Waves Plugins

GTE

Hello,

I mix in the box and to be honest aside from some free plugins I heard about in here and elsewhere on the web I mainly use the plugins that come with a DAW. I have to say I do like the Cubase 5 ones. They are not flashly looking, they are functional and I think they do the job well.

I hear so much about Waves all over the web or in Uni, especially one of my lecturers going on and on about how they have a few Waves bundles on some of the machines. He seems very proud.

What are the gems of the Waves product list?
http://www.waves.com/content.aspx?id=91

They have so many plugins and so many bundles that I dont know where to start.
It also seems that the prices for the bundles are massive too.

Does anyone here rock out on a certain set of Waves plugins that they really love? Which ones are they and why do you like them so much? Maybe a silly question since I think most of the people here would have bought them and not sampled them on other peoples machines but are they worth the money?
As I have said my Uni has some waves bundles but because I dont really know Pro Tools and Logic well enough I never feel so used to the DAW's that I can really be impressed by a plugin.

Just some questions from a cheap newbie haha.

Im looking to in the next year or two to expand my setup and get some nice plugins as I think I have become too dependent on plugins supplied with DAWs. I want to broaden my world!

I am curious as to why Waves seem to pop up a lot when ask around. Maybe the people I do ask and the articles I read are not looking in a wide enough scope and that there are many many other plugin makers which are better or maybe Waves do have a worthy stronghold in the market, maybe I am reading the whole thing horribly wrong.

Thanks,
bbk

PMI

To be honest.... all of 'um !! they are pretty much the best out there for all rounders.

I think vocal rider is the biggest helps ive ever had in life apart from finally not having to wear nappies in bed

GTE

PMI wrote: »

To be honest.... all of 'um !! they are pretty much the best out there for all rounders.

I think vocal rider is the biggest helps ive ever had in life apart from finally not having to wear nappies in bed

Yeah, the vocal rider is one I have never used but I read in Sound on Sound how to make your own one in Cubase and it really helps. I would love to try the real thing, though I do like being able to set it up in Cubase. I cant help thinking though that since the Waves Vocal Rider is easy to setup that I could get much better results out of it.

flyswatter

The Waves Mercury bundle is amazing but incredibly expensive.

It probably has all the effects you will ever need to be honest.

I've heard great things about Sonnox too.

UAD have a good reputation and do some nice bundles.

Always look for the education deals to save money on software.

madtheory

This has been discussed here before. Almost everything Waves make is done better/ cheaper by someone else. For example their various "vintage" eqs. I guess the advantage of those things is they can speed up the work, but IMO the cost negates that. If you invest time instead, a lot of the modern bundled plugs will give the same quality.

It doesn't help the way Waves bundle things, though I hear the latest thing is you can buy them singly? Didn't check their site because I've no interest in their products.

Be savvy and shop around, try all the demos, there's tons of choice beyond Waves.

SeanHurley

Waves Gold is a great package that covers most bases, however, if I was to pick a bundle of plugins that I could no longer live without its the CLA Classic Compressors - they seem to improve everything you put thru them.

Waves are doing some ridiculously cheap deals on single plugins at the moment (not on their cutting edge stuff but still useful plugins) e.g. all the renaissance plugs are being sold for $38 native - a good bit of business would be the Ren EQ, Ren Comp and Ren Reverb for $114 which at current dollar rates is about 80euro.

madtheory

IMO the DigiEQ3 and Air Reverb are far better than the Waves REQ and Ren Reverb. The bundled Logic plugins are better too. The R Comp though, is great.

PaulBrewer

A 'must' try, in my opinion, is the CLA compressor bundle.

If there's better than that at any price I'd like to know about it.

trackmixstudio

Paul is right.
Waves CLA compressors are unbeatable.
I use either waves SSL or URS Channel Strip Pro for eq on every track, sometimes with Sonnox eq in front to fix fizz or rumble.
Waves SSL is very aggressive whereas CSP is more "Squishy" so they work well for different things.
The gate on SSL is fantastic. Not too much into the compressor though.
The compressors on CSP are fantastic.
If I could only have one 3rd party plugin it would be URS CSP without a doubt.

SonasRec

I use renaissance eq & compressor on a lot of tracks. Low latency & light cpu load. They are going cheap as individual plug ins at the moment.

GTE

Cool replies.

I guess they really do have a well deserved strong hold in the market.

I best see if I can get a try of those CLA compressors now.
I have a little mixing project from here and its sounding a little dull in places.

I have also been eyeing up the Cubase 6 for education. Nice price.

Tangly

All these guys do quality plugins that have demos to try out.Waves stuff is good but some of the plugins are ancient they throw in the bundles,also different compressors have different character so it's worth searching around trying out different plugins.The idea that the Waves bundles are the be all and end all is a falsehood.There is a fantastic amount of choice out there that won't break the bank.

http://www.pspaudioware.com/
http://antress.blogspot.com/ ....free!
http://www.nomadfactory.com/
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/
http://www.fabfilter.com/

Good luck!

old gregg

cheers Tangly. I've never heard of the Modern plugins stuff there. I'll be giving some of those a spin over the weekend maybe. You rate them yea?

DamagedTrax

if you're talking "antress modern" then they're absolute garbage in fancy clothes.

Tangly

They're a well respected bunch of plugins so try them all and see what you think.
I'd forgotten about the Bootsy plugins as well,they're excellent and also free.Here's the link to them http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/

It is slightly overwhelming when you have so much to choose from so i'll give you a quick list of stuff that i mainly use.

PSP Old Timer compressor-I use this mainly on Drums.
PSP Vintage Warmer compressor-Good for pretty much anything!
FabFilter ProC-This is my workhorse compressor.Low CPU,easy to use.
DMG Equality-I love this eq!Low CPU,nice interface.Cheap!
Bootsy EQ-Free,smooth colouration of sound.
PSP sQuad-Excellent bunch of quality EQ's.
CamelCrusher-Distortion freebie from the Camel Audio website.

It'll take a while untill you settle into what you like to use but i think once you've nailed your bread and butter plugins you'll have a good set of usable tools.Check out YouTube for reviews too!

Tangly

DamagedTrax wrote: »

if you're talking "antress modern" then they're absolute garbage in fancy clothes.

I think the fact that they're free and if there's one in the pack that's a keeper they're worth trying out.At the end of the day it's down to what works for you and pleases your ear.The fact that you consider them "garbage" is your opinion.Trashing them and offering no constructive alternative helps nobody.Just sayin'.

DamagedTrax

they sound like toss. they break up under any serious compression and the attack release curves are horrible. they're thrown together with free SE modules with absolutly no original code and because of the SE code they're buggy as hell.. better?

GTE

DamagedTrax wrote: »

they sound like toss. they break up under any serious compression and the attack release curves are horrible. they're thrown together with free SE modules with absolutly no original code and because of the SE code they're buggy as hell.. better?

I don't mean to chime in what could be called negatively on wee conflict but that is much better now that I understand why they can be considered garbage.

flyswatter

DamagedTrax wrote: »

they sound like toss. they break up under any serious compression and the attack release curves are horrible. they're thrown together with free SE modules with absolutly no original code and because of the SE code they're buggy as hell.. better?

Are they really that bad? That seemed harsh but you would know a lot better than me. What would you recommend instead?

DamagedTrax

IMO they really are that bad. compare them to waves CLA/PYE/Puigchild or UAD 1176, lA2A, 33609 or any softube.

there's a world of differance between professionally analog modelled compressors and cheap SE modules dressed up to look vintage.

at they end of the day its your own ears that pass judgement but personally i wouldnt put them anywhere near a mix i was working on.

look at them as you would a behringer compressor - just dont do it!

Tangly

DamagedTrax wrote: »

they sound like toss. they break up under any serious compression and the attack release curves are horrible. they're thrown together with free SE modules with absolutly no original code and because of the SE code they're buggy as hell.. better?

Then i guess we better get another opinion to level the playing field a little
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov10/articles/qa-1110-1.htm

My point was give them a go.If they threaten the stability of your DAW then ditch them,if you don't like them then ditch 'em.Of course there are better quality plugins out there that cost,if you want something to play around with for nothing they are just that.Expecting the quality of the Waves,PSP,Voxengo,UAD etc isn't the issue.Give the Antress stuff a miss and have a look at the other links i threw you.Experiment and have fun

DamagedTrax

its not about price.

i use stuff on pro work from bootsie, stillwell and loads of other cheap and free plugins, infact the free molot compressor often gets picked over UAD stuff... i just disagree strongly that antress are any good. thats my professional opinion as working engineer.

but at end of the day its only 1 persons opinion so take it or leave it, doesnt really matter

madtheory

The ddmf linear phase eq is far better than the Waves offering. It's the only reason I still use the fxpansion VST to RTAS wrapper which is quite buggy in PT these days.