Way to activate Massive as 32-bit vst?

M4lte · July 2023

Hello,

I found a really old Ableton Live project that I wanted to finish. Unfortunately it's so old, that I have to work on it with Live 8, which only supports 32-bit vsts.

I still had an old 32-bit Massive vst laying around in that Live 8 installation folder and I am also able to initialize Massive within Live 8, no problem. Unfortunately, it wants me to activate it. Via the NI Service Center. Which has been terminated. And replaced by Native Access. But as it turns out, Native Access fails at activating my 32-bit version of Massive. Who had guessed? Even when I install the 64-bit vst via Native Access into a folder structure and then place the 32-bit vst into that same folder structure, it does not accept it and still wants me to activate it. Offline activation is also not possible since this feature has been completely removed.

Okay, I thought maybe it's that 32-bit vst version, god knows how old that is. So I downloaded and installed the latest 32-bit version from here (https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402771564305-Downloading-the-Last-32-Bit-Versions-of-NI-Products-Windows-) and installed it: No success either - but at least the text on that page is quite enthusiastic about continuing the usage of 32-bit vsts. Okay, maybe I can successfully activate it via the old NI Access version? Downgraded it as described here (https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/4748946468497-How-to-Downgrade-Native-Access-2-to-Native-Access-1) and tried to reinstall Massive via that one. Also no success since the old version also only installs the 64-bit version.

So basically, I own Massive and have a working 32-bit vst of it but can't activate and therefore use it. So my question is: how on earth do I get massive working properly as a 32-bit vst? I mean there must be a way, right? Otherwise offering the download seems pretty useless.

Sunborn · July 2023

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/82812#Comment_82812

So my question is: how on earth do I get massive working properly as a 32-bit vst?

Use jBridge! Is the only solution. Through this, it possible to run 32bit plugins in 64bit hosts, or 64bit plugins in 32bit hosts, or even bridging 32bit plugins to 32bit hosts, allowing to overcome the memory limitations of a single 32bit process.

https://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/

M4lte · July 2023

AH, I totally forgot about jBridge. Thanks for reminding me. I got it running and found a way to force Live to use the bridged 64bit version so that the original sound of Massive is still conserved.

I will describe here how to do it for people with the same problem:

Be sure you have a valid and activated 64bit version installed in a folder that is part of Live's standard vst scanning routine. The folder structure is important, mine was xxx\Massive (where the original 32bit vst was placed) and xxx\Massive\64bit (where the 64bit vst was placed). With xxx being any root folder.
Copy the original 32bit vst .dll file to another location (simply the desktop for example) for safety and delete the 32bit file in the original folder (here the folder with that 32bit .dll was xxx\Massive).
Download and install jBridge.
Start jBrdiger as admin, select that you'll be using a x86 host.
Uncheck "Create bridging files for 32bit plugins" and "Thorough file analysis (Checks if dll's are really VST plugins)" in this order.
Click "Create bridging files inside a directory I'll specify -> HIGHLY recommended! <-"
Maneuver to the location of the 64bit version of the plugin (here that folder was xxx\Massive\64bit) and select that .dll file. Click "OK".
In the next prompt, maneuver to the location the original 32bit version of the vst was saved (here that folder was xxx\Massive) and select that folder. Click "OK".
If all went fine, jBridge should confirm that it has bridged 1 file for usage in the 32bit VST host. Click "OK".
Open the original Live set that recently used the 32bit version of Massive that couldn't be activated. Live should now use the bridged (and activated) 64bit version of the plugin while keeping all the original settings of the 32bit version you used up to this point.
That should be it. Try it first with the demo version of jBridge and if everything works, buy it and repeat the process with the full version of jBridge.

Sunborn · July 2023

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/14892/way-to-activate-massive-as-32-bit-vst

Why you want to go through all this trouble with those archaic plugins and not simply just open your old project in Live 10 or 11?

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000841004-Backward-Compatibility

M4lte · July 2023

The specific reasons are not too important tbh but it boils down to Live 8 being Suite and Live 11 being Standard. This results in some technical difficulties and just finishing the groundwork of the track in Live 8 and subsequently importing wavs for mixing/mastering to Live 11 is likely the easier route for me to take at the moment.

If there was any convenient way to not use Live 8 and the 32-bit vsts, I would definitely choose that one. Accordingly, the original question still stands.

Sunborn · July 2023