Hey there, feeling kinda lost.. tried installing waves like 3 times already 3 different versions, It always ends up in demo mode and thats after having it worked for a long time, but the new patch -

Waves Patcher v15.9 [GUISEPPE]


does nothing... I dont know what to do with it, cant seem to get it to work in anyway.. I did everything by the book, it just ends up in demo mode

Exact order I did this:
1.Deleted all files related
2.Opened waves central ( or re installed it too, tried both )
3.Used offline installer and installed all 256 plugins.
4.Closed Waves central
5.Patched it using the Giuseppe
6. Opened au utility waves -> synced it or w/e
7.Opened DAW tried opening a plugin
8.DEMO MODE.

HELP PLEASE!

 

You are using the newest patch, but for what version of Waves? It looks like some users are using that 15.9 patch for Waves 16 already.

Before you go through all the trouble of installing v15, you may as well skip 15 and go to 16. Also, if you did not remove old installation cleanly, you should probably do so. That way you only have to fix this once.

I am on Intel and running neither of them. But that is what steps I would do, if I was.

 

Yup, only issues here, and I'm not new to installing Waves. GUISEPPE patch has not worked for me on v15 and v16 on macOS Big Sur on M1 Mac Mini.

Used RET patch multiple times on Intel macs and no issues.

Not saying the problem is the GUISEPPE patch, rather I have harware issues. For some reason Waves AU Reg Utility completely refuses to recognize any of the installed plugin bundles, therefore none of them show up in my DAW.

Followed tons of guides from the AZ comment threads on the Waves posts. Complete uninstall each time.Tried 5 times and gave up.

 

I'm using the patch with v16 with no problem at all m1 Mac Studio running newest os

 

hey, I get it, waves stuff can be a comfortable recliner, but I haven't bothered in years and somehow have been fine.

I get having certain workflows and things it can do for you...

but I'm all good without them like a bad ex-girlfriend.

 

I want to abandon waves but I have so many existing projects with the 5ish waves plugins I haven't found a perfect replacement for lmao.

 

Did you try using the Waves Ultimate Patch from VR instead? That fixed it for me, on M4.

 

Im using M1 Pro Sonoma,

I tried using the other patch but it leads to this

People who succeeded, id love to hear what you did. and if you used the AU reg utility or no.. the au reg utility does find plugins for me and writes something about writing registry but im not sure thats any good...

 

Had issues in the past by not completely uninstalling everything. First uninstall the plugins from Waves Central / Settings. Do also the Cleanup from there.
Then delete everything Waves related from this places:
- Applications folder, of course: Waves and Waves Central
- then delete all plugins Waveshells, from VST, VST3, Components and Avid
- Library (hidden one) / Application Support: Waves Audio and Waves central
- Library (the visible) / Application Support: Waves
- Users / Shared: Waves

Reinstall Waves Central!

Then follow the instructions:

3. Select Offline Installer and Click Install from an Offline Installer
4. Browse the Waves folder you downloaded (Inside : 1 - Installer)
5. Select Waves Ultimate or any other plugins and applications and select Install (Uncheck SD/HD)
6. Apply patch Waves Ultimate V3 by V.R. not the one from Guiseppe.
7. Reboot
8. Run AU reg Utility from Applications/Waves
10. Load StudioRack and login to Waves to use Studio Verse.

Let us know if it worked!

PS: if the Waves Ultimate Patch doesn't work, paste this in Terminal:
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine
leave one character space after the command and drag the patch into the terminal. Now it should work. You might be required to allow the app in System Settings / Security

 

Last edited: Aug 21, 2025

Understood. On new projects over the last few years I haven't used them, and they are installed on my legacy systems that house my older sessions/projects should they be called upon. I guess with the intel to m chip switch, I realized there were many things I was going to lose, and either whatever was relevant was bounced or can be. I'm personally just not starting new projects/sessions with them, but I understand your predicament.

 

I had the same error, but the OS prompted me to give access to Waves-Ultimate-patch-2025.3.app
so it could modify files and overwrite. I permitted it and ran it again, and it worked.

You might check System Settings ==> Privacy and Security immediately after running the patch.

PS: I also turned off Gatekeeper in terminal so that might have played a factor:

sudo spctl --master-disable

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2025

Hi Mark,

Is there any chance this will bork my other Waves v16 plug-ins (which are gloriously working now.)

When I load StudioVerse on a track, I get a Little Snitch popup saying, “Logic wants to connect to register.waves.com.”

Have you tried it? Is it safe? Thanks for your advice before I push through.

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2025

i m using the latest patch and keygen only by R2R.i installed waves central,then i made an account so i could dload the ``official`` stuff.installed it and then i used the patch/keygen and it all works well on my offline computer.

 

I don't know how safe it is, but it is working.I like the Studioverse. It might convince me to use Waves again. I allowed it in Little Snitch. Without allowing it, Studioverse doesn't work.

 

I thought that too at first, because it continually says, “Loading” in the left sidebar.

Interestingly, it still allows you to load the 270 offline patches included with the installer, which are pretty cool. But I'm stoked to see what other patches are online.

Since it worked for you, I'll permit Little Snitch to talk to Waves. To be safe, I'll set up a Time Machine backup before I proceed.
Thanks for responding!

 

You probably know this, but, just in case it's your missing ingredient, I should mention:

5.5: A restart is required between steps 5 and 6.

Also, the Guiseppe patch didn't work for me. I'm postulating that it's for Apple Silicon b/c I found another Guiseppe plug-in where he states in the readme: “We don't do Intel.”
I used the V.R. patch, and it worked with my Intel Mac Mini.

I'll give you the full rundown of what worked for me if you're interested.

 

Last edited: Aug 24, 2025

I started with a completely wiped system: Sequoia dorked my bus functionality on a 2018 Mac Mini, so I had to wipe the drive clean and install Sonoma. (Anyone on an Intel Mini? Tread lightly with Sequoia. Kernel panics galore for me.)

2018 Mac Mini with Sonoma 14.7.8
If your system is similar, here's the full megillah:

TL;DR—I used V.R.'s “Waves Ultimate 2025.3” patcher for version 15 with Waves 16 (Waves Ultimate 16 v25.08.20 U2B.)
Advantage to v16: you can scale the plugin windows to 200%.)

Fresh system install in my case. Gatekeeper off (sudo spctl --master-disable in terminal.) Install Logic 11.2.2 and Little Snitch 6.2.

• Install Waves Central
• Run Waves Central
• Instructions say use the “OFFLINE” installer, so I did that…
  (But then I got excited about StudioVerse and followed it with the online installer.) I believe either works. I chose to demo all available products which was a 5.8G download (smaller than the sis site distribution.) You end up with about 705 plug-ins from Waves v16 only. (If you need legacy versions from 15 or 14, you'll want the OFFLINE installer.) I know now that StudioVerse is probably included in the offline installer too. For example: Studio Rack is in v15 but it's deprecated in favor of "StudioVerse" in v16.
• When Little Snitch asked about connecting to Waves, I chose Allow "UNTIL QUIT."
• Apply the patcher named: Waves.Ultimate.2025.3.dmg
• RESTART!!
• Goto Applications / Waves / Waveshells V16 and run Waves AU Reg Utility 16.app. <- you should get a number other than 0, which the Guiseppe patch gave me.
• Have fun!

Optional: Mauwurf's instructions for getting Cosmos working:

• Replace index.js in /Library/Application/Support/Waves/COSMOS/HTML/
• Replace app.asar in /Applications/Waves/COSMOS/COSMOS.app/Contents/Resources/

You find these in the RET Patched folder of Waves Complete 14 RET. I don't think later versions work.

 

Has anybody had any luck installing the new Waves Ultimate 16 v25.09.29 and properly activating it? I have tried both the Guiseppe 15.9 and the Waves Ultimate 2025.3 patches included and followed the instructions. I've never had an issue installing Waves before, but this version just won't work properly. The Waves Ultimate 2025.3 patch gives a permissions error and fails (and yes I have tried all of the mentioned terminal codes, as well disabling gatekeeper and allowing full access through privacy/security. It won't ever run the AU plugins or find them in the AU utility, however the vst3 are working in Ableton and Cubase. If I use the Guiseppe patch, the AU utility will find plugins to open in Logic (which is my goal), however its missing about 30-40 plugins the vst3 version has, including the L4 (which I downloaded this version for). Has anybody else had issues on this version or any ideas of fixes? Or if you are using this version with AU, can you check to see if your L4 shows up?

EDIT - I downloaded it through my waves account instead and installed as a demo and then the patch worked. Offline installer won't work though.

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2025

No problem here. Easy install. Everything works.

 

There has been an error.
Error changing ownership of /Applications/Waves Central.app/Contents/Resources/res/external/bin/WavesLicenseEngine.bundle to 0
The application will exit now.

This is the error message i get when I run the Waves.Ultimate.2025.3 (dmg)

I have clean uninstalled and then reinstalled using the offline installer. During my repeated attempts at getting this to work, around 30 plugins showed crashed validation in Logic Pro 12.2.2 while the rest worked. But after reinstalling, none of them work.

The version I want to install is Waves Ultimate 16 v25.09.29
The OS is MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

Last edited: Oct 19, 2025 at 2:37 AM