The Waves Update Plan scam

[Ah_Dziz]

I gotta say that I have had uniformly good interaction with waves. I've paid WUP once and then I upgraded my platinum to diamond last year for a crazy low price. The one WUP paid was when they added vst3 and then all their sidechaining worked easily in cubase. Outside of that you can always get point releases regardless of your WUP status. I can see why people have issues with them, but I never felt they were trying to trick me In Any way, plus I've had a couple issues over the years and a single phonecall had them fixed within 24 hours. So meh. If you don't like the model they run the business with, just skip em.
I like more than enough of the plugins to use them on the regular and that also gives compatibility with damn near every other studio out there. Hell I won't even have to pay WUP when I do a new build on my workstation unless they've added plugins to my bundle that I want.

Just my 2 cents
JJ

[arkmabat]

Wait for a sale and just buy an upgrade pack with more for less, then you get WUP again and new free plugins, too. It's basically a rip-off to just update and nothing else when upgrades get you new stuff and freebie plugins on a good sale.

[10bd01]

I gotta say that I have had uniformly good interaction with waves. I've paid WUP once and then I upgraded my platinum to diamond last year for a crazy low price. The one WUP paid was when they added vst3 and then all their sidechaining worked easily in cubase. Outside of that you can always get point releases regardless of your WUP status. I can see why people have issues with them, but I never felt they were trying to trick me In Any way, plus I've had a couple issues over the years and a single phonecall had them fixed within 24 hours. So meh. If you don't like the model they run the business with, just skip em.
I like more than enough of the plugins to use them on the regular and that also gives compatibility with damn near every other studio out there. Hell I won't even have to pay WUP when I do a new build on my workstation unless they've added plugins to my bundle that I want.

Just my 2 cents
JJ

Thanks for chiming in with your experience, JJ. It's good to hear you have a positive customer experience with them.

[10bd01]

Wait for a sale and just buy an upgrade pack with more for less, then you get WUP again and new free plugins, too. It's basically a rip-off to just update and nothing else when upgrades get you new stuff and freebie plugins on a good sale.

Thanks, arkmabat. I was wondering about this - how much more expensive it would be in a few years to WUP vs just buying the plugins outright again.

[Hyperwave00]

I gotta say that I have had uniformly good interaction with waves. I've paid WUP once and then I upgraded my platinum to diamond last year for a crazy low price. The one WUP paid was when they added vst3 and then all their sidechaining worked easily in cubase. Outside of that you can always get point releases regardless of your WUP status. I can see why people have issues with them, but I never felt they were trying to trick me In Any way, plus I've had a couple issues over the years and a single phonecall had them fixed within 24 hours. So meh. If you don't like the model they run the business with, just skip em.
I like more than enough of the plugins to use them on the regular and that also gives compatibility with damn near every other studio out there. Hell I won't even have to pay WUP when I do a new build on my workstation unless they've added plugins to my bundle that I want.

Just my 2 cents
JJ

Thanks for sharing

[Harry_HH]

I purchased my first Waves plugins in 2003. In that time the version updates had a good reason and were justified: e.g. moving to 64 bit, moving from iLok etc.

Today, the present version update cycle is more or less just a way to cash in money from their loyal clients. I don’t know if it a skam - there’s a thin line between love and hate.

After 15 years, as a owner of about 200 of their plugins, I stopped updating Waves plugins, for the above reason.
Of course, at the same time in 2018, I purchased my last Waves plugin, so far.

[10bd01]

I think the reason why I think the word scam is appropriate is because that's exactly what it looks like until you read the fine-ish print. I don't think having a single sentence saying "you don't need to WUP to use your plugins" (paraphrased) outweighs their militant marketing campaign to push users to do so. I barely see ANYTHING in there about my set (I don't own many, granted), and when I do what I'm seeing is bug fixes that IMO shouldn't be my responsibility but theirs. So, to me it looks like they're trying to sell me a glass of water for $75 - it's totally ridiculous yet marketed as something of actual value.

For the same price as WUP (if you reach the cap and pay yearly) you can subscribe to plugin alliance, get all their plugins, all their new plugins, all their bug fixes, all their updates, etc.

Sorry to hear of your experience, Harry_HH. I bet there are more out there, it sounds like you probably had a lot invested, too, if you purchased them early.

[Harry_HH]

...
Sorry to hear of your experience, Harry_HH. I bet there are more out there, it sounds like you probably had a lot invested, too, if you purchased them early.

No probs, I share my experience with many others. I’ve seen the developing of the industry, at the same time the maturation of the market. Waves made (and is still making, I guess) quality plugins. But today there are so many great plugin developers, in most of the cases Waves is not the best alternative.

If 2003 Waves covered about 80 % of my plugin use, today the figure is 1 % or even less. Although all of the about 200 Waves plugins are working in my DAW.

Waves has made their business decisions, their customer service decisions. Its OK, but with these decisions they have banished, anyway me, away.

[10bd01]

I'm fairly new to this, it must have been interesting to see everything unfold. I'm mostly buying waves plugins that I perceive to be either unique or which've made a good impression on me. It's good to hear yours are still working, I'm guessing mine will as well if I go without the WUP, though I suppose eventually it would catch up to me with an OS update that is uncompromising or something.

[arkmabat]

If you time it right, you really don't miss out on anything. WUP is not something I have ever lost sleep over.

[plexuss]

Wait for a sale and just buy an upgrade pack with more for less, then you get WUP again and new free plugins, too. It's basically a rip-off to just update and nothing else when upgrades get you new stuff and freebie plugins on a good sale.

Except this doesn't work in the situation where a mac user has a perfectly fine machine except the video card doesn't support Metal - in which case all V12+ Waves plugins do not work at all making WUP pointless and an upgrade path unavailable. Granted a lot of macs have Metal capability, but there are a lot of people with older machines without Metal that either have to upgrade their machine or move on from Waves. I took the latter approach as newer macs from my 2010 mac pro are just not worth it to me.

Wave shot their foot on that one!

[cryophonik]

If you time it right, you really don't miss out on anything. WUP is not something I have ever lost sleep over.

Same. I've been a Waves user for a long time and have many bundles/plugins. I recently had to renew my WUP when I updated to Big Sur, and I had to pay the max price because of the number of bundles I have. But, I knew going into it that it was a necessity to be able to keep using my Waves products, so it was a calculated decision for me and I don't feel duped or anything. I bought most of them for dirt cheap during BF sales, so even with the WUP, it's a bargain, given the sheer number of their plugins that I have and frequently use. Not to mention that I LOVE the RennMaxx bundle update (I use these religiously).

[martinjuenke]

A subscription of PA or iZotope or ProTools or Reason or [enter your favourite full bundle developer] costs on yearly basis more than the eventual WUP, just sayin' ...

[arkmabat]

Wait for a sale and just buy an upgrade pack with more for less, then you get WUP again and new free plugins, too. It's basically a rip-off to just update and nothing else when upgrades get you new stuff and freebie plugins on a good sale.

Except this doesn't work in the situation where a mac user has a perfectly fine machine except the video card doesn't support Metal - in which case all V12+ Waves plugins do not work at all making WUP pointless and an upgrade path unavailable. Granted a lot of macs have Metal capability, but there are a lot of people with older machines without Metal that either have to upgrade their machine or move on from Waves. I took the latter approach as newer macs from my 2010 mac pro are just not worth it to me.

Wave shot their foot on that one!

I can only speak for Windows plugins, unfortunately. The personalized upgrades are usually the best way to go, and you get updated WUPs plus new plugs.

[soulata]

If you time it right, you really don't miss out on anything. WUP is not something I have ever lost sleep over.

User of Waves since 2007 (ok, i was a user before that but not legit). I had to pay WUP once (or rather chose to) because I had v9 to v12 plugins and it made sense for all of them to be updated to v12.

Next time I'll do it it'll probably v15 and that's ok. I think I only bought two Waves plugins last year. None this year so far. But I'm perfectly happy with whatever I bought from them in the past.

k