VST Scan failing (I think)

[Mark Baker]

Hi everyone. I'm relatively new to Cakewalk, only using for the past 6 months or so, but up until now, the VST scan function has worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, in the past few days, it appears to have started to hang (and I don't recall installing any new VSTs to cause this). The bluebox in the bottom right now never disappears unless I hit cancel or X (I'm pretty sure that it used to disappear on it's own after a few seconds before, but I can't be certain). This was no biggie, until today when I tried to install a new VST, and it doesn't appear in the list, so I think the scan is stopping.

According to this old thread here (which I didn't want to zombie so I created a new one), I should ensure that VSTScan.exe is killed. Unfortunately, I can't see VSTscan anywhere in my task manager. I've also tried to run the scna from the preferences window, with sandbox and scan log enabled, but no change and I can't find the generated log in appdata/roaming/Cakewalk.. either. All a reset seems to have done is to remove all of my VSTs completely (and I have a gut feeling that all my sorting into categories is going to be lost now when they do eventually return).

I'm running Cakewalk version 2021.04 (Build 175, 64bit) on Win10 with plenty of resources spare (32GB RAM, i7 processor etc.). There is an "early access" version of 2021.06 #1 that pops up occasionally, which I can try if all else fails, but ideally I'll stay on a stable build for now. Any help anyone can provide will be gratefully received!

Thank you

[Mark Baker]

Some additional information. I found VSTScan.exe in a folder in C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities and double-clicking it didn't seem to do anything. Right-click - run as admin kicked it into life though, and a popup seemed to suggest that it was scrolling through the various VST locations (took a few seconds). It's not taken any where near as long after then (basically flashes up and disappears).

 

Edit: I have the following locations scanning for VSTs (C:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins; C:\program files\common files\vst3; D:\Music Recording\VSTs) because ideally most (if not all of my VSTs) I wanted running from my supermassive HDD D drive and not taking up space on my smaller but faster SSD C drive). Removing the D drive location seemed to make everything work again (101 plugins found, scan log generated etc.) but adding the D drive back in again breaks it. I've removed all of the plugins that I've added within the last month, and it is scanning again, so something is obviously breaking it. I'm going to add them back in, one by one, to see which the offending one is.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Mark Baker

[Mark Baker]

Solved - it appears to be Synth1 which I installed around 2 weeks ago. I'm sure that actually installed okay at the time, because I remember opening it and having a play, but I had a bunch of presets I put in the same folder, and I think that has broken everything. Deleted that folder and it appears to be back up and running again.

The best bit? The sorting of the VSTs etc. seems to have been saved and all is well with the world.

This thread had turned into more of a sounding board for my own thought processes and digging, but I'll leave it up in case anyone else has a similar issue and this might resolve it for them.

[John Vere]

Glad you solved it. I was going to say it's almost always a bad plug in. And I seem to remember trying that one myself and it was a bomb. That's why I test all 3rd party( free)  plug ins on my office computer first. Keeps my main DAW garbage free. 

And thanks for posting the solution as this will help others in the future. 

Edited June 27, 2021 by John Vere

[Glenn Stanton]

setting on the VST scan logging has helped me more than once to find the offending VST and get it removed... Synth1 and a number of the SynthEdit based instruments seem to have problems even if the paths and permissions as all good. possibly just sloppy workmanship.