Waves L3 Multi- & Ultramaximizer V16 can't be added, but visible

NickHarvey wrote on 9/19/2025, 1:51 AM

I have newly installed the WAVES L3 Multimaximizer/Ultramaximizer Plugin from Waves (V16) and it works perfectly fine in Ableton LIVE. In ACID Pro 11, i can see the plugin and even select it in an audio track, tough when clicking on "Hinzufügen" (i use ACID in german, guess it's "add to chain" or something in english), the plugin is not added to the chain. Other Waves plugins i can add (e.g. H-Reverb, or SoundShifter).

What i did so far:
- De-installed all Waves V16 plugins (the only V16 i have is the L3)
- Re-installed the plugin
- Still won't work

My Version: ACID Pro 11.0.2 (Build 21)

Anyone have a solution to this?

Thanks!

Comments

SP. wrote on 9/19/2025, 5:14 AM

@NickHarvey My guess is, that Acid 11 is simply incompatible. It wasn't updated for years and Waves plugins have the odd peculiarity that they are only officially compatible with DAWs listed on the Waves website. They can work with other DAWs, but that isn't guaranteed. I don't know why Waves doesn't make their plugins universally compatible with all VST Interfaces, but for some reason their plugins don't seem to follow the VST standard correctly.

You might get around this problem by using another plugin to load Waves plugins, for example Plogue Bidule.

NickHarvey wrote on 9/19/2025, 5:34 AM

Thanks for that. Its weird because it works in Acid 9, but not in 11. 🤔

SP. wrote on 9/19/2025, 7:34 AM

@NickHarvey You can start Acid while holding CTRL and SHIFT. This will show a small window which will allow you to reset the program settings to its default. Maybe this will reset the VST list and let you load the Waves plugins, but I'm not sure.

dray4co wrote on 9/20/2025, 4:00 AM

@NickHarvey, @SP.

Waves 16 plug-ins (including L3 Multimaximizer/Ultramaximizer) open in Acid Pro 11 (11.0.2 - Build 21) for me, along with all other plug-ins I have installed.

I have updated the four / six audio_plugin_*_server* files in the program directory, so this maybe the solution, as suggested in another post.

I originally copied the files from Vegas 22 and SF Pro 18, but both crashed Acid for me on start. So I think I used the files from a recent Music Maker (trial) in the end. These worked after a force rebuild plugins. If ACID 9 works you could try copying the files from there. Keep a backup of the original files.

Vegas, SF Pro, most SF Audio Studio, ACID and Music Maker seem to use the SF VST interface so some recent versions of these should work (whereas SF Audio Studio 12.6 and SF ACL4 appear to use the Samplitude VST interface).

NickHarvey wrote on 9/22/2025, 2:08 PM

Hi, thanks for your ideas guys. Very kind of you!

I tried what SP suggested; this didn't help.

dray4co: your suggestion i'm not sure if i'm wrong but on the folder in ACID 9 i only have 4 files, while in ACID 11 i have 6 files (the 2 files i have here which do not appear in the 9 folder are: audio_plugin_scan_server_vst3.exe and audio_plugin_scan_server_vst3_x64.exe. So do you suggest, that i take the 4 from Acid 9 and replace the according 4 in acid 11 on the same folder and leave the 2 extra files in the Acid 11 folder, as is, or should i delete all 6 files and only replace it with the 4 from acid 9 ?

Sorry if i didn't get that straight right in the beginning... a bit new to this since i never really had issues like that...

Thanks so much for your help - much appreciated!

dray4co wrote on 9/22/2025, 4:35 PM

@NickHarvey

That seems a bit odd. I thought ACID 9 supported VST3 plugins, and WaveShell 16 is only available as a VST3 - 64 bit plugin I understand (this loads all the Waves plugins in v16).

I only have WaveShell1-VST3 16.0_x64.vst3 in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 folder. I don't have any Waves files in any other VST paths (Program Files [64 bit] or Program Files(x86) [32 bit]). I assume that this requires the audio_plugin_scan_server_vst3_x64.exe file (VST3 - 64 bit) to load. Hence, I am surprised any Waves 16 plugins open in ACID 9 if this file is missing. Do you have any other versions of Waves plugins still installed?

In any case, I would download and install the trial version of MM2026 or the free MM2024 that I think is still available to obtain updated files. I suspect that you need to update all four of the audio_plugin*vst*.exe files. I think that replacing the two files without vst in the filename is optional. Just ensure that you rename or move the originals somewhere safe so that you can 'undo' the changes if required.

SP. wrote on 9/22/2025, 4:59 PM

@NickHarvey It might be easier to install the demo version of Sound Forge Pro 18 and use the audio_plugin_scan_server exe files from that. It's newer than Acid 11 and it is made by the same developer team.