How to Load Reason Songs with Waves VST3 Plugins

Jun 24, 2024

Important Notes:

Starting from V15, Waves plugins are not supported in the VST 2 format.

If you updated to the latest version and your VST 2 plugins are missing, please refer to this article to roll your plugins back to V14. Then, follow the steps below to migrate your sessions to VST 3. You can then update your plugins back to the latest version.

If you’re using V14 or below, we highly recommend using VST3 plugins in new sessions from now on, and migrating plugins in old sessions to VST3.

Learn how to load Reason songs with Waves VST3 Plugins by following the steps below.

Reason 12.5 introduced VST3 support, which means Waves plugins are now supported as VST3 plugins in Reason.

We highly recommend using VST3 plugins in your Reason songs from now on, as well as migrating the plugins in older songs to VST3.

Reason does not swap between VST and VST3 plugins automatically. Please follow these steps to switch your Waves VST plugins and their settings to VST3:

Follow the steps in the How to Find Your Plugins in Reason to make sure the plugins load as both VST and VST3.
Please note: Reason 12.6 introduced native Apple Silicon support. Since Waves Plugins are only supported in the VST3 format in Reason 12.6 and higher on Apple Silicon, please run Reason in Rosetta and continue to the next steps.
Load your Reason song.
Open a Waves plugin inserted on one of your tracks.
Open the presets menu using the WaveSystem Toolbar, then click Copy to copy the plugin settings.
Insert the same plugin’s VST3 component in the next plugin slot after the original instance.
Open the presets menu on the VST3 plugin and click Paste to paste the plugin settings.
Repeat these steps for each Waves VST plugin in your session.

If you need any assistance, please contact Tech Support.

Troubleshooting