legacy product you want to upgrade, and click the "Get upgrade" button. A window will appear with an upgrade coupon and an "Add to cart" button. Clicking the "Add to cart" button will add the product and the upgrade coupon to your cart, showing you the upgrade price. From there click "Checkout" to complete purchase. You'll receive a serial for the new product.
If you can't login to your account, it's possible you haven't created a website account. Please see here.
The account page can only provide one upgrade path per product. If you don't see what you expect, please contact us for help.
Also, since the cart can only handle one coupon at a time, you can't purchase upgrades using different coupons at the same time, please purchase the upgrades in separate checkouts.
If you don't want to set up an account, you can fetch an upgrade coupon at our upgrade coupon page. Select the upgrade coupon type, enter the serial of the legacy product, and you'll get an upgrade coupon you can add to the shopping cart.
Yes, 65% off list price, in addition to any promotional discounts. In order to keep things simple, we’re offering a 65% discount to owners of Power Suite 5 plug-ins. The discount can be used to purchase Power Suite 6 or individual Power Suite 6 plug-ins (TrackPlug 6, MasterVerb 6, FinalPlug 6, MultiDynamics 6, Panorama 6).
To receive the discount, login to your account, find your v5 product, and select Get Upgrade. You can also visit our upgrade coupon page.
If you purchased a Power Suite v5 plug-in after April 1, 2018, you are entitled to a free upgrade to the same v6 plug-in. Please contact support@wavearts.com to request upgrade. Also, if you qualify for educational pricing and want an educational upgrade coupon, please contact us to request an educational upgrade.
Yes, 65% off list price, in addition to any promotional discount. In order to keep things simple, we’re offering a 65% discount to owners of Master Restoration Suite 5 plug-ins. The discount can be used to purchase Master Restoration Suite 6 or individual MR Suite 6 plug-ins (MR Noise 6, MR Hum 6, MR Click 6, MR Gate 6).
To receive the discount, login to your account, find your v5 product, and select Get Upgrade. You can also visit our upgrade coupon page.
If you purchased MR Suite 5 or any individual MR plug after Sep 1, 2018, you are entitled to a free upgrade. Please contact support@wavearts.com to request upgrade. Also, if you qualify for educational pricing and want an educational upgrade coupon, please contact us to request an educational upgrade.
Yes, 65% off list price, in addition to any promotional discounts.
To receive the discount, login to your account, find your Dialog product, and select Get Upgrade. You can also visit the Upgrade Coupon page.
If you purchased Dialog after Aug 1, 2018, you are entitled to a free upgrade. Please contact support@wavearts.com to request upgrade. Also, if you qualify for educational pricing and want an educational upgrade coupon, please contact us to request an educational upgrade.
Power Suite 7 is in development. Four of the plug-ins have been released: TrackPlug 7, Panorama 7, MultiDynamics 7, and FinalPlug 7, with MasterVerb 7 to follow.
Until Power Suite 7 is released, new purchasers of Power Suite 6 are entitled to free serials for the already released v7 plug-ins (you'll have to request v7 serials from from customer support as the Power Suite 6 serial will not unlock them). Upgrade prices for the remaining plugs are expected to be $25 each. The upgrade price from Power Suite 6 to 7 is expected to be $120, which will be the same price as upgrading the plug-ins individually.
The upgrade price from TrackPlug 6 to TrackPlug 7 is $25.
The upgrade price from TrackPlug 5 to TrackPlug 7 is $75.
If you own an individual TrackPlug license you can upgrade by logging into your account and selecting Get Upgrade on the product card for TrackPlug. If you own Power Suite, you won't have an option to upgrade to TrackPlug 7 and you'll have to use the upgrade coupon page option described next.
You can also fetch an upgrade coupon at the Upgrade Coupon page. When fetching an upgrade coupon, select the upgrade type and enter a qualifying serial. For "TrackPlug 6 to 7" upgrade enter your TrackPlug 6 or Power Suite 6 serial. For "TrackPlug 5 to 7" upgrade enter your TrackPlug 5 or Power Suite 5 serial. Then copy the coupon, navigate to the TrackPlug 7 product and add it to the cart, then paste the coupon into the cart, click Apply, and you should see the proper upgrade price.
Yes, if you purchase Power Suite 6 (or an upgrade) after the TrackPlug 7 release date (Nov 1, 2024) you may request a free TrackPlug 7 serial.
Purchasers of Power Suite 6 receive a PS6 serial which will unlock TrackPlug 6 but not TrackPlug 7. Hence you'll have to request a serial from us.
The upgrade price from MultiDynamics 6 to MultiDynamics 7 is $25.
The upgrade price from MultiDynamics 5 to MultiDynamics 7 is $75.
If you own an individual MultiDynamics license you can upgrade by logging into your account and selecting Get Upgrade on the product card for MultiDynamics . If you own Power Suite, you won't have an option to upgrade to MultiDynamics 7 and you'll have to use the upgrade coupon page option described next.
You can also fetch an upgrade coupon at the Upgrade Coupon page. When fetching an upgrade coupon, select the upgrade type and enter a qualifying serial. For "MultiDynamics 6 to 7" upgrade enter your MultiDynamics 6 or Power Suite 6 serial. For "MultiDynamics 5 to 7" upgrade enter your MultiDynamics 5 or Power Suite 5 serial. Then copy the coupon, navigate to the MultiDynamics 7 product and add it to the cart, then paste the coupon into the cart, click Apply, and you should see the proper upgrade price.
Yes, if you purchase Power Suite 6 (or an upgrade) after the MultiDynamics 7 release date (May 25, 2023) you may request a free MultiDynamics 7 serial.
Purchasers of Power Suite 6 receive a PS6 serial which will unlock MultiDynamics 6 but not MultiDynamics 7. Hence you'll have to request a serial from us.
The upgrade price from Panorama 6 to Panorama 7 is $25.
The upgrade price from Panorama 5 to Panorama 7 is $75.
If you own an individual Panorama license you can upgrade by logging into your account and selecting Get Upgrade on the product card for Panorama. If you own Power Suite, you won't have an option to upgrade to Panorama 7 and you'll have to use the upgrade coupon page option described next.
You can also fetch an upgrade coupon at the Upgrade Coupon page. When fetching an upgrade coupon, select the upgrade type and enter a qualifying serial. For "Panorama 6 to 7" upgrade enter your Panorama 6 or Power Suite 6 serial. For "Panorama 5 to 7" upgrade enter your Panorama 5 or Power Suite 5 serial. Then copy the coupon, navigate to the Panorama 7 product and add it to the cart, then paste the coupon into the cart, click Apply, and you should see the proper upgrade price.
Yes, if you purchase Power Suite 6 (or an upgrade) after the Panorama 7 release date (Dec 6, 2022) you may request a free Panorama 7 serial.
Purchasers of Power Suite 6 receive a PS6 serial which will unlock Panorama 6 but not Panorama 7. Hence you'll have to request a serial from us.
The upgrade price from FinalPlug 6 to FinalPlug 7 is $20.
The upgrade price from FinalPlug 5 to FinalPlug 7 is $60.
If you own an individual FinalPlug license you can upgrade by logging into your account and selecting Get Upgrade on the product card for FinalPlug. If you own Power Suite, you won't have an option to upgrade to FinalPlug 7 and you'll have to use the upgrade coupon page option described next.
You can also fetch an upgrade coupon at the Upgrade Coupon page. When fetching an upgrade coupon, select the upgrade type and enter a qualifying serial. For "FinalPlug 6 to 7" upgrade enter your FinalPlug 6 or Power Suite 6 serial. For "FinalPlug 5 to 7" upgrade enter your FInalPlug 5 or Power Suite 5 serial. Then copy the coupon, navigate to the FinalPlug 7 product and add it to the cart, then paste the coupon into the cart, click Apply, and you should see the proper upgrade price.
Yes, if you purchase Power Suite 6 (or an upgrade) after the FinalPlug 7 release date (Nov 7, 2023) you may request a free FinalPlug 7 serial.
Purchasers of Power Suite 6 receive a PS6 serial which will unlock FinalPlug 6 but not FinalPlug 7. Hence you'll have to request a serial from us.
We support two licensing methods – Wave Arts licensing and Pace/iLok. When installing the plug-ins you select which licensing method you wish to use. When you purchase a plug-in, you will be e-mailed a serial number (looks like WA-PPP-XXXXX-XXXXX where PPP is a product code). Use the serial number to unlock the plug-in as described below.
Wave Arts licensing
Our plug-ins use an online activation system accessed via the Tools->Register option. Simply enter your serial, name, and email address, and the plug-in will be unlocked.
If your computer is not connected to the internet you will be prompted to follow the offline activation procedure. You'll need to write down the 5-digit machine ID, visit our Product Registration page from a connected machine, and enter the serial, name, email address and machine ID. You'll then be emailed a key file. Copy the key file to the target machine, and then click Tools->Offline Register and then click “Open Key File” and select the file. The plug-in will be unlocked.
If you have purchased a plug-in suite, when you unlock any one of the plug-ins within the suite, the entire suite will be unlocked.
We provide three authorizations to unlock on up to three machines. Before decommissioning a machine, you can select Tools->Unregister to delete the license and return the authorization to the server, allowing you to register on another machine. You can also request more authorizations from your user account or just ask us.
PACE/iLok
Prior to activation, the plug-ins will allow you to start a trial by creating an iLok account. To unlock the plug-in after purchasing, go to our Product Registration page, select “iLok” licensing method, and enter your serial number. An iLok redeem code (looks like XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX) will be displayed and also emailed to you. There are two ways to redeem the code and generate a license. When opening the plug-in a dialog window will appear and give you the option to Activate the plug-in, you can paste the iLok redeem code there, and proceed to create or login to an iLok account and then transfer the license to an iLok dongle or your machine. Otherwise, go to www.ilok.com, create an iLok account, and download and install the iLok License Manager. Within the manager, under the Licenses menu, select “Redeem Activation Code” and paste your redeem code. Then transfer the license to either an iLok dongle or your machine. The plug-in will run only if it can find a license on an iLok dongle or the machine.
When purchasing a plug-in suite, the redeem code will generate multiple licenses, one per plug-in in the suite, but the licenses are grouped together.
We currently provide one iLok license redemption per serial, which can be activated onto an iLok dongle or a machine. Our v6 products provide one activation, v7 products provide two. Some users may prefer to use machine licensing and want to install on multiple machines. And sometimes a machine authorization is lost due to a disk failure. If you need more Pace/iLok activations, please ask. We do not currently support iLok Cloud.
User AccountsRemove licenses from old machine
Before decommissioning a machine, you should first remove any licenses. The procedure differs depending on whether you are using iLok licensing or Wave Arts licensing.
If using iLok licensing, and your licenses are activated to the machine, then you should remove the licenses, otherwise they will be lost. Open iLok License Manager and select your computer in the left hand pane, this will list the licenses activated to the machine. For each license, right-click on the license and select "Deactivate". This will move the license back to your iLok account. If the licenses are activated to an iLok dongle, then no action is required.
If using Wave Arts, then open each plug-in within your DAW and select Tools->Unregister. This will delete the license file on the machine and return the authorization to the registration server. If using a suite serial, then this only needs to be done once for any plug-in which is part of the suite. It's not critically important to remove the Wave Arts licenses because we give you three authorizations per serial and you can ask for more.
Move licenses to new machine
If using Wave Arts, then install the plug-in, selecting the default options, then open the plug-in within your DAW, select Tools-Register, and enter your serial, name, and email. A license file will be created on the machine.
If using iLok, install the plug-in, selecting "Pace/iLok" installation. Then open the iLok License Manager, right-click the license for the plug-in, select "Activate", and choose your new machine. This will move the license to your new machine.
You can simply log into your user account and see your products, which will be listed with serial numbers. If you haven't already created an account you can do so using the same email you used to register your products.
If you don't see products registered to an older email address, contact us and we can move them to your account.
We are happy to look up your product registrations based on your name and/or email address. Just contact us.
If you create a user account, you can login and see your registered products. It's very handy to see your products and serial numbers, request more authorizations, and get upgrade discounts.
However, a user account is not required. You can still register products from within your plug-ins or at our public registration page, and you can fetch upgrade coupons at our coupon page.
Even though you may have registered serials in the past using an email address, you don't yet have a user account until you go to the signup page and create an account. Before creating an account, you may try to login without success and then click the "forgot password" link. You will get an error "Invalid username or email." This is simply because our user account data is separate from our registration data.
Please proceed to create an account on the signup page using your preferred email address and choosing a password. Once you confirm the email and login, the account page code queries the registration data for any serials registered to the account email, and displays them. If you have serials registered to an older email address, contact us and we can migrate them to your new account.
On your account page you'll see your current profile information at the top of the page. You can change the information and click Update Profile to change your profile, but the update process currently has some quirks, see details below.
To change your First or Last name, just enter a new name and click Update Profile.
To change your email address, you must enter the new email address AND enter your current password. Even though the form shows *** as a placeholder for your password, it has not been entered into the field. After clicking Update Profile the site will send a confirmation link to your new email address, however the page does not say that an email has been sent. After clicking on the confirmation link, your email address will be updated, but again the web site will not display any message. If you login again you'll see the updated email address.
After changing your email address, you'll see any products registered to the new email address. This is because product registrations are associated with email addresses. However, products registered to your old email address will not automatically migrate to your new account. You can register them again using your new email address at our registration page or contact us to migrate them to your new address.
To change your username, enter the new username AND enter your current password, and then click Update Profile.
To change your password, you must enter your current password and the new password and click Update Profile.
Wave Arts serials look like WA-PPP-XXXXX-XXXXX where PPP is a product code and XXXXX-XXXXX are hex digits.
The product codes and the corresponding product names are listed below:
Impulse Record products start with IR- instead of WA-
Legacy products are listed below:
Years ago, before we unified our installers, we sold AAX format separately, and for those AAX products we would fulfill a 30-digit Pace/iLok redeem code. So you may have purchased an AAX format plug-in from us or a third party dealer and received a 30-digit Pace/iLok redeem code instead of a Wave Arts serial number. If you need a serial number, please contact us and request a Wave Arts serial number. Please include your Pace code with your request if you know it, or your iLok account name, or a sales receipt.
Starting with MacOS 10.15 Catalina, our older plug-ins (Power Suite v5, Master Restoration Suite v5, and Dialog v1) do not draw. The plug-ins process audio, but the graphical user interface is blank, showing a black window. This appears to be an incompatibility between the SDKs used to build our older plugs and the later SDKs used to build the DAWs. Apple is always phasing out support for legacy systems, for example, 32-bit code, and our older plug-ins depend on 32-bit code to draw the GUI. There is unfortunately no easy workaround. We have rewritten all the older plug-ins to use the JUCE framework, resulting in Power Suite 6, Master Restoration Suite 6, and Dialog 2. The are paid upgrades owing to the large effort required. See the Purchasing FAQ category for information on how to upgrade.
MacOS
This error would typically happen on MacOS if you upgraded your MacOS or migrated settings from another Mac and then tried to register your plug. MacOS changes the permissions on the Wave Arts folders preventing the plug from writing the license file.
There are several ways to fix this.
1) As of 10/26/2023, all the product installers will correct the permissions, hence you should be able to download the latest installer, re-install the plug-in, and then re-register. If you need to use a legacy version of a plug-in, the old installer may or may not fix this issue. If it doesn't fix the issue, then try the following steps.
2) Delete the "Wave Arts" folder found in "/Library/Application Support". This will delete all your existing licenses. Then re-install and re-register all of your plug-ins.
3) If you are comfortable using Terminal commands, open the Terminal and enter the following commands:
sudo chmod 777 /Library/Application\ Support/Wave\ Arts
sudo chmod 777 /Library/Application\ Support/Wave\ Arts/PLUG
Where PLUG is the name of the plug-in. Use backslashes before spaces in the plug-in name. You can type the command "ls" to list the plug-ins installed. Repeat the chmod command for all plug-ins. Then try registering again.
Windows
Some users have reported his error on Windows. We don't know why it happens, but there is a simple fix. Run your host program as Administrator and register the plug-in again. To run as Admin, first close the application, then right-click on your host application icon and select "Run as Administrator". Then open the plug-in and register, which should work. You can now close the application and launch again normally.
On MacOS, some users report an issue where a Wave Arts plug-in will register successfully, but then report that the demo has expired. The problem seems to happen after updating MacOS or after migrating from one MacOS system to another. This is the same problem as described above, but if you are using an older version, it may not report an error that it is unable to save the license file.
When we updated Tube Saturator Vintage from 1.05 to 1.06 we inadvertently introduced a breaking change that affects the internal IDs used by Pro Tools to identify AAX plug-ins. Pro Tools sessions made with TSV 1.05 will not recognize versions from 1.06 on up, you'll get the error "One or more tracks contain plug-ins that don't exist in your plug-in folder. Tube Saturator Vintage". Selecting Tube Saturator Vintage from the plug-in menu will bring up the new version, but it won't retain the settings originally saved with the session. You can find the TSV 1.05 installer in the Archive section of our downloads page.
There are a few ways to proceed:
1) Install TSV 1.05, open your sessions and save the TSV presets using Preset->Save As... from the TSV plug-in (not using Pro Tools). Then install latest version of TSV, open your sessions and create new instances of TSV and assign the proper presets from the Preset->User menu. Remove the old instances of TSV from your sessions.
2) You can hack a way to install both versions. This hasn't been tested much but seems to work. Install TSV 1.05, and rename the AAX plug-in file to "TubeSaturatorVintage_1p05.aaxplugin" for example. Then install latest version of TSV. Launch Pro Tools. You will get two identical entries called "TubeSaturatorVintage" in the plug-in menu, and strangely both of these will open the latest version. However you can open sessions with either the old version or the new version and the proper plug will open. If the TSV version is old, create a new TSV instance and migrate the settings, then delete the old version. After migrating sessions you can delete the 1.05 plug-in file.
When we updated Tube Saturator 2 from version v2.11 to v2.13 we botched the VST3 identifier on Windows causing a compatibility break from 2.11 to 2.13 and broke cross-platform compatibility between Win and Mac. This error persisted in 2.14. We've released 2.15 which restores the original Windows VST3 identifier used by 2.11 and restores cross-platform compatibility with Mac VST3 format. However, Windows projects using 2.13 and 2.14 will not recognize 2.15. We've provided 2.14 in the Archive section in case you need to revert versions.
Our v7 plug-ins are larger then their v6 counterparts, and if you have a small screen you may find that they are too big to fit in the plug-in window created by your host. If you can see the menu bar of the plug, you can reduce its size in the plug-in's Settings menu (gear icon), either under Preferences or Interface Size. However, if the plug-in menu bar is not visible these options are inaccessible. In this case you can manually edit the preferences file to reduce the interface size.
On Mac, the preference file is found in ~/Library/Application Support/Wave Arts/PLUG/PLUG Prefs.xml
where ~/Library is your user Library folder, and PLUG is the name of the plug-in.
On Windows the preference file is found in C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Wave Arts\PLUG\PLUG Prefs.xml
where USER is your login username and PLUG is the name of the plug-in.
Edit the xml file with any text editor and find the following line:
<VALUE name="InterfaceScale" val="100"/>
The value is the interface scaling in percentage, change this to say 75 to get a smaller interface at 75% size. Save the file and re-open your session and open the plug-in. It should be smaller.
Our plug-ins normally expose an "Enable" parameter, like an on/off switch. Pro Tools expects a "Bypass" parameter with the opposite sense. So our AAX format plugs create a proxy Bypass parameter and connect this to Pro Tools. However, if you have selected *both* Enable and Bypass for automation, it's easy for the two parameters to get out of sync, and then when playing back automation the plug may randomly be bypassed when you don't want it to be. Very frustrating.
The workaround is to never select both Bypass and Enable for automation at the same time. In Pro Tools it's preferable to automate only the Bypass parameter. This Issue has been fixed in Power Suite 6.14, Master Restoration Suite 6.05, Dialog 2.06, Convology XT 1.26, Tube Saturator 2.14, and Tube Saturator Vintage 1.07, where only the Bypass parameter is exposed as automatable.
After installing new AU plug-ins, you may find that Logic Pro is not using the new versions. You can force a rescan by deleting the AU cache.
In the Finder, choose Go -> Go to Folder from the menu.
Type ~/Library/Caches in the “Go to the folder” field.
Press the Go button
Remove the “com.apple.audiounits.cache” file if present
Remove the ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache folder if present
The next time you start Logic, the installed Audio Unit plug-ins will be rescanned and Logic should then startup normally.
It might be caused by the following. If on MacOS, and you install a Pace/iLok licensed plug-in and later install the Wave Arts licensed version of the same plug-in, some Pace/iLok files are left in the AAX plug-in bundle causing the digital signature check to fail, so Pro Tools refuses to load the plug-in. You can either delete the AAX plug-in and re-install, or allow Pro Tools to move the plug-in to the Unused Plug-ins folder, and then install again. As of 10/26/2023, all product installers delete the existing AAX plug-in before installing, hence this issue should no longer happen.
We’ve seen this issue using Edius 9 on Win 10 with high DPI monitors and display scaling of 150% or 200%. The plug in may not appear at all or may be offset in its display area. The fix was to change the DPI compatibility mode of Edius. Right-click on Edius, select properties. Then select the Compatibility tab, click “Change high DPI settings”, then enable “override high DPI scaling behavior” and select “System (enhanced)” mode, see image below. After doing this the plug will appear at the scaled size but without any offset.
Our Mac AU format plug-ins are not “sandbox safe” and will not open in Mac applications that require sandbox safe plug-ins. You will likely get an error like “This Audio Unit plug-in has not been updated to be Sandbox Safe and could not be opened”. Of course our plug-ins are not misbehaving in any way, they are simply opening the various needed files (preferences, presets and graphics files). In order to do this in a sandbox safe way, the plug-in requires a manifest detailing all files it needs to access. We hope to support sandboxing in a future release.
On Mac, there is a bug in Sofa2Pan 1.0.0. SofaToPan is writing HRTFs to the folder:
/Users/MacBookPro/Library/Wave Arts/PanoramaHRTFs/
But Panorama 7 is looking for them in:
/Users/MacBookPro/Library/Application Support/Wave Arts/PanoramaHRTFs/
Sofa2Pan needs to add “Application Support” to directory before conversion. This will be fixed in a future release of Sofa2Pan.
Wave Arts and Impulse Record collaborated on the development of ConvologyXT: Wave Arts wrote the plug-in, and Impulse Record provided the IRs. The product is primarily branded as an Impulse Record product, and all library purchases are done on the Impulse Record storefront. The installers and plug-in binaries are signed by Wave Arts. Wave Arts also provides the registration system, so your ConvologyXT products will be shown in your Wave Arts user account. Also if you need to register offline, you use the Wave Arts registration page.
Yes. The versions 1.03 of the Convology XT libraries support 30-day demo times. You can download these from the IR product pages on this site. You must also update the Convology XT plug-in to v1.33, found on our Downloads page.
There are many ways:
In the plug-in registration window (Tools->Register), enter your name and email address and click "Get Serial". A serial will be emailed to you. You can then copy/paste into the serial field and click OK to complete your registration.
You can "purchase" Convology XT at the Impulse Record store. The purchase is free, no payment information is required, just a name and email address. You will be emailed a Convology XT serial and links to the installers.
Alternatively, you can create a user account at wavearts.com. On your account page, under Free Products, you will find an option to fetch a serial. Click the button and a serial will be added to your account.
Also, if you purchase any Convology XT library, you can register Convology XT with the library serial and in this case a Convology XT serial is not needed.
Unfortunately, no. The IR Libraries are encrypted and only work with the Convology XT plug-in.
Convology XT Libraries are installed in the following folders:
MacOS
/Library/Application Support/Impulse Record/Convology XT Libraries
If installed on an external drive:
/Volumes/vol/Library/Application Support/Impulse Record/Convology XT Libraries
where vol is the hard drive name.
Windows
C:\ProgramData\Impulse Record\Convology XT Libraries
If installed on an external drive, replace C: with the appropriate drive letter.
User presets are stored in an XML format file in the following location:
MacOS
/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Impulse Record/Convology XT/Convology XT Presets.xml
where USERNAME is your login name. Your user Library folder may be hidden, in which case you can select the “Go To Folder” option in the Go menu of the Finder, enter “~/Library”, and click OK.
Windows
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Impulse Record\Convology XT\Convology XT Presets.xml
where USERNAME is your login name. AppData may be hidden; use the explorer view options to show system files.
MacOS
Check your CVXT version in Settings->About. There was a bug in v1.32 where the library license directory was not being created. Installing v1.33 or higher should fix this issue.
This error can also occur after upgrading your MacOS or migrating settings. MacOS apparently changes the permissions in the folders where ConvologyXT stores the license file, preventing ConvologyXT from writing the license. There are two possible fixes.
1. Delete the folder “/Library/Application Support/Impulse Record”, then reinstall the plug-in and libraries, and register the plug-in and libraries.
2. If you are comfortable using Terminal commands, open the Terminal and enter the following commands:
sudo chmod 777 /Library/Application\ Support/Impulse\ Record
sudo chmod 777 /Library/Application\ Support/Impulse\ Record/Convology\ XT
The sudo commands will prompt you for your password. After running these commands, try registering again with your CVXT serial.
If you are registering using a library serial, you’ll need to set the permissions on the following folder:
sudo chmod 777 /Library/Application\ Support/Impulse\ Record/LIBRARY
where LIBRARY is the name of the library being registered.
Windows
Check your CVXT version in Settings->About. There was a bug in v1.32 where the license directory was not being created. Installing v1.33 or higher should fix this issue.
If that doesn't fix it, it could be a permissions issue. Run your host program as Administrator and register the plug-in again. To run as Admin, first close the application, then right-click on your host application icon and select "Run as Administrator". Then open the plug-in and register, which should work. You can now close the application and launch again normally.
You may want to automate the IR file, say if you are doing post-production work and you want to simulate the sound of reverb changing as an actor moves from one space to another. Unfortunately this is not currently possible. All of Convology XT's parameters that have numerical values can be automated, but the IR filename is a special parameter, it is a string containing the pathname of the IR file. The IR file is saved with your session data, and saved in presets, but it is not available as an automatable parameter. For example, if you are using snapshot automation in Pro Tools, the snapshot will record all the parameters except the IR filename.
We plan to address this issue in a future release.
On Windows, the Convology XT installer provides VST(2), VST3, and AAX formats, both 32-bit and 64-bit. AAX is for Pro Tools users. Reaper users will need either VST2 or VST3. Unless you are using a really old system, it's unlikely you'll need 32-bit format, instructions for that are found below.
The easiest way to get up and running is to install VST3 and point Reaper to scan the 64-bit VST3 directory.
In the installer, make sure VST3 format is selected:
In Reaper, Select Options->Preferences, and then select the VST settings:
64-bit VST3 effects are installed to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3", so you must add this to the VST path list if it is not already there. Clicking "Edit path list..." -> "Add System VST paths" will automatically add this directory to the path list. Then click Re-scan -> Re-scan VST paths for new/modified plug-ins.
Convology XT will now show up in the list of VST3 plug-ins:
If your version of Reaper doesn't support VST3, you can use VST2 format. In this case, make sure the VST2 option is selected when installing. By default, the installer will write the 64-bit VST2 format plug-in to "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Vstplugins" as shown below:
Add this directory to the VST path list and rescan.
Alternatively, when installing, you can select the following directory for 64-bit VST2: "C:\Program Files\Vstplugins" which corresponds to one of Reaper's "System VST paths".
If you are using a 32-bit version of Reaper, follow the above directions, but instead of "Program Files", use "Program Files (x86)".
On Windows, open the Control Panel, select Programs and Features, and select the entry corresponding to the ConvologyXT plug-in or library you with to uninstall. Then click the Uninstall button.
To completely remove the ConvologyXT plug-in from a Mac remove the ConvologyXT plug-in files from:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (AU)
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST (VST2)
/Library/Application Support/Plug-Ins/VST3 (VST3)
/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-ins (AAX)
You may also remove any “Impulse Record” folder found in /Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support. This will delete the installed ConvologyXT libraries, user manual, presets and licenses.
Uninstall Library
To uninstall a Convology XT Library, remove the folder /Library/Application Support/Impulse Record/Convology XT Libraries/LIBRARY, where LIBRARY is the name of the library you wish to remove.
See this post about how to open the Library folder on MacOS.
Click the links below to see a list of presets in each of the Convology XT library families:
When you use the File Browser to open a third-party IR file, ConvologyXT will look for an associated image for display in the Image panel. If the IR file is named "MyRoom.wav", and the plug-in finds an image file named "MyRoom.jpg" in the same directory, it will display that image in the Image panel when the preset is loaded. JPG and PNG image formats are both supported. The same image file can be used for multiple IR files if the image filename matches the start of the IR filename. For example, the IR files "MyRoom front.wav" and MyRoom rear.wav" would also use the "MyRoom.jpg" if a closer matching name was not found. The file browser searches for matching images in the IR directory, and also the subdirectories “images”, “00 DEFAULT IMAGES”, “00 DEFAULT PICTURES”, and if not found repeats the search up two parent directories.
There are two known reasons for this issue:
1) On MacOS, you may run into the following issue if you are storing your user IRs on an external drive. When you first navigate to the files, MacOS will popup a window asking for permission for your host DAW to access external volumes, you click OK, navigate to your IRs and save a preset or session, and everything works. Later, when you relaunch your DAW and open the session, you find the IR can't be loaded. This is because the DAW didn't retain permission to access the external volume. One workaround is to grant the DAW full disk access. Go to MacOS Settings, Privacy & Security, Full Disk Access, and enable this for your DAW. Then launch your DAW, open the session, and Convology XT should be able to open the IR.
2) You've set the "custom install directory" preference to point to the directory (or a parent directory) where you are storing your user IR files. The custom install directory mechanism breaks preset lookup for user IR files stored in the custom directory or a sub-directory. Until this is fixed, there are two solutions: a) move the user IR files elsewhere, or b) delete the custom install directory preference by selecting the text, clicking delete, and saving the preferences by clicking OK. The custom install directory mechanism is rarely needed.
When debugging difficult issues, a log file may be useful. By default log files are not created but they can be enabled as follows.
Select Tools->Preferences while holding down the Alt key on Windows, Option key on Mac. The preferences window will open with an option for Debug Level. Select “Debug” and then click OK to close the Preferences window. Then close ConvologyXT and close your session. The next time a session with ConvologyXT is opened, a log file will be created. The log file can be found as follows:
MacOS
/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Impulse Record/Convology XT/Convology XT log.txt
where USERNAME is your login name. Your user Library folder may be hidden, in which case you can select the “Go To Folder” option in the Go menu of the Finder, enter “~/Library”, and click OK.
Windows
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Impulse Record\Convology XT\Convology XT log.txt
where USERNAME is your login name. AppData may be hidden; use the explorer view options to show system files.
IMPORTANT: after consulting the log file you should revert the setting to disable logging, or only log errors. Logging at the debug or detailed level can really slow down the plug-in, causing problems due to excessive CPU load.
If you want to install the libraries to an external drive, simply select the external drive as the installation location when running the installer. The library installer always installs to a standard location. When you specify an external drive, it will install the libraries to the same standard path on the external drive. The plug-in scans the standard install location on all drives.
If you don't want to use the standard install location, you can set up a custom install folder. Most users will NOT need to use the custom install feature. The basic idea is to set up the custom folder location in the Convology XT preferences setting, and then move the library folders to the custom folder. The only tricky bit is copying the correct folders. On the system drive there are similarly named folders one level up that hold licensing info for the libraries and you don’t want to move those.
1) Create the target directory where you want the libraries to live.
2) Set this as the custom install directory in the preferences.
3) Move the libraries to this directory. Only move the directories that are found in the “Convology XT Libraries” directory.
4) If you have copies of the libraries on cloned external drives in the “Convology XT Libraries” directory, remove those to prevent them from being scanned.
5) Close and re-open the plug, it should find the libraries in the custom directory.
If you are using MacOS prior to 10.11, you must use ConvologyXT 1.18 which should work on MacOS from 10.8.
Links to v1.18 installers are found below:
Our v6 plug-ins do not replace v5 plug-ins, instead they will co-exist on the same system. The same also applies to Dialog 2 vis-a-vis Dialog 1. To replace an older v5 plug-in in a DAW session, the user should do the following procedure.
To completely remove v5 Wave Arts plug-ins from a Mac remove the relevant plug-in files from:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (AU) /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST (VST2) /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-ins (AAX) /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/MAS (MAS) /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins (RTAS)
If you are removing all Wave Arts plug-ins, you may also remove any “Wave Arts” folder found in /Library/Application Support and /Applications.
Our v5 plug-ins will not draw properly on recent MacOS systems, and the GUI appears all black. In this case an upgrade to v6 is necessary. But how can one export presets from the v5 plug-ins?
The plug-is still operational, and will respond to clicks on the UI. You can click around where the preset button would normally appear and get the preset popup menu to appear, as shown in the figure below. Select Save As… to save the current preset.
This is not an issue with our latest releases, because only 64-bit versions are installed on Mac, and both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are installed automatically on Windows.
The following applies to our legacy plug-ins (PS5, MRS5, DLG1), whose installers may offer the choice of 32-bit or 64-bit. On Mac OS, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are installed automatically. On Windows the installer gives you the option to install either or both versions. When in doubt you should install both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. 64-bit versions are needed only if you are running a 64-bit host application. If you are running a 32-bit application on a 64-bit OS then you would still use the 32-bit versions.
Our older v5 plug-ins support Wave Arts licensing using key codes and iLok licensing.
Wave Arts licensingIf you have purchased a plug-in suite, when you unlock any one of the plug-ins within the suite, the entire suite will be unlocked.
We provide three registrations to unlock on up to three machines. If you need more when you decommission old machines, please ask.
PACE/iLok
Prior to activation, the plug-ins will allow you to start a trial by creating an iLok account. To unlock the plug-in after purchasing, go to our Product Registration page, select “iLok”, and enter your serial number. An iLok redeem code (looks like XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX) will be displayed and also emailed to you. There are two ways to redeem the code and generate a license. When opening the plug-in a dialog window will appear and give you the option to Activate the plug-in, you can paste the iLok redeem code there, and proceed to create or login to an iLok account and then transfer the license to an iLok dongle or your machine. Otherwise, go to www.ilok.com, create an iLok account, and download and install the iLok License Manager. Within the manager, under the Licenses menu, select “Redeem Activation Code” and paste your redeem code. Then transfer the license to either an iLok dongle or your machine. The plug-in will run only if it can find a license on an iLok dongle or the machine.
When purchasing a plug-in suite, the redeem code will generate multiple licenses, one per plug-in in the suite, but the licenses are grouped together.
We currently provide one iLok license redemption per serial, which can be activated onto an iLok dongle or a machine. Some users may prefer to use machine licensing and want to install on multiple machines. And sometimes a machine authorization is lost due to a disk failure. If you need more iLok activations, please ask. We do not currently support iLok Cloud.
Your Machine ID is a unique 5-digit identification number our plug-ins generate based on properties of your computer. Our key code system uses the Machine ID and the product serial number to generate a key code that will unlock the plug-ins on your specific computer. The Machine ID is NOT used for PACE/iLok licenses (you will redeem a PACE code instead).
To find your Machine ID:
Open the plug-in within a host application, click on the Tools button inside the plug-in window and select the “About…” item:
This will show the About box displaying information about your plug-in including the Machine ID, for example:
On Mac OS X and Windows systems, if your computer has Ethernet, the Machine ID is based on your hardware Ethernet MAC address. Therefore you should not have to re-register your plug-ins if you update your operating system or reformat your hard drive.
On Windows systems, changing the network configuration (say enabling/disabling VPN) can sometimes result in your Machine ID changing. If this happens, you can get a keycode for the new Machine ID on our Register page and the plug-in should stay registered, even if your system alternates between Machine IDs. Contact us if you need further assistance such as additional keycodes.
A document containing consolidated version history for legacy plugs can be found here.
