Waves MaxxBass: freeware equivalent?

[bduffy]

Man that iLok issue, it's not the fact I have to use an iLok, its the additional cost of the iLok that annoys me. The plug-ins are reduced in price but throw on £30 more for the dongle from the outset. . .

Maybe Waves should think about free iLok dongles with your 1st purchase for a xmas sale But then arent' waves still stuck in the dark ages and not using 64bit yet ?

Yeah, I'm not wild about iLoks, but what can you do when plugins you really love use them? I had to wait 2.5 weeks to use RC-Tube because I needed the iLok.

[tommy_d]

@DMuzik & Tp3: I hear what you're saying...but, erm, let's not go there! iLok, copy protection (etc.) seems to be a touchy subject round here, and I don't want a productive discussion to turn into a flame-fest

What, are you kiddin' me ?

I care less about the iLok thingy... I was marely pointing that buying an iLok AND RBass will DOUBLE the plug's price
(for a single, first timer, waves plug)

Um...I could've put that better, I think I didn't want things to get derailed, that's all (sorry).

And yes, you're absolutely right: if you need an iLok to run the plug then you should factor that in to the price.

[tommy_d]

Christian Budde also had a go at it

He did?! Why didn't you say?

He made a plug to emulate R/MBass. It is called "Bass Extender". Never got it to do what i wanted but if anybody wants to try, go ahead
http://www.savioursofsoul.de/Christian/ ... t-plugins/

Right. D/l'ing now, will try tonight.

Thanks, sunny_j

Also, be careful when changing parameters. His softwares produce really loud clicks or pops when changing parameters !

Noted - thanks for the warning.

[tommy_d]

...Oh, hang on:

"Bass Extender" [...] doesn't really come close to what you know and heard of MaxxBass

Hmmmmmm

Well, I'll give it a try it anyway. I'm a fan of many of Budde's plugs (and his plugin analyser) so it's got to be worth checking out.

[tommy_d]

[...] Waves MaxxBass/Waves RenBass etcetera are hard to substitute with other plugins since they have a unique approach

if you want MaxxBass's technology/sound, get MaxxBass

Maxx/RBass are in a league of their own

...which seems to be the consensus.

Well, fair enough

I'm genuinely surprised, as I say, that there isn't a viable freeware alternative. There are so many good freeware eqs, dynamics processors, 'verbs, delays etc., even freeware versions of more esoteric or specialised processors (real-time pitch correction etc.) that I just assumed - naively, it would seem - that there'd be a free MaxxBass. Clearly I was wrong.

(Maybe that will change. I'm sure Waves are good at what they do but - in the words of Silvanus P. Thompson - "What one fool can do, another can" so perhaps someone will create one, one day)

In the meantime:

[...] create a usable tool yourself. The introduction to that was on page 1 I think. Only that the signal is not bandpassed IIRC, but lowpassed only (up until 225Hz). Can't tell you anything about the waveshaper though. But with so many tools on the market, you can go nuts. Or... grab C.Budde's Chebyshev Waveshaper or Christortion and create your own harmonic fingerprint. The possibilities are endless - you just need to wrap your head around it.

Yep. Further experimentation required. Should be fun

[sunny_j]

Oh and almost forgot about BBE H82 from NomadFactory. Also, give it a go, it can also do some nice stuff on the low end !!

Cheers!

[tommy_d]

Oh and almost forgot about BBE H82 from NomadFactory. Also, give it a go, it can also do some nice stuff on the low end !!

Cheers!

That does look interesting. Not free, though

A side note: one of my associates has a cheap "me too" version of the original BBE hardware, a Behringer SU9920. He always seems vaguely embarrassed about it but it does get used...

[bduffy]

[...] Waves MaxxBass/Waves RenBass etcetera are hard to substitute with other plugins since they have a unique approach

if you want MaxxBass's technology/sound, get MaxxBass

Maxx/RBass are in a league of their own

...which seems to be the consensus.

Well, fair enough

I'm genuinely surprised, as I say, that there isn't a viable freeware alternative. There are so many good freeware eqs, dynamics processors, 'verbs, delays etc., even freeware versions of more esoteric or specialised processors (real-time pitch correction etc.) that I just assumed - naively, it would seem - that there'd be a free MaxxBass. Clearly I was wrong.

(Maybe that will change. I'm sure Waves are good at what they do but - in the words of Silvanus P. Thompson - "What one fool can do, another can" so perhaps someone will create one, one day)

In the meantime:

[...] create a usable tool yourself. The introduction to that was on page 1 I think. Only that the signal is not bandpassed IIRC, but lowpassed only (up until 225Hz). Can't tell you anything about the waveshaper though. But with so many tools on the market, you can go nuts. Or... grab C.Budde's Chebyshev Waveshaper or Christortion and create your own harmonic fingerprint. The possibilities are endless - you just need to wrap your head around it.

Yep. Further experimentation required. Should be fun

I'm not surprised, not everything is matched in freeware (especially if you're on a Mac!). The "big" companies do get some things right, with their legions of white-coated analog modeling scientists working in citadels inside mountains. I'd say there are a few things Waves make that remain unrivaled, but that of course goes the other way too. But I do think no one's cracked the bass harmonic-thing like Waves has (and, again, cross-platform? Forget about it).

[Alfa210]

it can also do some nice stuff on the low end !!

Cheers!

Also, RetroBandLite can do some nice stuff on the low end.

[bduffy]

Oh and almost forgot about BBE H82 from NomadFactory. Also, give it a go, it can also do some nice stuff on the low end !!

Cheers!

Actually, that's a great point about BBE! I haven't tried those in awhile (except I just got the SonicMax for iphone!), but I recall their bass enhancement to sound more "bumped" and "nosey" than RBass. I'm gonna grab the demo and try them out again.

[Obsolete236871]

Oh and almost forgot about BBE H82 from NomadFactory. Also, give it a go, it can also do some nice stuff on the low end !!

Cheers!

That does look interesting. Not free, though

A side note: one of my associates has a cheap "me too" version of the original BBE hardware, a Behringer SU9920. He always seems vaguely embarrassed about it but it does get used...

Funny . this Behringer thing is cheaper then the software - 95 Euros here in Germany!

Without the Waves RBass/Maxxbass still my second choice is to do it D-I-Y- Style: parallel compression, saturation etcetera and blend the original with the processed

[bduffy]

Oh and almost forgot about BBE H82 from NomadFactory. Also, give it a go, it can also do some nice stuff on the low end !!

Cheers!

That does look interesting. Not free, though

A side note: one of my associates has a cheap "me too" version of the original BBE hardware, a Behringer SU9920. He always seems vaguely embarrassed about it but it does get used...

Funny . this Behringer thing is cheaper then the software - 95 Euros here in Germany!

Without the Waves RBass/Maxxbass still my second choice is to do it D-I-Y- Style: parallel compression, saturation etcetera and blend the original with the processed

There's a reason why Behringer is cheaper...

[kbaccki]

Without the Waves RBass/Maxxbass still my second choice is to do it D-I-Y- Style: parallel compression, saturation etcetera and blend the original with the processed

And with something like voxengo soniformer you could get some really fine-grained compression across the spectrum...

[tommy_d]

I'm not surprised, not everything is matched in freeware

So it would seem!

[...] legions of white-coated analog modeling scientists working in citadels inside mountains [...]

A nice image Reminded me of something Manfred Mann said about Abbey Road:

"EMI Studios was [...] like working in a hospital. There would be guys in white coats buzzing around every morning and the place was pristine clean. It wasn't the funky, creative, cool and groovy atmosphere that people assume it was. EMI was looked after better than any studio in the world has ever been looked after."

(quoted in Good Vibrations: A History of Record Production by Mark Cunningham)

A post-script: I've just read Mike Senior's Mix Rescue piece in the December issue of SOS. He describes using Voxengo LFMaxPunch for precisely what I'm talking about There's even a nice big screenshot (page 97, top RHS) Which is pretty timely - cheers, Mr Senior!

Another post-script: On the freeware side, that Christortion plug is very cool and has lots of potential for this kind of thing. I may investigate this further...

[mandolarian]

Thread wouldn't be complete without a tumble into the subterranean depths of Lowender from Refuse: http://www.kvraudio.com/db/2547
No psycho-acoustic-babble, just mo' beefy bottom. Synthetic bottom, sure, but your kidneys and neighbors won't know the difference. Great when used on wimpy guitars and banjos, in a deeply troubling way.