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Legacy Plugins

Waveform quietly carries a handful of older built-in plugins from earlier versions. They're hidden by default, so most people will never see them — and that's deliberate. They're kept around so projects built in older versions of Waveform still open and sound the way they did. For new work you'll almost always want the current instruments and effects instead.

Turning On the Legacy Plugins

The legacy plugins are opt-in and stay out of the way until you ask for them.

  1. Open Settings > Plugins.
  2. Click the Show Internal Plugins button.
  3. In the popup, choose Enable Legacy Plugins.
  4. Restart Waveform when prompted — "Please restart Waveform to enable your new features!"

After the restart, a new Legacy folder appears in the built-in plugin list (alongside Effects, Instruments, and Utility) when you add a plugin. That's where the older plugins live.

📝 Note: This switch only affects whether the older plugins are visible. It isn't tied to any edition or licence — once you turn it on, the Legacy folder shows up in every edition. The change only takes effect after a restart.

The Legacy Instruments

Two older instruments live in the Legacy folder:

FM Synth — A simple two-operator FM synthesizer (a carrier and a modulator). You get attack/decay/release envelopes for both, a coarse/fine frequency ratio, vibrato, and an LFO, plus a set of built-in factory programs to get started. It's a classic, slightly gritty FM sound. For modern FM work, reach for the 6OP or 4OSC synths instead.

Sampler — The original, single-layer sampler from older versions of Waveform. It still works, but the newer sampler family (Multi Sampler, Drum Sampler, Micro Sampler, Micro Drum Sampler, and Rompler) replaces it for everything from one-shot drums to full multi-layer keyboard instruments. See the Samplers and Instruments chapter for those. Only open the legacy Sampler if you're loading an old project that already uses it.

Older Versions of Some Effects

The Legacy folder isn't only instruments. If your edition has the redesigned effects, the folder also holds the pre-redesign versions of several effects — the older equaliser, compressor, chorus, delay, low-pass filter, phaser, and reverb. They behave exactly as they did in earlier versions, which is the point: an old project that used them will still load and sound correct. There's no reason to add them to a new project — the current effects in the Effects folder are the ones to use.

⚡ Things to Watch Out For

  • Enabling or disabling legacy plugins requires a restart before the Legacy folder appears or disappears.
  • These plugins exist for backward compatibility only. New projects should use the current instruments and effects — the legacy versions won't receive improvements.
  • Hiding the Legacy folder again (by toggling Enable Legacy Plugins off) doesn't remove these plugins from projects that already use them; it only hides them in the plugin picker.

Moving On

That's the whole legacy story — a restart-gated folder of older plugins kept for opening past projects. For the instruments and effects you'll actually build with, see the Samplers and Instruments, 4OSC Synthesizer, Wavetable Synthesizer, and Built-in Effects Plugins chapters.