Same thing here. Actually I have two z3ta+2 installations: the normal and the Virus-mod. I'm having the same issue with "normal" z3ta+2 with older projects, but Virus-mod loads just fine (obviously it was not updated as it sits in it's own separate folder). I suggest if you are experienced user you could try a temporary workaround (WARNING1: I have not tried it yet, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, and I don't know how it will behave with VST3's. WARNING2: since it's a temporary workaround, all your projects done WITH this workaround will have missing z3ta+2 synths AFTERWARDS, when the official fix for 2.2 will be available. To me, no big deal because you can save needful patches if you need them after said fix, but YMMV).
0. Back up your installations, etc, etc. I suggest backing up
- "Cakewalk Content\Z3ta+2",
- your whole "VstPlugins" folder(s)
- and VST3 folder(s) which sit in "C:\Program Files\Common Files".
Please keep in mind that on x64 systems there are two "Program Files" folders, for x64 and x86. I will be referencing to x64 paths only to keep things clearer and since I never installed x86 versions of z3ta.
1. Since Sonar allows multiple instances of the same VSTis, you can copy your NEW 2.2 z3ta+2 to a folder in VstPlugins (say, "z3ta+2_new"). Now you will have two z3ta folders in your VstPlugins path. It should look like this:
"C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\Z3TA+ 2"
"C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\Z3TA+ 2_new"
(Obviously, if you have a custom Vstplugins path, do it there instead).
2. Go to your "VstPlugins\Z3TA+ 2_new" folder and rename the dll from "Z3TA+ 2_64.dll" to "Z3TA+ 2_64_new.dll". Now (might be unnecessary! but I would have done that to be sure) go to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Z3TA+ 2" and do the same there.
3. Roll back z3ta+2 to 2.1 (it will roll back z3ta+2 sitting in the default folder, but will leave your "z3ta+2_new" unchanged).
Now, you could skip steps 4 and 5 and try and go straight to 6, but if doesn't work, do the steps 4 and 5.
4. Go to "Cakewalk Content\Z3TA+ 2" folder and copy everything (patches, arpeggiator, etc) from it to:
"C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\Z3TA+ 2"
"C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\Z3TA+ 2_new"
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Z3TA+ 2" (again, might be unnecessary - but still).
5. Delete contents of "Cakewalk Content\Z3TA+ 2" OR BETTER just rename it to some other name so Z3ta+2 would not find it's content there and would search in it's VstPlugins folders instead.
6. Start Sonar and perform a VST scan. You should now have two Z3ta+2 instances, one called Z3ta+2 64, and the other Z3ta+2 64_new.
How it should work: your older projects will load "Z3ta+2 64.dll" from "VstPlugins\Z3TA+ 2" which is v2.1, and you can try your new "Z3ta+2 64_new" which is v2.2.
Now, since I personally almost never return to my older projects AND I definitely love the new Z3ta+2 (the fix for the nasty LFO sync/waveshaper bug is finally here, yay!), I don't see the point of doing it myself. Sorry about that, you'll have to test it on your own. But - again - my Virusmod Z3ta+2 loads fine, so this should work. Please comment if any steps are unclear how to perform them. I hope this can be helpful to someone.