troubleshooting

plugin not making a sound, not showing up, or asking for something you haven't got? nine times out of ten it's one of the six things below. find your symptom, follow the steps. if none of it lands, email us — we answer.

start here
  • 01our plugins are installed by an installer, not dragged in. download the .pkg (mac) or Setup.exe (windows) and double-click it. copying a .vst3 out of the package by hand gets you the plugin without its sounds — that is the number one cause of silence.
  • 02the sounds are a separate library. the plugin file itself is small. the samples are gigabytes, installed alongside it. no samples means the plugin opens, takes midi, and makes nothing.
  • 03your license key lives in your download portal, not in an email. it's a .txt file sitting next to the installer. chordBox, phatPress, pianoToolz and bassBox use one. garageToolz and the sample packs don't.
  • 04your daw won't see a new plugin until it rescans. after installing, restart the daw or hit rescan in its plugin settings.
what's it doing?
i hit a note and get no sound it's asking me to locate samples my daw can't find the plugin macOS won't let it open my key won't activate it crashes my project

no sound when i play a note

the plugin opens, the interface looks normal, presets load — but the notes are silent.

usual cause: samples missing, or no midi reaching it

  1. check it's actually getting midi

    load it on an instrument / midi track, not an audio track, and make sure that track is armed (record-enabled). in FL Studio this catches people constantly.

    the test: click the keys on the plugin's own on-screen keyboard. if that makes sound but your keyboard doesn't, it's midi routing in the daw, not the plugin.

  2. check the samples are actually on your drive

    the plugin needs its sample library. look here:

    macOS/Users/Shared/belterbox/
    windowsC:\Users\<you>\Documents\belterbox\

    on mac: finder, then shift + cmd + G, paste the path, enter. you should see a folder per product with big .ch1 files inside. .ch1 is correct — that's our packed sample format, not a broken download.

    can't find that folder? search your whole machine for .ch1. if nothing comes back, the samples were never installed — go to step 3.

  3. re-run the installer, all the way through

    go back to your download portal, grab the newest installer for that product, and run it end to end. don't cancel it early — the sample library is the big part and it takes a few minutes. these downloads are large on purpose (bassBox alone is around 2.7 gb of samples).

  4. re-enter your license key

    a plugin that isn't fully activated loads and looks completely normal but stays silent. open it, enter your key again, and check it confirms as activated. if it won't take, see my key won't activate.

  5. samples are there and it's still silent

    then the plugin is looking in the wrong place. it finds its samples through a small pointer file written when you install. if you installed from a different user account than the one you produce on, that pointer landed in the wrong home folder.

    macOS~/Library/Application Support/belterbox/<product>/LinkOSX
    windows%APPDATA%\belterbox\<product>\LinkWindows

    that file should contain the full path to the product's sample folder and nothing else. if it's missing, re-run the installer while logged into the account you actually make music on. still stuck? send us a message — this one we fix in a single reply.

phatPress is different. it's an effect, not an instrument. it has no samples and makes no sound on its own — it processes audio you send through it. drop it on a track that already has sound playing.

it's asking me to locate samples

the plugin opens with a prompt asking you to choose a sample folder, or throws an error while installing the sample location.

usual cause: samples not installed, or the download cut short

  1. don't point it at your plugins folder

    samples never live in your VST3 or Components folder. if that's where you're browsing, that's why it looks empty.

  2. re-download the installer, then run it again

    an extraction or "sample location" error nearly always means the download didn't finish. these are big files and browsers quietly truncate them on a flaky connection. download it again, check the file size looks right, then run it.

  3. if it still asks, point it at the folder yourself

    macOS/Users/Shared/belterbox/<product> Samples
    windowsC:\Users\<you>\Documents\belterbox\<product> Samples

    pick the folder that has the .ch1 files directly inside it.

my daw can't find the plugin

installed it, but it's nowhere in the browser.

usual cause: no rescan, or the daw is looking in the wrong folder

  1. quit the daw fully, then rescan

    • Ableton — settings, plug-ins, turn on VST3 and AU, hit rescan.
    • Logic — Plug-in Manager, select the plugin, reset & rescan selection.
    • FL Studio — plugin manager, find more plugins.

    a daw remembers "this plugin failed" until you force it to look again.

  2. check it's looking in the system folder

    our installers use the standard locations:

    macOS/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/  ·  /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
    windowsC:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

    common trap: if you've set a custom VST3 folder in your daw pointing somewhere else — an old plugin folder, or a presets folder — it will never find ours. either point the custom folder at the path above, or switch the custom folder off and let the daw use the system folders.

  3. on mac, try the other format

    every mac installer gives you both a VST3 and an AU. if the AU refuses to load, use the VST3 instead — same plugin, and Ableton, Logic and Live all support both. look under plug-ins → VST3 rather than the AU list.

macOS won't let it open

"developer cannot be verified", "audio unit v2 could not be opened", or Logic marks it invalid.

usual cause: gatekeeper blocking it before the plugin can load

  1. let it through

    • Sonoma (14) or earlier — right-click (or control-click) the installer, choose open, then click open in the popup.
    • Sequoia (15) and Tahoe (26) — apple removed that shortcut. try to open it normally so it gets blocked, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and hit open anyway.

  2. make sure you're on the current installer

    older installers didn't fully embed apple's notarization receipt, so macs that couldn't reach apple's servers — offline, behind a firewall, on a locked-down studio network — rejected the plugin. the current installers have it baked in and load offline. re-download from your portal before troubleshooting anything else.

  3. clear the cached failure

    once a daw has decided a plugin is invalid, it remembers. quit the daw, then:

    • Logic — delete ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache, reopen logic, let it rescan.
    • Ableton — trash the old plugin from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/, install the new package, then preferences → plug-ins → rescan.

my key won't activate

no key received, "license does not exist", or it says it's registered to a different email.

usual cause: looking in the wrong place, or an old key

  1. look in the download portal, not your inbox

    your key is a .txt file on your download page, right next to the installer — same place you got the plugin. it isn't printed in the order email. open the file, copy the key, paste it in.

  2. check you actually need one

    garageToolz, 90sDrumz and the free sample pack use no key at all. if one of those is asking you for something, it isn't a license key.

  3. "it says i have no internet" (but you do)

    that's our activation server having a moment, not your connection. wait a few minutes and try again — these clear quickly. if it's still failing an hour later, tell us.

  4. "license does not exist" or "registered to a different email"

    we changed license systems partway through 2026, so a few early keys no longer validate. we fix this one by hand — message us with your order number and we'll issue a fresh key the same day. don't buy it again.

it crashes my project

the daw drops out, usually while clicking through presets.

usual cause: a bug we've probably already fixed

  1. update first

    grab the newest installer from your portal — your original download link always points at the current version. the bassBox preset-browser crash, for one, is fixed in 1.0.2.

  2. then tell us, with the log

    crash reports genuinely get fixed. send the daw's crash log plus your daw version and os — on mac the report is in Console → Crash Reports. that's usually all we need to find it.

what you bought

plugins install themselves. sample packs are files you drag in. they're not the same thing, and mixing them up explains a lot of messages.

product type license key samples to install
bassBox instrument plugin yes yes
chordBox instrument plugin yes yes
pianoToolz instrument plugin yes yes
garageToolz instrument plugin none needed yes
phatPress effect plugin yes no samples
90sDrumz sample pack none needed wav files, drag them in

sample pack won't load? if wavs won't open, or your daw sits on "finding sample", the zip didn't extract cleanly — a truncated download can corrupt file extensions on the way out. re-download and unzip again. a file showing as 0 mb is the tell.

still stuck

message us. we answer, usually within a few hours. include these four things and we can normally fix it in one reply instead of five:

  • your order number
  • your daw and os — e.g. "Ableton 12 on macOS Tahoe"
  • which product, and what it's doing
  • a screenshot of the plugin loaded in your daw

and if we can't get it working for you, you get your money back. no drama.

contact support

looking for something more general — downloads, system requirements, updates, licensing? that's all on the FAQ.