McDSP VENUE 6.4.0.15+ plug-ins don’t work on Avid S3L-X

I tried installing the latest versions of the McDSP VENUE plug-ins on my Avid S3L-X today, but they don’t work. The announcement says they are for the S6L, but all past versions have also worked on the S3L, so I’d hoped they would continue working. Alas, they don’t. Stick with the older 6.3.0.11 release.

The specific behaviour I see is that the plug-ins install successfully, as I’d expect, but when I open a show file using one of the plug-ins, they appear with the yellow/red triangle and are listed as “not available”. Plug-ins that I don’t have loaded in the current show file don’t even appear in the tree of available plug-ins, although they are listed on the plug-ins install page.

To get back to working plugins, I downgraded all plug-ins to the previously working versions in the VENUE 6.3.0.11 bundle installer.


[Update: 2020-12-19] I updated the VENUE link with one provided to me by McDSP when I upgraded individual plug-ins to the Everything Pack v6.4 HD.

[Update: 2019-03-03] McDSP released a new VENUE S6L Installer v6.5.0.12. I tried it, and it doesn’t work. They continue not listing support for the S3L, so I’m saddened, but not surprised.

[Update: 2018-10-16] I fixed the link to the VENUE 6.3.0.11 bundle installer. I had incorrectly pointed to a nonexistent 6.4.0.11 version.

[Update: 2018-09-06] McDSP released a new 6.5.0.3 plug-in version for Windows that supports iLok Cloud. I tried this version (via manual install), and it also does not work.

[Update: 2018-09-04] I noticed today that the term “S3L” was removed from the VENUE installer on the McDSP Downloads page, and only the S6L is listed as supported for the 6.4.0.15 release. I’m guessing they have unofficially dropped support for the S3L, although I can’t find any other confirmation to that effect.

[Update: 2018-09-01] I tried manually downloading and installing the 6.4.0.14 version of the EC300 and NR800 plug-ins on a separate Windows machine, copied the installed plug-ins to a USB stick, and installed them on my S3L-X. This also did not work. (I’ve successfully used this method in the past to install the SA-2 Dialog Processor before it was included in the VENUE bundle installer, so I know it works.)

7 comments

    1. I updated the link as I had incorrectly pointed to a 6.4.0.11 release. I tested the corrected link in the post, and it works. Let me know if that doesn’t help.

  1. thanks for that. if i buy a live pack 2 now, will those licences work with the installers you put in here? thank You!!

    1. I don’t have an answer unfortunately. I’d say the best answer is to contact McDSP and ask.

      Looking at the iLock License Manager for my individual McDSP plugins, and for the Boutique Bundle HD bundle I have, all list the Deposit Date, but there is no Expiration Date, Activate By Date, or Subscription Period listed. That would lead me to believe the licenses are bound to the v6 versions of the plugins, but not a specific subset of v6 versions.

    2. I recently purchased the Everything Pack v6.4 HD. I received confirmation from McDSP that the license should work with the older 6.3.0.11 installer, and I can confirm with my own testing that it does indeed work. That means the Live Pack 2 should also work.

  2. Hey Kate, have you had any luck getting the EC300 to work? Also, I downloaded your link to Venue 6.3 installer, but those seem to be .exe files for windows and not .aaxplugin files for the venue. Could you let me know if I am missing a step or if the .exe files are able to work somehow?

    1. For the plugins – I install those on a Windows machine (I do this with VMware), and then manually copy the desired `.aaxplugin` folders into an `AAX Plug-Ins` folder on a USB stick. The plug-in folders can be found in `C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins`. That is the only way I’ve found unfortunately.

      NOTE: the USB stick name cannot have any spaces in it.

      Regarding the EC300 – No, I eventually gave up on that. My latest project is getting the stage boxes to work independently of the engine so that I can then get Waves plugins working with the S3L and a Waves Impact server. That will be a better long-term solution IMHO.

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