Like a few others here, I encountered Scaler 3 picking and choosing what VST2’s and VST3’s it scans. All my Native Instruments plugins and 24 out of 25 of my Cherry Audio plugins are ignored. Half of my IK Multimedia plugins are not scanned. EastWest Opus and PLAY, GForce DMX, OB-1, impOSCar 2 and OB-X are not scanned. Korg Triton Extreme, Prophecy, miniKORG and UVI Falcon are ignored by Scaler 3. Steinberg Media Technologies Padshop 2 is also ignored. XLN Audio’s Addictive Drums 2 is not scanned, yet ironically, Superior Drummer 3 is able to be scanned and loaded. These are just’ my more popular plugins; many others’ are also not scanned by Scaler.
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Hi @Mike4001. We have seen cases of plugin scan errors on Windows related to operating system permissions issues.
These can usually be resolved by performing the plugin scan when running Scaler 3 standalone as an administrator, via right click - run as administrator. If that does not help you can also run the plugin scanner directly via c:\ProgramData\Scaler Music\Scaler 3\PluginScanner64.exe. Also be sure to run this as an administrator the same way.
Hi Tristan, I’ve already tried all of these suggestions and still receive the Error 2 message. I wish I bought this upgrade through Sweetwater Music’ so I could have their tech support remotely log into my system and observe this dichotomy. Unfortunately, I don’t think Scaler will do that for me here. I’ve read similar VST customer issues from others here on this forum’ and didn’t see final resolvement for theirs’ - unless they forgot to post the definitive answer up here. Pointing the scan path directly at the VST’s and still’ Scaler ignoring it, no matter where they are on my drive’. I was hoping someone here would say something like: Put all your VST3’s in your xyz folder, then rescan them, because it’s so odd for it to ignore so many from Native Instruments’ and Cherry Audio’ especially. Third party VST freebies yeah, but those major companies. Strange.
Hi @Mike4001. Just to be clear, are you saying that when you run c:\ProgramData\Scaler Music\Scaler 3\PluginScanner64.exe by right click - run as administrator, you still see the error 2 message? This definitely shouldn’t be the case and is not something I have heard reported before.
If the scan when running as administrator is successful you still may need to reboot your computer before the plugins appear available in Scaler 3.
Keep in mind that the above is really just a temporary solution as the initial problem is likely due to a Windows permissions issue. You can right click on the Scaler 3 folder mentioned above then choose properties and check your user permissions on the Security tab. Your current user needs to have full control over the folder and contents.
You can also try deleting the plugin scan related files from the folder above: plugins64.cache, plugins64.custom, plugins64.ignore, plugins64.log, then run the plugin scan as administrator, then reboot. In case some prior plugin scan errors are interfering with the process.
I got an even messier problem now in my attempts to resolve the first problem. To answer your new questions: None of these work either. I did’ however stumble on the solution, but only after I created my own type of virus to the standalone version of Scaler 3. When you get to my latest support ticket you’ll see how this virus was unintentionally created. Now I guess I need you all to tell me how to completely remove Scanner 3 from my system. Uninstalling it doesn’t cure this new problem. It’s that’s comprehensive of a software cancer to Scaler 3. You’ll see how I magically achieved it in my latest support ticket. Treat it as a warning to other Windows 10/Scaler 3 users.
Hi @Mike4001. Full uninstall instructions are included in the clean install instructions on the known issues page.
PC - Clean Install:
- Delete the standalone state file in this folder: C:\Users[NAME]\AppData\Roaming\Scaler 3\ Scaler 3.settings
- Delete the personalised files in this folder: C:\ProgramData\Scaler Music\Scaler 3
- Delete the shared user files in this folder: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Scaler Music\Scaler 3
You can also delete the VST and AAX plugin files to be comprehensive.
I’m not sure I’m following you regarding the ‘virus’. If you are able to clarify what you mean that would be great as we do not want to give the impression Scaler 3 is the cause of this. But it does not sound like that’s what you’re saying.
Would you mind also clarifying what you mean when you say ‘None of these work’? For example, are you saying when you still receive the Error 2 message when manually running the PluginScanner64.exe program via right click - run as administrator? As mentioned this does not sound right.
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Success ! Everything now works. Thank you for the (comprehensive) uninstall’ Tristan. As to your question about a virus. I call it a virus’ or cancer’ when any application that used to work normally, stops functioning just because I saved a file using it. I hope you watched the GIF video I sent you’ concerning that. In it, you saw that the moment I opened a file I saved using Scaler 3, the standalone version then automatically closed the app 5 seconds after I opened the app, Rendering Scaler inoperable. All I did’ was save my first attempt using it’ and that’s what it did. The only working theory I have about that’ was that I tried to save a Scaler 3 file with seven different plugins that I loaded into it. Maybe that’ overloaded something. In regards to it initially not seeing my other VST’s, that was because on the very first installation attempt, it ran into all my Avid Pro Tools files and spit out over 120 error messages at me during install. That prompted me to use Scaler 3’s custom install - don’t do that. If any Windows users have an issue with Scaler 3 not seeing all their plugins like I encountered, choose to scan your Program Files\Common Files folder. Just those two ! Yes, it will look at a lot of items that Scaler will never use’ and prompt some error messages while doing this; but at least’ it will find all your missing plugins. On my initial install, I noticed that the custom scan path you added to 3.1 did not function as comprehensively as the default installation path. Effectively making it useless. That first fresh install is crucial to be introduced to all the plugins on a PC. Again, Program Files\Common Files… just those two found them all’. If you also have Pro Tools on your PC like I do’… just ignore the Avid error messages as Scaler 3 scans it all. It will work afterwards.
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I am trying this fix but I do not have plugins64.ignore in the folder - why is this?
Here’s a screen shot of where it is on my system.
I don’t know what it is’… but that’s where it decided to be.
Mike
There should be a few of these files sitting in the same directory as c:\ProgramData\Scaler Music\Scaler 3\PluginScanner64.exe.
If you cannot see plugins64.ignore, try just deleting plugins64.cache, plugins64.custom and plugins64.log if they are present. Then run PluginScanner64.exe via right click - run as administrator and see if that completes without error, then reboot.
Well as for my situation with Scaler 3 and this (plugins64.ignore) - I got it working correctly after I went through what my Windows 10/Sonar/Pro Tools/1300 plugin PC (would accept). My circumstance might be unique here on this forum. I’m just relieved that I sorted it all out through trial and error. If a version 3.2 or whatever comes out and odd things start happening with it, I’m keeping 3.1 as a backup… reapplying what I learned.