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Waves is Relentless with Their Sales

robgb

Genius. Idiot. You Decide.
I get a new email every single day, sometimes more than one. And I've found that if there's a plugin in you're really interested in, just wait long enough and you'll be able to scoop it up for twenty-five bucks.

Anybody picked up any they like? So far I've bought:

1. W43 (noise suppressor)
2. NX (room simulator for headphone mixing)
3. Schep's Omni Channel Strip (my favorite plugin)
4. WavesTune (excellent vocal tuner)
5. Greg Wells VoiceCentric (so-so vocal processor)
6. H-Comp (which I believe was thrown in as a bonus)
7. PuigTec (wonderful warm Pultec style EQ)

I could probably have bought a bundle and possibly paid less, but then I'd have a bunch of extra plugins I have no interest in. And I can't think of anything else I'd want.

It's clear, however, that Waves is aggressively trying to maintain their dominance on the plugin front.
 
I've used Waves plugins since they were released. I have them all & my real only go-to these days is L1 on tracks. I still use some every so often but most of them have been replaced with others I prefer.

Their prices started coming down several years ago when more competition with equal or better quality products came along.
 
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I pretty much have all the Waves stuff I want at this point, so I've stopped paying much attention to the sales. I figure at some point in the coming years if it becomes necessary to update my v9 plugins to v10, I'll hold out for one of those sales on the large bundles and buy it with the voucher you get from buying back into WUP.
 
I tell you what, I updated to v10 and none of my plugins were showing in Cubase or ProTools except the Abby Road stuff. After unsuccessfully trying all the other methods suggested, I uninstalled them all and reinstalled them individually. It was a lot of clicking, but I finally have them back. I really realized how much I use them when I'm in a hurry because they are easy for me. Mostly the compressors and basic EQ. I really missed them when they weren't there.
 
none of my plugins were showing in Cubase or ProTools except the Abby Road stuff.
In Reaper on my Mac the only plugins that show up are AU, unless I completely clear Reaper's cache and rescan all of my plugins. This can take up to an hour and is, frankly, a pain in the ass. This only happens with Waves plugins.
 
In Reaper on my Mac the only plugins that show up are AU, unless I completely clear Reaper's cache and rescan all of my plugins. This can take up to an hour and is, frankly, a pain in the ass. This only happens with Waves plugins.
After I added them individually, they all show up, both in Cubase and ProTools. Something about the bundle just wasn't loading or installing correctly. It was very strange.
 
I tell you what, I updated to v10 and none of my plugins were showing in Cubase or ProTools except the Abby Road stuff. After unsuccessfully trying all the other methods suggested, I uninstalled them all and reinstalled them individually. It was a lot of clicking, but I finally have them back. I really realized how much I use them when I'm in a hurry because they are easy for me. Mostly the compressors and basic EQ. I really missed them when they weren't there.
Some of their plugins are only stable in Pro Tools. I still have plugins I can't use because they don't work in Reaper.
 
In Reaper on my Mac the only plugins that show up are AU, unless I completely clear Reaper's cache and rescan all of my plugins. This can take up to an hour and is, frankly, a pain in the ass. This only happens with Waves plugins.
Yep, same issue with me. I still can't use the PRS plugins, and unfortunately, for me to clear the cache and rescan takes several hours. I think I even tried that once and I still can't get PRS plugins to show up.
 
Relentless / Sales ….. YES!
CLA MixHub for $29. less a couple pesos :sleep: Waiting, waiting ……..
 
I have a lot of them, all bought on sale. They’ve had their sale going for a few years now and now it’s like $49 for their plugins is expensive so I wait until it gets down to like $29 ;)
 
I have a lot of them, all bought on sale. They’ve had their sale going for a few years now and now it’s like $49 for their plugins is expensive so I wait until it gets down to like $29 ;)

I thought the lower price is the actual price and the "regular" price is a pure marketing strategy that no one is actually supposed to buy?! Like some mattress manufacturers deliver price signs with their mattressess to the retail stores that already have a struck out price on them, like e.g.:

1560,-

799,-

which looks like a huge bargain, except it isn't, because at no time and in no place are they actually ever sold for the 1560,- bucks. There was one mattress salesman in Germany who didn't like being dictated prices and tried to undercut the market prices that the manufacturers had collectively decided on, and they started to mess with him. Long story short, he makes his own mattresses now, sells them vastly cheaper than the big guys and his mattresses still win in independantly conducted product comparisons.
This isn't an analogy to waves plugins (I don't own a single one), I'm just really happy with the mattress that I bought...
 
I thought the lower price is the actual price and the "regular" price is a pure marketing strategy that no one is actually supposed to buy?! Like some mattress manufacturers deliver price signs with their mattressess to the retail stores that already have a struck out price on them, like e.g.:

1560,-

799,-

which looks like a huge bargain, except it isn't, because at no time and in no place are they actually ever sold for the 1560,- bucks. There was one mattress salesman in Germany who didn't like being dictated prices and tried to undercut the market prices that the manufacturers had collectively decided on, and they started to mess with him. Long story short, he makes his own mattresses now, sells them vastly cheaper than the big guys and his mattresses still win in independantly conducted product comparisons.
This isn't an analogy to waves plugins (I don't own a single one), I'm just really happy with the mattress that I bought...
Actually, this is not true. I started buying Waves plugins in 2006 and they didn't have big sales back then. Those were the prices they used to be. And? Back then, they were the plugin company all the big studios used, almost the best you could buy (without owning some hardware like UAD). They also had the TDM and Native versions. So people did pay those prices, at least for the TDM version. I think the Native were less. There wasn't a lot of plugin competition. Hardware, yes. Plugin, no.

And most of these have been around for over 10 years, so they got most of the development cost back a long time ago.
 
After decades with Waves, I junked them a couple of years ago when I realized that most of them were being outdone with other plugs that were much better.
Waves emails go to my spam folder :)


Can you mention some alternative companies for these type of plugins? I have a lot of Waves stuff but am always looking for more effects and plugins. Any info would be appreciated.
 
Klanghelm - compression and metering, iZotope for noise reduction and a million other tasks, TDR - dynamic EQ (and everything they have), Valhalla Room/VintageVerb/Plate / DMG Audio for incredible limiting / hi end precision EQ + gating - and I prefer AutoTune instead of WavesTune.
Waves makes really good plugs, but these more niche plugin makers don't do 50 plug-ins.
They do only a few plugs that all their energy goes into (like DMG Audio & TDR & Klanghelm) - and they do sound much better to my ears :)
That is why a lot of top mastering guys use the above.
I also never hear of Waves EQ's compressors or limiters being used in mastering.
 
Pultec and Fairchild I would use Klanghelm MJUC - it's amazing sounding (especially with the AGC control). It was the first compressor plug in that came close to big sounding tube gear
API - when I have compared in the past against my API2500 comp it fell way short - nothing really special.
Older API 550 Eq's VS the plug-ins I had the same experience.
I imagine they can really work for others.
I'm recording with vintage gear so I get the color as it goes into the computer.
Others I understand need to lean on color plugins to glue things together.
All just one man's perspective :)
 
What is the lowest you've seen Scheps Omni Channel go for? It's currently on sale but still $99. I think it's the last Waves plugin I want, I have all the useful ones.
 
Scheps omni Haß been available for 39 and even think 29 at some point.

There are some waves Plugins I don't know too many alternatives to that are as easy. For instance mv2 and maxxvolume
 
I'm currently deciding whether to get the Waves restoration bundle (noise reduction type plugins) or the Izotope RX7 noise reduction plugins, but the Waves plugins are so much cheaper during this sale.

From memory, I've seen every Waves plugin for $29 except for the WNS noise suppressor plugin and perhaps some of their surround sound plugins.
 
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