# Weighing in on Waves



## TheWildToad (Nov 10, 2014)

What are your guys' opinion on Waves Gold vs. Waves Platinum? Overpriced? Worth it? Any better bang-for-your-buck programs out there? I know Waves is a pain with the iLocks as well.....

How about it's strengths in mixing vs. mastering? 

Currently, I do all of my post in Logic 9 with the stock plugins, it's not enough anymore :(
I'm looking to get down on some serious post production software if it's worth it.


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## passenger57 (Nov 10, 2014)

My friend raves about the Waves SSL 4000 Collection. I'm thinking about taking the plunge


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## shapeshifter00 (Nov 11, 2014)

I would have gone with UAD instead of Waves if I had the budgrt for it, but a while ago they had a sale on the their Sound Design suite for 300$ or so and that would be a good deal. I only own 1 Waves plugin, but I have tried a lot of them. In my opinion If you want a good value for money combo I would go for Toneboosters All plugins + Valhalla Room (Algo reverb) + Slate Digital VCC at around a total of 300$. Also Fabfilter is great. Depends on what you need and the budget.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 11, 2014)

I like Waves (and they haven't used the iLok for a few years now, btw). It's certainly not the only game in town, but they're typically solid workhorses. I'd wait for Black Friday - they're always doing sales, but the Black Friday ones tend to be the best of the year iirc. I have Gold plus a few others (Lo Air, L3-16 etc) - I often think about upgrading but never really been compelled as the set I have covers most things really. You can go down a rabbit hole of particular console / outboard emulation, that doesn't particularly interest me.


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## TheWildToad (Nov 11, 2014)

Thanks, and really good advice on the Black Friday option--I will certainly set my sights on buying gold that day!


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## Marius Masalar (Nov 12, 2014)

Unless you really need to collect them all, I don't know that the bundle is the best way to go with Waves.

They make terrific plugins, but at least for me it's usually been a matter of specific things I'm looking for from them, which has meant that it's better to buy single plugins rather than a large bundle, especially since places like AudioDeluxe always have Waves plugins marked down to crazy prices.

Wait long enough and you can get every Waves plugin you want for pennies.


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## KTopp (Nov 12, 2014)

Another place to check out is http://www.dontcrack.com/
They have this thing called "Private Deals Zone" when you register on their forum. Sometimes it's even cheaper than AudioDeluxe!

But Waves.. eh, I don't really like them that much to be honest. There are better sounding algorithms out there and I kinda regret buying the stuff..

I bought iZotope Alloy 2 channelstrip on black friday last year, and I've been using it in all my productions since then - the best investment I ever made I think. :wink: 

I would choose a few powerful and versatile tools (instead of a lot of mediocre, fancy-looking, overpriced stuff) and learn those tools well! ~o)

*EDIT*: I should make it clear that the waves products I don't like are the analog modeling stuff only, and not the pure and proudly digital plugins - I like and use some of those like Doubler, Renaissance Comp and Renaissance Bass.


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## jaeroe (Nov 12, 2014)

when they have sales Waves usually sells their Gold native for $300 or $400. that is a pretty great deal for what you get. There are a lot of great things out in the world today, but I do get a ton of use out of my Gold. it's huge if you multiple rigs that need to have identical software as well. very cost effective that way.


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## wst3 (Nov 12, 2014)

I like a lot of Waves Plug-ins a lot, but I've not been impressed with some of the more recent fare, which is emulating old hardware.

To me the value of Waves is the nearly limitless control. Note I've been using them since they used a parallel port dongle, so part of this may be comfort/familiarity.

If I want microscopic control of a compressor I use one of the Waves C family. If I want an emulation I turn to UA. 

I also find that their sound design plug-ins (mondo-mod, doppler, doubler, enigma, etc) are incredibly useful, and I think they sound great.

So for me it's Waves for stuff that doesn't try to emulate hardware, and therefore offers more control, and UA for emulations.

Your mileage may vary!


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## tmm (Nov 12, 2014)

I like the Waves plugins I have well enough, but I've found that, for comparable plugins I have from other good developers, I like the alternatives better.

For example, all the M/S plugins I have from Brainworx sound clearer to my ears than the comparable Waves plugins (and they tend to have more control, too). The tone of the Softube Tube Delay (to my ears) smokes anything similar I've tried from Waves, though the Waves plugins had more controls (note, I didn't say more flexibility). Waves GTR sounds surprisingly good (there are A LOT of worthless amp sim plugins out there), but the comparable Overloud and UAD amp modeling plugs sound even better / more realistic to my ears. I'd take my TSAR-1 or B2 over any Waves 'verb I've owned or used (which were plenty good in their own right).

Waves seems to be good for the money, and generally pretty flexible, but there are others I would recommend more highly for every application.


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## Arbee (Nov 12, 2014)

I'm not sure that everyone would agree, but in my experience the more I learn and understand the less it matters what I use, within reason of course.

.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 13, 2014)

Arbee @ Thu Nov 13 said:


> I'm not sure that everyone would agree, but in my experience the more I learn and understand the less it matters what I use, within reason of course.
> 
> .



I'd agree.


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## TheWildToad (Nov 13, 2014)

I feel that way too, about DAW's and plugins. I just wanted to find something that works better than the plugins that come with Logic X itself.....a bit more specialized for mixing/mastering, with more control, ya know?


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## TheWildToad (Nov 21, 2014)

It's on sale pretty cheap at pluginboutique.com!


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## davidgary73 (Nov 21, 2014)

@TheWildToad

I've tried lot's of EQ plugins including Waves SSL bundle and currently SSL Duende Native Essentials bundle is my main go to EQ and the buss compressor in Logic Pro X. Other EQ plugins i occasionally use are Fab Filter Pro Q2 and Acustica Nebula Pro 3rd party EQ's. 

I highly recommend checking out SSL Duende Native Essentials Bundle as is low on latency, CPU efficient and you can have as many instances you want plus you can do a full mix just with them. 

SSL Duende Native Essentials Bundle is having sale for the price of 129 Euro. Sales ending on the 25th Nov @ http://store.solidstatelogic.com/catalog/31

and Slate Digital newly launched VMR priced at USD 149 with free iLok @ http://www.slatedigital.com/products/vmr

Unfortunately all require iLok. Try out the demo and see which suits your needs. 

Cheers


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## rayinstirling (Nov 22, 2014)

I have a hat full of Waves plugins. Honestly, I could remove the lot following playing with the new Slate Digital VMR.


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## ceemusic (Nov 22, 2014)

I can still mix projects using the Waves plugins I purchased over 10 years ago, they still hold up.
I prefer my old Waves CLA's over the new VMR FG-116 too.

I ended up upgrading to Mercury when it was on sale for 1200.00 about 3 years, WUP'd once.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 22, 2014)

Arbee @ Thu Nov 13 said:


> I'm not sure that everyone would agree, but in my experience the more I learn and understand the less it matters what I use, within reason of course.
> 
> .



I liked this post so much the first time, I thought I'd +1 it again. Perfectly expressed.


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## dgburns (Nov 22, 2014)

Guy Rowland @ Sat Nov 22 said:


> Arbee @ Thu Nov 13 said:
> 
> 
> > I'm not sure that everyone would agree, but in my experience the more I learn and understand the less it matters what I use, within reason of course.
> ...



.......and seconded!


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## rayinstirling (Nov 22, 2014)

dgburns @ Sat Nov 22 said:


> Guy Rowland @ Sat Nov 22 said:
> 
> 
> > Arbee @ Thu Nov 13 said:
> ...


Carried


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## olajideparis (Nov 22, 2014)

Waves is the best bang for your buck package of plugins bar none. I'm sure UAD is great but the price of entry is pretty high and if you can't get your work done with waves gold or platinum then something else is the problem.


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## Rv5 (Nov 22, 2014)

I miss UAD so much - they'd be my choice. However, loads of Waves plugins are amazing. In the same vein as Arbee, whichever you use it's second to how you use them. There are so many good options. UAD got me a sound I wanted quicker and in a way I haven't found I can do with other plugs, but that isn't the plugins so much as me and what I respond to if you see what I mean? (Though they do sound very very good)

Reaper has some grat stock plugins. It comes with a lot of the Stillwell Plug-ins (minus the graphic interface). Slate Digital stuff is awesome too.

Waves standout tools for me are the L2 and L3. The denoiser/hum/click plugins I'm sure just work on black magic. The Vocal Rider and Bass Rider are also really great tools. Doppler and Doubler are really cool for FX and messing around with things. 

In terms of analogue sound it just so happens I really prefer UAD and Slate however the Waves CLA-76 is amazing, the SSL strip is also reete tasty as is the API stuff, not had my hands on any of the newer stuff but it's probably really good.

Sound Toys are lovely too... so is Fab Filter and you can also get really far with Logic/CuBase etc stock plugins... 

In short, +1 to Arbee


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## Ah_dziz (Nov 22, 2014)

Platinum was the sweet spot for me. You don't get much more past that until you get to Mercury. It covers all the stuff I want from waves. It doesn't have all their silly "modeled" plugins that have the fancy photorealistic GUIs but it has tons of incredibly useful mix tools that take hardly any CPU and sound great while giving you compatibility with almost any studio in the world. I didn't really,read this thread to see if there is a sale on or something but if you can grab platinum for a good price and don't have your basic mix processors covered in depth already than its an incredible bargain. I use c4 in at least one place on every session ever and still reach for their c1 compressor and their gate when I need a very straightforward and accurate dynamics processor. Furthermore the renBass plugin is still the best bass enhancer I've ever used and you get cool stuff like vitamin which is becoming a staple for me as well. To cap off this unnecessarily long post I think the tools included in platinum are enough for anybody to get a great mix out of (as long as you have a real reverb). Anyone who wants a comprehensive set of standard studio tools that sound great and have some of the most straightforward GUIs ever can't really go wrong. If you already have a large variety of mixing tools that you are happy with this won't give you much you need and you're probably better off just grabbing a few of the more original and irreplaceable Waves plugs like renBass and c4.

JJ


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## Ah_dziz (Nov 22, 2014)

Also I'd avoid most of their vintage emulations. They tend to be overpriced and most if not all have competitively prices alternatives which outperform them. I've tried them all in other people's studios and they really,don't have much to recommend them at the prices they charge. 

JJ


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## TakeABow (Nov 23, 2014)

Waves and I have a love-hate relationship.

I got Gold way back when I was first getting started to get a suite of quality basic effects. I then expanded to get a bunch of other waves plugins as well as a lot of stuff from other vendors and slowly replaced my reliance on Waves. I really don't like the WUP much.

A lot of their emulations are not bad, but many have been surpassed by other plugin companies now. I still use REDD, RS56, MaxBass, and the CLA-76 from time to time. The SSL stuff is quite nice, but the Duende and UAD versions are pretty comparable (And the new Slate offering seems to be also).

I've since mostly moved on to other companies though.

Fabfilter & Slate plugins make up the majority on my tracks these days.


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## ceemusic (Nov 23, 2014)

Speaking of Waves, they're giving away a new plugin free for a Black Friday promo.

Sign up & info here-

http://www.waves.com/lpn/black-friday/2 ... pre-signup


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