Thanks to the VST3 architecture of the 14.0 shell, sidechaining is cleaner. To sidechain a Waves compressor (like the SSL G-Master):

This signifies . If you are using a modern DAW like Cubase 13, Reaper, Studio One, or Ableton Live 11/12 (on Windows), you must use the x64 version. Using a 32-bit shell in a 64-bit DAW will result in a "Bad Image" error or the plugin simply refusing to load.

A Waveshell is essentially a container or a "meta-plugin." When you install Waves Central and download your plugins (like the CLA Compressors, the Renaissance Bundle, or the F6 Dynamic EQ), you are not installing hundreds of individual VST3 files. Instead, you are installing a single file (e.g., Waveshell1-vst3 ) that houses dozens of individual plugins inside it.

On a standard Windows installation, this file is located at: