Waves plugins?

Kämpfer

Kämpfer

New Metal Member
Aug 1, 2010
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Melbourne, Australia
Do you guys think its worth investing in some Waves plugins?
what do you think would be the 'must have's? (Rcomp? C6? MaxxBass?)
is it worth purchasing a bundle or the plugins individually?

Thanks
 
You are going to get a ton of mixed answers on this. I personally like having some Waves plugins at my disposal. I think that the Gold bundle is the best value of all. You get a nice spread of useful stuff and it's not too expensive. The other obvious answer and the one i'm sure you will get from a lot of people is that you can make great music with stock plugins if you know how to use the tools. I felt that adding the waves gold bundle to my protools rig gave me a few extra goodies that i didn't have. There are also loads of free/demo plugins out there as well. Check out some of the massey demos, they kick ass. Even some vst stuff on there now i think. I'm still not 100% sold on VCC yet, but i don't come from the analog world, i have RC Tube VCC and I have nothing against it at all, it's cool. But I don't think it would be necessary for me to have it. Once again I might not be using the tool correctly. I don't think you could go wrong with any of the Steven Slate stuff.

Cheers.
 
They have a lot of good stuff, but they also have monthly sales so it's worth waiting for the stuff you want to go on sale. Whether to get a bundle or individual depends on your needs. I think the C4/6, CLA comps, SSL bundle, and bass rider get near universally good reviews here. In addition to those I'm personally a fan of the ren series, trans-x, and tune.
It's also worth noting that they have the best self-managed anti-piracy system I've used.
 
Sure, Waves is great, no doubt. I'd recommend it. But...after a while the question becomes, how is waves different than duende, URS, UAD, Stillwell and other competitors. Thats when everyone has their own form of opinion. Some of those competitors may be tweaked to sound just as good as the more expensive ones and cost a fraction of the price. Ultimately, with any plugin, I think the real question is, how good are you?
 
I think C6 is the only Waves plug I couldn't do without. In my opinion, almost of their other plugs (at least the ones I can think of) have competing counterparts that do the job better.

EQ - DMG Audio EQuilibrium
Mix Compressor (SSL style) - Cytomic The Glue, SSL Duende
Mix Compressor (Neve style) - UAD 33609
Channel Compressor - UAD 1176/LA2A/etc.
Channel Strip (SSL style) - SSL Duende or UAD SSL
Channel Strip (Neve style) - UAD 88RS
EQ (Pultec style) - UAD Pultec
Modulation/Effects - Soundtoys
Harmonic Distortion - Soundtoys Decapitator, Kush UBK-1, Slate VCC
Tape - Slate VTM, UAD Studer/Ampex, Massey Tapehead
Reverb - Audioease Altiverb, Lexicon PCM Bundle, EastWest Spaces, Valhalla, etc.
Stereo Widener - Dr. MS

I know I'm leaving some categories out but you get the idea.

Personally, I'd invest in a UAD card over a Waves Bundle.
 
C6
Renaissance bundle(especially RVox and RDeesser, strangely enough haha)
CLA Comps
SSL Pack

Having said that I've heard of lots of people having great experiences with the UAD cards. If I was working full time on a stationary computer and was going to buy plugins I'd probably pick up one of those. But I switch between the studio mac and my laptop a lot, so I need native plugins(preferably with TDM for the studio).
 
Pretty much what everyone has said.... i'd demo the ssl pack before you buy it. I almost never use it. Things I DO use religiously - Vcomp, RVox, C4, CLA comps, L2, API eq's and 2500
 
" Plus with Waves be ready to dish out cash to upgrade their plugs. Which sucks. "

I don't think everyone truly understands the WUP. Once you buy the plugins they are yours. If you want to update because there is a new plugin in the bundle or a major update you can. If not don't update. I think everyone thinks that once a year you have to update. That is not the case at all.
 
If you can, wait til Black Friday or some kind of sale. Picked up some Renaissance and CLA stuff then - very happy with them.
 
I love waves plugs. For me the SSL bundle, R-series, L1, and a few others are indispensable.
There are some 3rd party websites out there that sell them a lot cheaper than the waves website as well.
 
I use Waves plugin everyday. I also love Waves as a company (one of the best technical and sale support on earth).

Most used plugin for me:
SSL bundle
C1sc
Rcomp and Rdeesser
API 550
Puigtec eqp1
Doubler
TransX
Heq
 
You guys have probably noticed I make a point not to come on here and pimp the products, rather help out when needed.

However as mentioned above, there are some pretty ridiculously low prices right now (during the special this month) on both the SSL 4000 Collection and the CLA Classics Comps. It would be a good time to grab them if you want/need them.

All the best,

Tim at Waves
 
I loved my Waves plug ins before I got my UAD plug ins. That being said, Waves do have a few Plug ins that are really handy that don’t have much competition. The Waves Bass and Vocal Riders are great.
 
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