Waves plugins for poor people!

[McQ714]

Most of the Waves gear is absolute top quality; for some reason alot of people knock it, probably most have never even used their plug-ins. The SSL channel strip is better than good.

the SSL along with all other native bundles are 20% this month. TDM bundles are 50% off.

i agree.. waves stuff is excellent. very stable in my experience. people knock for a few reasons.
1) they use iLok
2) the bundles aren't cheap, but in the grand scheme of things, they aren't as expensive as they seem to be.
3) and probably the biggest reason for most people.. waves used some pretty shady tactics to find studios that were using illegitimate plugins a few years back. to this i say, shame on you studios for charging people to record in your studios and using pirated software. you deserve to be fined!

[anybody human]

out of those 3 I would take IR-L - it's a decent convolution reverb, especially if you download some good impulses like the Briscati ones, and at that price it's a no brainer.

The Renaissance stuff is modelled on the Pultec gear and is intended to specifically colour the sound in the way that gear did, so it's more a case of whether you want that sound.

But if you are picking one of those 3 definitely go the IR-L.

I'm in agreement with pretty much everything that's been said.

If u need an convolution reverb, this is a killer deal. Definitely get the Bricasti impulses, google it. Renaissance EQ is solid also. Waves best plugins are always said to be the SSL. A friend of mine swears by the EQ and uses them on almost every channel in his studio work.

Stillwell plugins are fantastic and the prices are ridiculous for such quality. Rocket compressor is amazing. I really like 1973 EQ but the Vibe EQ is also excellent, a lot of character.

Fabfilter Pro Q is the plugin I use the most, by a long shot.

[condra]

I don't know much about Waves but $25 for a good Convolution Reverb seems kinda brilliant.

[H20nly]

I don't know much about Waves but $25 for a good Convolution Reverb seems kinda brilliant.

same here.
how does the iLok piece work? i've never used it, it's a dongle right? do you have to own one in advance???

[condra]

I just read about the iLok thing. Not a chance. Goodbye Waves.

[twisted-space]

If you don't like dongles, it might be worth checking out Liquidsonics reverberate or reverberate core.

They also have a free/donationware LE version and an Filterate LE paragraphic eq, both of which are very nice (and have CUDA support).

[Forge.]

my iLok is about 6 or 7 years old and it has the Waves gold bundle and Antares (Autotune etc) and some other bits and pieces - it just sits in a USB hub and is no big deal - and it makes it nice and easy to move to a different machine (or partition, like boot camped Windoze) and use my plugs there

but if you don't already have one then I guess these no-brainer deals aren't quite as easy done... unless you're planning to get a few then it might be worth it - although TBH I still think it would be worth it for IR-L

[H20nly]

my iLok is about 6 or 7 years old and it has the Waves gold bundle and Antares (Autotune etc) and some other bits and pieces - it just sits in a USB hub and is no big deal - and it makes it nice and easy to move to a different machine (or partition, like boot camped Windoze) and use my plugs there

but if you don't already have one then I guess these no-brainer deals aren't quite as easy done... unless you're planning to get a few then it might be worth it - although TBH I still think it would be worth it for IR-L

thanks...

so i looked up purchasing an iLok... the price is okay... if the plugs are good. so, just for confirmation when you "move to a different machine" you have to install the VST on all of them and then use the iLok to allow access right?

[Forge.]

so, just for confirmation when you "move to a different machine" you have to install the VST on all of them and then use the iLok to allow access right?

yep.

[kev herb]

seeing this thread pop up again i thought as the op id say what i ended up getting in the end.

i got IR-L and had to buy an ilok2 so the cost was about the same as reverberate in the end but i went with waves as the IR library is better and reverberate in their own admission say their library is basic and recommend adding third party IRs whereas waves boasted a large high quality library of IRs.

installing it and registering it was annoying to say the least and i was surprised to see i only had about 4 IR presets only to find out i had to download them myself from acoustic.net (no batch download or batch import so all one at a time) and there is alot to get before my WUP runs out in a year. you can however get then ALL on DVD for the cost of the postage which is fine if you re in the USA but i am in UK and it was going to cost me $30+. also on ableton waves AU is not supported so VST only!

other than that now im using it im very happy with it and the IRs i have downloaded are VERY good (i already had the free M7 IRs for using in Kontakt3...also very good) and it is the reverb i was missing so im glad i got it

[H20nly]

thanks

[d-track]

oneknob series is the shit

[3phase]

none.
Renaissance waves plugins have nothing special. there are indeed transparent but I'll go for fabfilter plug-ins then.

i just checked them against the fabfilter ones and the allmost 20 year old waves hold up very good..

L1 ultra and Q10 are still very effektiv tools and the renesiance series does a pretty good job to get away from the 100% digtal sound.. renisiance deesser is worth to mention too.. because when you need a deesser this one does the job pretty well.
In general waves has more specialized tools for real audio engineering tasks.

However the fab stuff has a soundquality that is high end level and with the old pricing of the waves i share your opinion that the fab´s are a better price/value relation..

I guess thats one of the reason waves is lowering their prices now. The benefits of competition...

Main problem with the waves is the i lok protection.. i personally wont use dongled software on stage..and when live ever gets stable on 3rd party plugs one actually would like to use wave plugs on stage too.

[H20nly]

nvrmd