Where does Vegas Pro 17 store audio plug-ins (Waves Audio) on a PC?

Sondra-Berry wrote on 10/31/2025, 2:05 PM

I have a desktop PC. My C drive crashed, and I had to purchase a new one. Before the drive crashed, I was able to copy all my files and move most of them to the new drive. However, since reinstalling Vegas Pro 17, the Waves Audio plug-in (Silk Vocal and Clarity Vx DeReverb) no longer appears under 3rd-party plug-ins. It has been displaying and working with Vegas Pro 17 for years for me, and I need it for an upcoming project. I reached out to Waves, and they said their product no longer works with Vegas Pro. They recommended I reach out to Vegas Pro's support team and ask how to rescan plugins. How do I do this? Where should the plug-ins be located on my PC so I can copy and paste them from my old drive to my new one and get Waves working? Or, is there a better option? I need a way to remove background noises from speech audio, and they had the very best product!

Comments

BruceUSA wrote on 10/31/2025, 6:51 PM

You replaced your C drive and you reinstalled VP17 and you will need to reinstall all of your plug-in for Vegas pro to see it.

Reyfox wrote on 11/1/2025, 6:08 AM

Copying files that are already installed is not the same as the actual installation, which installs files in various other places. The suggestion above is the answer to your problem.

Dexcon wrote on 11/1/2025, 6:30 AM

Where should the plug-ins be located on my PC so I can copy and paste them from my old drive to my new one and get Waves working?

@BruceUSA and @Reyfox have both hit the nail on the head. Plugins are not copy and pasted computer-to-computer, they need to be re-installed on the new computer from the plugin program's .exe or .msi installation file.

Sondra-Berry wrote on 11/1/2025, 9:10 AM

I'm sorry, I misspoke in my original post. I did not copy and paste to try to install the plug-ins. I installed Vegas and used Waves Central to install the three plug-ins I have. On Waves Central, it shows all three products are installed and activated. However, when I go to Vegas to add audio plug-in effects, only one of the plug-ins displays. Two are missing. When I said I copied and pasted, I meant that after I installed everything, I went through each directory to ensure that what was on the old drive was showing up on the new drive, and everything was there. Perhaps the latest versions of two of the plug-ins don't work with Vegas.

Reyfox wrote on 11/1/2025, 12:39 PM

Have you looked where the VST's are installed? Note the file location for the ".dll" files.

Go to Options>Preferences>VST Effects tab and make sure those directories are listed. If not, add them.