UAD-2 Quad Firewire setup SAWSTUDIO

[Ralph]

Well this is a new box for me for plugins. I am using windows 10. My firewire pci card is a 400. I was told that it would work. I originally ordered a USB, but got this instead. My guy said that it would save my USB buss bandwidth.
So, I decided to give it a try. I followed the documentation step by step. Simply, the plugs do not show up in my fx windows pre or post. Typically with alot of vsts, I can just place them in the vst folder and they work, but not this...I dont think. Anyway, its all wrong man! No path or something is not recognizing where it is supposed to go to. If there is a tutorial on this somewhere in the forum already, please advise. Or if you know what I am doing wrong as far as setup, please advise. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. Ralph

[cgrafx]

Well this is a new box for me for plugins. I am using windows 10. My firewire pci card is a 400. I was told that it would work. I originally ordered a USB, but got this instead. My guy said that it would save my USB buss bandwidth.
So, I decided to give it a try. I followed the documentation step by step. Simply, the plugs do not show up in my fx windows pre or post. Typically with alot of vsts, I can just place them in the vst folder and they work, but not this...I dont think. Anyway, its all wrong man! No path or something is not recognizing where it is supposed to go to. If there is a tutorial on this somewhere in the forum already, please advise. Or if you know what I am doing wrong as far as setup, please advise. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. Ralph

Need a lot more information.

1. What exactly is connected on the firewire buss?

2. What plugins are you trying to install?

Plugins and your firewire card shouldn't have anything to do with each other.

[Ralph]

I appreciate your help Phillip.

[Ralph]

Maybe i should ask if anyone uses UAD plugins with SAWSTUDIO and SAC? and go from there

[Ralph]

I believe I have it figured out now. Thank you for your help

[Ralph]

well I spoke to my guy and I am sending this firewire back and ordering the UAD USB, which is what I ordered previously. Does anyone use the USB? I would appreciate any feedback on this to tell me your opinions. There is no need to spend that kind of money, if it does not work with SAWSTUDIO.

[Dave Labrecque]

Ralph -- it doesn't sound like an interface issue to me. It sounds like a DLL placement issue. I have two UAD-2 PCIe cards in my system. I use the INI pointer method with SAW. Check it out in the SAW manual. It involves installing the VST DLLs to their default location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\Powered Plugins on my system), then placing small text files (*.INI) in SAW's VST folder that each point to the actual DLL locations. There are apps that will automate the process for you. It's really not to hard.

Here's the pertinent info in SAW's help file:

Regarding installation of VST Plug-ins: Many VST installers will ask for a destination folder. You should choose the VST_PlugIns folder under the SAWStudio main folder. Some of these installers will create another subfolder inside of the chosen folder. For VST plug-ins to show up correctly inside of SAWStudio, they must be directly inside of the VST_PlugIns folder. If a VST plug-in does not show up in the SAWStudio FX Choices list, check the VST_PlugIns folder to see if a subfolder was created and simply move the applicable plug-in .dll file(s) into the VST_PlugIns folder directly.

Some VST Plug-In installations will hardcode or otherwise force their plug-in path to remain intact as installed and will not allow the .dlls to be moved into the SAW VST_PlugIns folder. SAWStudio will allow VST Plugins to reside in any folder on any drive by placing an .ini file substitute in the VST_Plugins folder pointing to the full path of the dll file itself. Open the Notepad (or any other ascii text editor) to create a new text file. Inside the file, type the full drive and path and original .dll filename on the first line of the file. Make sure to finish the line with a carriage return by pressing the [Enter] key to return the cursor to the start of the next line. Then save the file as an .ini file using the same name as the plugin itself. For example, if a VST Plugin called TestPlug.dll is installed to D:\VST\Work, then create an .ini file called TestPlug.ini and inside the file type the line D:\VST\Work\TestPlug.dll followed by a carriage return. This .ini file, placed in the VST_PlugIns folder under SAWStudio, will now link SAWStudio to find the VST plug-in in its originally installed path. This can help solve compatibility issues with hardwired path plug-ins and their various copy protection schemes.

Some of the newer VST plugins, like Waves Version 6.0, are now using a Shell loader instead of direct access to the individual plugin dlls. With these types of Shell VST loaders, you can use a utility like Shell2VST to extract the dll loaders from the Shell as separate dlls. These can then be opened by placing them in the SAWStudio VST_Plugins folder or using the .ini linker method.

You can get a tool to automate the INI creation process here: http://www.efofex.net/software.html

Actually, SAWyer Rich McCoy has nice guide to the whole process here: http://www.richmccoy.com/SAWStudioSACVSTINITool/

He says the tool he wrote requires less stuff to be installed on your system since Windows 7 came along. So, maybe go that way.

Not sure if this will fix your issue. But I would start here.

[Ralph]

I sincerely appreciate your response. I did finally use the tool and SAWVstIniTool to be exact, plus I installed the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and it worked. It loaded my UAD effects right smack dab into the Pre and Post FX paths inside
C:\SAWSTUDIO\VST_PLUGINS\*.ini , wild card being separate UAD plugs and .ini extension, instead of .dll. , which I assume and just checked coming from the path of a Steinberg Wavelab Folder, where the UAD .dll s reside. I have Ableton lite on the computer also. I do not have any other programs, other than those 3. SAW, Wavelab, and Ableton...well Real Band / Band in the box. It repathed or assigned everything into my vst, that were vst, to SAW. That all worked out just as informative.

My problem is different. It turns out that, the UAD-2 Quad Satellite Firewire unit, which appears to be more for MAC, requires a FIREWIRE 800 card. I only had a SIIG 400 card, and a 400 cable.(I previously used with a Focusrite Pro 40-now I am using the Antelope Zen Studio) In the information on compatibility, it says explicitly that only use FIREWIRE 800. I had thought I read that a couple days back.

Well after all was said and done, the plugins did show up in my SAW FX, I was able to open them up, but they were disabled. At 2am I was certain by then I would order the USB, that I wanted to order anyway. I spoke to my guy this morning and I am buying the Octal???

So all those things you mentioned I assume I will have to do again. I forgot to mention, the setup I used was online, so I was not able to pick the path to drop the UAD dll's into the vst folder or assign into the correct place they need to be, so I may try a "manual install" next time, to see if I can correctly place them.

I was having a difficult time doing a search on the forum, by typing in just UAD Plugins. I was finding nothing, but when I typed in LA2A or 1176, then I started finding more posts that reassured me today that I am going to go ahead and purchase the USB UAD. So hopefully in the next couple hours the Firewire will be on its way back to the music store and I will be receiving a USB next week.

Thank you for you in depth response, it is appreciated. I basically fell into figuring it out. As Bob told me once out in Las Vegas, its good to know about DOS or how the use of file hierarchy, to do things easier with building folders, saving files, looking for paths that hold vsts, programs, etc. when using SAW. Well, fortunately I come from the DOS days and I am able to do a little of that. That is kind of how I figured it out. I think Steve Bersons Site and Bobs Tools / Downloads Site and the McCoy Site was mentioned in a post. I was aware of VST shells and have used that previously, so that was in my mind.....but I knew that I had to re-path over to SAW or have SAW recognize the plugins. Some programs I understand, and I have used Audition I believe, has a scanning tool to find all the plugs and populate your program etc. Again thank you and I thought I would right this, if it makes some sense, in case someone may need some direction in the future. I am really starting to ramble here....Im an old fart! Good Luck there Sonny! LOL

[Dave Labrecque]

FWIW, you do have the choice of installing (or copying) the UAD VST DLLs directly into SAW's folder structure. I just find it easier to install them with each UAD software update into the one default (Steinberg) folder, so that all my various audio programs can access them there. In SAW's case via it's INI approach.

So... are you saying you're going to find a Firewire 800 card for your computer? The UAD system requirements for the Quad Firewire unit appears to support PC, so I guess it oughta work. That said, Firewire seems to be a struggle much of the time on PC. But if UA says they have it figured out, I guess it should work. I wonder if you need a motherboard with a particular architecture -- or if the right FW 800 card is all you need.

Just noticed that under system requirements it says...

Hardware Requirements - PC	FireWire 800/400 Port, Apollo, 6GB Disk Space

Does that mean it should work with FireWire 400? Also -- Apollo? What's up with that? Typo?

What is an Octal?

Please keep us posted. Good luck!

UPDATE: Oh, you must mean the USB OCTO Core. Nice. it's USB 3 -- I wonder if that means your regular USB (2) traffic would remain unaffected.

[Ralph]

10-4 man. You are correct. the dll copy did not work however for some reason., guess not talking to fw400 card, so its out of here and Octo? next week. I dont use many plugins. thanks man