VST scan options are not working

[Jun Kwan]

I downloaded some plugins from Spitfire Audio, but Cakewalk doesn't detect them in the VST folders that I assigned them to. I had made sure the file paths were added to the Cakewalk VST scan paths. For some reason though, the "Rescan failed VSTs" and "Rescan All VSTs" buttons are greyed out, even on Manual Scan. How do I resolve this?

Edited June 14, 2020 by Jun Kwan

[Jun Kwan]

On 6/14/2020 at 11:18 AM, Milton Sica said:

To me is equal after upgrade to Windows 10 2004

I don't know what you mean by that

[scook]

Are the plug-ins in the VST3 folder on the D drive.

This is a non-standard location for VST3 plug-ins and may not work.

 

[Jun Kwan]

6 hours ago, scook said:

Are the plug-ins in the VST3 folder on the D drive.

This is a non-standard location for VST3 plug-ins and may not work.

 

The 64 bit .dll files from Spitfire actually save right in Cakewalk's vstplugin folder on the D drive

[Nigel Mackay]

4 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

After I upgraded my Windows 10 to version 2004 the vst scan stopped working. It gets stuck.

Try uninstalling and reinstalling Cakewalk. Windows 10 upgrades do nasty things to PCs. ?

[Nigel Mackay]

Did it work? Or is that where it stops?

[msmcleod]

@Jun Kwan , @Milton Sica - did you manage to resolve your VST scanning issues?

If not, please PM me so I can try to help resolve the issue.

[msmcleod]

After a bit of digging, I've found the only reason that the scan buttons would be greyed out is when the path to the VstScan program is missing or invalid.

@Jun Kwan / @Milton Sica - can you check a few things for me?

1. Open RegEdit by holding Windows Key & R and typing in RegEdit:

2. Navigate to  Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\Cakewalk\Cakewalk VST X64 

3. Check the both the VSTScan path entry actually exists, and the path it points to exists on your file system. For example, if I go to
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\ , I find VstScan.exe:

4. Right Click Properties on VstScan.exe and check the version:

Also check the compatibility tab, and ensure it's not set to run as a different user:

 

[msmcleod]

8 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

My version 

Thanks @Milton Sica - we'll look into why the version number is different for you.

Can you also check that the registry entry (steps 1 & 2) is pointing to this file ?

[msmcleod]

Just now, Milton Sica said:

Yes. The path as equal. A question: do you have a url to made download vstscan.exe ?

I'l PM you

[msmcleod]

3 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

I think that my version is in portuguese ! (?????)

 

I've sent you a copy of the English one. My suspicion is that the portuguese version wasn't built properly, and an older version was packaged, but we'll need to look into this further to confirm.
 

[Nigel Mackay]

For what it is worth my vstscan.exe is also version 6.0.3.0.  Dated 03/06/2020 15:00. And it works. Details are identical to Milton's.

[HIBI]

1 hour ago, Nigel Mackay said:

For what it is worth my vstscan.exe is also version 6.0.3.0.  Dated 03/06/2020 15:00. And it works. Details are identical to Milton's.

Same here and having no problem. (FYI: Running Japanese Windows 10)

Edited June 20, 2020 by HIBI

[msmcleod]

1 hour ago, Nigel Mackay said:

For what it is worth my vstscan.exe is also version 6.0.3.0.  Dated 03/06/2020 15:00. And it works. Details are identical to Milton's.

 

2 minutes ago, HIBI said:

Same here and having no problem. (FYI: Running Japanese Windows 10)

Ok, maybe this isn't the issue then... I notice that I get the same version number too on my Windows 7 boot.

@Milton Sica - could this be your anti-virus software ?
 

[msmcleod]

Ok, it looks like the problem @Milton Sica had was that his VST scan path included C:\Program Files\Cakewalk  - so it was trying to scan Cakewalk's program DLL's while the program was using them.

It's really important to:

1. Only include directories that hold only VST DLL's in your scan path
Unfortunately there's no way to tell if a DLL file is a VST2 DLL or not, except by Cakewalk loading it and attempting to bind to the VST2 methods.

DLL's that are not VST's do a variety of things when loaded: some expect other DLL's to be in memory at the time, or applications to be running and will crash if they're not there. There's absolutely nothing Cakewalk can do about this.

That is why it's important to only provide paths containing only VST DLL's.

2. Don't include a directory twice in your scan path 
Including a directory more than once could result in duplicate entries of a plugin.

3. Always use the Scan within Preferences/VST Settings and have the Sandbox Scan checked.  Do not use the Plugin Manager for scanning.
The plugin manager is no longer recommended for scanning, as it can only scan in a single thread. This causes the application to lock up should it find a plugin it can't scan. Its only purpose now is to facilitate enabling/disabling plugins and to configure plugin layouts.

The Sandbox Scan uses a separate thread for scanning each plugin, which means if one fails, the others will continue to scan.

[scook]

26 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

2. Don't include a directory twice in your scan path 
Including a directory more than once could result in duplicate entries of a plugin.

Couldn't duplicates be filtered out when writing the scan path to the registry?

Also remove children probably a bigger cause of duplicated scans.

26 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

3. Always use the Scan within Preferences/VST Settings and have the Sandbox Scan checked.  Do not use the Plugin Manager for scanning.
The plugin manager is no longer recommended for scanning, as it can only scan in a single thread. This causes the application to lock up should it find a plugin it can't scan. Its only purpose now is to facilitate enabling/disabling plugins and to configure plugin layouts.

I believe the only reason the scanner is still available in the PIM is for backward compatibility.

Maybe it is time to disabled the scanner when running the PIM from CbB.

[Noel Borthwick]

Some clarifications. 
There is nothing wrong with your VST scanner version. 6.0.3.0 is the correct one.
If you have the scan button grayed out its likely because something (antivirus, registry corruption, or personalization failing) has messed up the app install and the app doesnt have the path to the VST scanner anymore.

Look in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\Cakewalk\Cakewalk VST X64 for a value of VSTScanPath. It should point to C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\VstScan.exe

If not, you can redo the personalization for Cakewalk. To do that, launch Cakewalk while holding down the CTRL key. This will show the personalization dialog. Click OK and let it finish. After that VST scan should be accessible again.