Plugin channel count issue?

WaveLab
#1

I have several plugins that no longer work in WaveLab 9.5.20 - I just get the “serious error” message when I try to play. They certainly worked in 9, but I can’t recall if I’ve used them in 9.5.

What these plugins have in common is that they all have four inputs but many more than 4 outputs. I only wish to use the first four outputs, and in the past WaveLab has happily worked connecting the first four of them in a four-channel montage.

Has there been a change making the matching of output channels stricter? Because if so, I’d like at least an option to allow what worked before. WaveLab is no longer usable for much of my work otherwise, and I’ll need to reinstall an old version right now (or use Reaper) to get done what I’m working on.

Paul

#2

Do you use the VST-3 version of these plugins?

#3

They are VST2. None of the specialist ambisonic plugins I use (nor those I don’t!) are available as VST3.

(Background: These plugins are for converting the four-channel first-order ambisonics feed into speaker feeds, of which there may be any arbitrary number. I use 2 for stereo and 4 for surround, which is how I can get away with working in WaveLab; but other common options are six for surround, or 8 or 12 for 3D surround, or even larger numbers in either case. I usually use these plugins as playback processing, but sometimes as mainline effects to generate a surround file already decoded.)

#4

Maybe a mistake introduced in 9.5.20. Please give me some exact reference of such plugins, for me to test.

#5

https://www.brucewiggins.co.uk/?download=962

In the zip file the specific plugin I’m using is WigAmbiDec_1o_GUI.dll
There are others from elsewhere, but this is probably the easiest for you to get for testing.

PS - I’m using a PC; there are also Mac versions here: https://www.brucewiggins.co.uk/?download=958

#6

I can reproduce the problem in stereo. I will have to do further investigations, but it seems that the plugin is declaring 2 outputs while it tries to write to more than 2 outputs. In previous WaveLab versions, this was not a problem because WaveLab was allocating more outputs than necessary. But for optimization purposes, this is no longer the case.
At this stage, you need to come back to 9.5.20 if these plugins are important to you.

#7

The specific VST I linked for you loads into Plogue Bidule showing eight outputs - so it must declare that number somehow. The others that failed show eight and forty-eight outputs.

#8

I see now. It declares more channels but does not accept less. And WaveLab is currently not able to handle this scenario. I will try to support this in next update.

#9

Thanks! Meanwhile, I have the workaround of going back just a couple of updates.