How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper
- How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper Without
- How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper Free
- How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper 2
- How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper On Youtube
Apr 27, 2016 I want to install the Kontakt 5 Player to use as a VST plugin with my DAW (Sonar). I just downloaded and started the install for NI Kontakt 5 Player version 5.5.2. A couple clicks into the install dialog it shows a dropdown that offers the 'Basic Installation' (which is the default standalone), and right under it selections for 'VST Plugin'.
- REAPER supports VST plug-ins (up to version 2.4 as well as version 3, though this document only applies to version 2.x). VST is a standard defined by Steinberg Media Technologies GMBH. To get the VST SDK (which you will need to implement VST plug-ins), you will need to download it from Steinberg, as we cannot distribute it.
- Feb 16, 2016 The plugin installation process isn't exactly streamlined. Learn how to add VSTs and add ons inside of Cockos REAPER. RealHomeRecording.com social media link.
- Jan 08, 2020 How to Use Waves Plugins when Using a Custom VST Folder. Last updated on: 1/8/2020 8:58:23 AM. All Waves plugins are installed to a folder named 'Plug-Ins V11' (or the version you own), which is inside the Waves folder, located on your system hard drive. These files should not be moved. Instead, a WaveShell is placed in your host application's plugins folder.
Oct 28, 2019 How to Find Your Plugins in REAPER. Go to Plug-ins VST. Under “VST Plugin Path,” make sure that the following path is listed (if not, add it). First thing you need to do, after a purchase, is to download a proper plugin format for an operating system and audio editor that you use. We have packages for Windows and Macintosh OS, and plugin format VST, VST3, AU and AAX. But some do support VST too. Click Browse and Save. Enter the location where you have.
Guest post by Brandon S. Hire of The Noise Floor. Brandon recently went hell with getting his Waves VST3 plugins all into REAPER. He got through it and I asked him to share the experience to help others in the same situation. Any clues to solving problems like this are gold.
Waves recently announced a new subscription plan which allows users to subscribe to their Silver and Mercury bundles. I decided to give this a try and download the Mercury Bundle. As a long time REAPER user and long time Waves user, I didn’t anticipate any problems.
To put it bluntly, I had problems. But the problems were neither the fault of Waves or of Cockos. The folks at Waves’ tech support team were awesome at helping me figure out the problem, and I want to document the issue here in case any of you are experiencing something similar.
Note that I’m not advising you to take these steps yourselves. If you’re having issues, there may be other factors that are causing your issues. Your best bet is to contact support at Waves or Cockos and see if you can get assistance with the issue. With that being said, here’s what happened:
To make a long story short, I noticed that about half of the Mercury bundle plugins weren’t showing up in VST3 format in REAPER. The same plugs would show up in VST and AU formats, which indicated that the plugins were in fact installed on the system. So I decided to clear the cache in the plugins preferences and rescan the plugins folder.
As it scanned the VST3 plugins from Waves, it stalled at Greg Wells MixCentric. Then REAPER flat out crashed. When I re-launched REAPER, there was still no sign of the missing VST3 plugins, and MixCentric was one of them.
So I contacted Waves support. After trying a couple of things, we were able to remedy the problem with a clean install. This required that I go through a few steps to uninstall everything Waves related on my system, and then allow only the newest versions of everything to be installed by Waves Central. The whole process took a couple of hours, but by the end of it all I was back up and running. When I loaded REAPER again, I cleared the cache and re-scanned again. This time there was no crash, and at the end of the scan I had all of the missing plugins.
How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper Without

Waves Tech Support Representative
- Quit all audio related software.
- Launch Waves Central and login. Choose: Install->Uninstall Products (at the top).
- Choose All Waves plugins V9 click ‘Uninstall‘.
- Once the uninstall is finished – quit Waves Central.
- Quit all the audio related software on your Mac.
- Please use the Waves uninstaller to remove all the Waves software from your computer, located in Applications > Waves > Utilities > Waves uninstaller and check “Remove All” to remove also the old versions. (If not available skip to the next step)
- Delete “Waves” folder located in your Applications folder
- Go to the following locations and delete any WaveShell file/s of any version number found:
- HD > Library > Audio > Plug-ins > Components
- HD > Library > Audio > Plug-ins > VST
- HD > Library > Audio > Plug-ins > VST3
- HD > Library > Application Support > Avid > Audio > Plug-Ins*
- HD > Library > Application Support > Digidesign > Plug-ins*
* This location is only present if Protools is installed
- Delete the “Waves Preferences” folder located at HD > Users > Current user > Library > Preferences (this folder is accessed by going to the Go menu and holding down the Altoption key. This will reveal the Library option)
- Delete the folder “Waves” located at HD > Current User > Library > Caches (this folder is accessed by opening the Go menu and holding down the [Alt/Option] key. This will reveal the Library option)
- Go to Mac HD > Library > Application Support and delete the “Waves” and “Waves Audio” folders.
- Download the latest version of Waves Central from this direct linkand install it on your computer.
- Follow the instructions on theInstalling your Waves products and demos article on our support page in order to reinstall your activated products.
As a long-time waves user, I’ve been slowly accumulating a collection of plugs prior to this subscription being available. That means I’ve been installing them intermittently over the last two years on this machine, and there have been updates since then. Those updates most likely were conflicting with previous files I’d installed, causing some to go missing and others to trigger a system crash. That’s why performing a clean install of everything worked. There was no longer old stuff mucking up the works and conflicting with the new stuff.
As mentioned above, if you’re having an issue with the new subscription working properly in REAPER, you should be certain that you’re using the VST3 version of the plugin in question. If it didn’t show up, a clean install may be the answer. I would do this with Waves tech support, as there may be further issues. Now that I’m up and running with the supported VST3 plugins, everything is running exactly as it should. I couldn’t be happier.
Thanks to Brandon for writing this up and sharing the info.
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The Export Configuration dialogue. From here you can save all your hard-won customisation efforts to use again in your new portable installation.
Unlike most DAWs, Reaper can be run from an external drive without leaving a trace on the host machine!
Boiled down to its simplest definition, a portable application is one that can be run without being installed on or modifying the host system. Many applications, on both Windows and OS X, leave a trail of file dependencies, libraries, registry entries, configuration files, plug-ins and other binary detritus all over your system drive. A portable install reins in all of these assets and keeps them within its own folder structure so that it can be run without affecting or relying on any external files.
Reaper only leaves fairly shallow digital footprints on your system, but it does place things like configuration files, track templates, plug-in settings and so on in the user folder by default. (You can find this folder easily in Reaper by going to the Options menu and selecting ‘Show REAPER resource path in explorer/finder’.) But unlike many other digital audio workstations, Reaper is designed in such a way that you can also install it very easily as a portable application. There are a few things to be mindful of if you’re looking to get the best results, but before we get into the how, let’s consider the why.
Portability
Calling it a ‘portable app’ tends to suggest that you’ll be taking it somewhere — it’s right there in the name — and this is indeed a popular use for such software. Not every studio you visit is guaranteed to have Reaper installed, and while Reaper’s famously tiny download makes installing it a relatively simple affair, some people are understandably reluctant to let guests instal new software on their precious studio machines. In any case, you’d still be left with a ‘vanilla’ installation, lacking any custom themes, keyboard shortcuts or actions sets you might have set up on your main system.
A USB drive with a portable version of Reaper ‘installed’ means you can bring your fully customised and configured recording and editing environment along in your pocket. Install it on sufficiently speedy storage and you may even be able to run your whole multitrack session from the same drive. As long as your host computer supports ASIO or Core Audio you’re in business. When you leave and take the USB drive with you, then, like the perfect crime, you’ll leave absolutely no trace on the host system.
Windows users have it easy when it comes to portable installs. Just check the ‘Portable install’ box and it’s all taken care of. The default path is C:Reaper, as you can see in this screenshot, but you can choose to install it anywhere you like.
Sandboxing
A portable installation also allows you to set up what’s known as a ‘sandbox’ — a safe, isolated area in which to try out configuration options or new software versions without jeopardising your primary installation. Cockos run an open alpha/beta testing program on their online forums, with access to experimental builds as they’re being developed. It’s a great way to help steer the development of the program, as well as gain early access to new features and tweaks before they hit the regular release schedule. In practice I’ve always found these alpha versions to be extremely stable, but occasional pre-release versions have been known to temporarily break existing functionality, or create RPP files that aren’t entirely compatible with earlier versions. With this risk in mind, a portable install allows you to mess around with new features without risking the stability of your primary working installation. This version doesn’t even have to be on an external drive — it can just as easily go in a folder of your choosing on your system drive. Somewhere like Applications/Reaper Portable (OS X) or Program Files/Reaper Portable (Windows) will keeps your test version neatly cordoned off.
Side By Side
A less orthodox use for a portable Reaper installation is to run two independent Reaper versions side by side in a master/slave configuration, with software MIDI and audio links between them. OS X has its own IAC implementation for linking MIDI applications, and you can use the third-party Soundflower driver (https://rogueamoeba.com/freebies/soundflower) for routing audio back into the master. On a PC you’ll need a virtual MIDI driver such as the free virtualMIDI (www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/virtualmidi.html) and Cockos’ own ReaRoute can deliver the audio. I use this method to host large sample libraries in a portable ‘slave’ version of Reaper. Plogue Bidule used to be the go-to software for this task, and many media composers now use Vienna Ensemble Pro to achieve similar results. The latter definitely has its advantages, but if your master/slave requirements are relatively modest, a Reaper portable slave can get the job done very effectively with no additional outlay.
Why bother? Well, it takes quite a few minutes to load the several gigabytes of multi-sampled instruments in my template, and over the course of the typical working day I’ll often switch back and forth between projects dozens of times. It doesn’t take long for those minutes to add up to hours — a huge waste of time. Historically I’ve used project load time as an excuse to get up and get a hot drink, but as instruments and templates have become larger, this has become an increasing time suck. There are only so many cups of coffee you can make! With the resource-heavy template instead hosted in a portable Reaper slave, I just open it up once at the start of each working day. Jumping between projects in the ‘master’ version then only takes a few seconds — it sometimes saves me hours in a day, not to mention the frustration at having to wait. When combined with Reaper’s ‘Project in Project’ feature (I’ll cover that another time) it forms a formidable music-for-picture setup.
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Master and portable slave versions of Reaper running side by side. Note the use of an alternate theme on the slave version, which makes it easier to differentiate between the two instances.
Setting Up
When it comes to creating your portable Reaper installation, Windows users have it super easy: just download and run the latest installer (http://reaperaudio.com/download.php), select the ‘Portable Install’ tickbox on the location dialogue, and nominate a location to install the portable version. You can use an external drive if you want to travel with your installation, but otherwise just select any sensible location on your hard drive or SSD.
On OS X it’s slightly more fiddly but still relatively simple. Download and open the latest installer as usual but, instead of dragging the Reaper app to your Applications folder, copy it to wherever you’d like your portable version installed. Don’t run it yet, as there’s one more step. Open up TextEdit, save a blank plain text file into that same folder, then rename it ‘Reaper.INI’, being sure to remove the .TXT suffix. Now run the Reaper application; the folder will populate with all the subfolders required for the portable install and you’re up and running!
How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper Free
Save & Restore
Following the simple steps above will get you a completely stock portable Reaper install. This may be all you need, but you may well have created some custom keyboard shortcuts, track templates, custom actions and other modifications that you’d like to include in your portable installation. You could manually track down the various folders where these configurations live but, thankfully, Reaper offers a handy way to export all these assets and more into a single ZIP file, which can be imported.
Working in your primary Reaper installation, open the Preferences panel, select General and press the Export Configuration button. You’ll be presented with a series of tickboxes. Choose which portions of your configuration you’d like to export, hit ‘Save’ and select the folder you’d like to export to. By default it’ll use the ‘configuration’ folder within the default Reaper user path, but you can put it anywhere you like — just don’t forget where, as you’ll need to know this for the next step!
Now close down your primary installation and open up your shiny new portable version. Once again go to Preferences/General, and this time select Import Configuration. Then choose the file you saved in the previous step. It’ll give you an opportunity to double check which configuration settings you’d like to import, and that’s handy if you only want to incorporate specific parts of your previous installation. After a restart, your portable installation should be fully synchronised with your ‘standard’ one.
How Do I Save Downloaded Vst Packages To Reaper 2
What About Plug-ins?
Unfortunately, not all plug-ins are portable-friendly. After all, they’re just little applications running within your DAW, and as such they can be almost as varied as the host software in terms of where they decide to put their files. But many plug-ins will work quite nicely in a portable context. As a rule of thumb, VST plug-ins that come distributed as a bare DLL (Windows) or VST file (OS X) are more likely to work, whereas those that have libraries of content, or which rely on copy protection schemes, may not be portable-friendly. You may need to use a little trial and error to see which plug-ins will successfully move around along with your portable install.
On Windows, just copy the VST files into the Plug-ins/FX subfolder of your portable installation Reaper folder. On OS X it’s a tiny bit more complex: right-click (or control-click) on the Reaper application icon in your portable folder, select ‘Show Package Contents’ and open the ‘Contents’ folder. Then you can navigate to Plug-ins/FX and place the files. The next time you launch Reaper the effects should show up in your plug-ins list.