Waves already backtracking

[noiseboyuk]

The 25% WUP sale has returned, so that just leaves bundle updates as the only thing not restored. They've said it is coming but couldn't give a timeframe, I guess they'll just slot it in whenever it suits them in the sales schedules. It makes sense to do it after a WUP sale (not before) as they'd get more money overall that way - people will WUP who wouldn't if there was an upgrade sale.

Yeah, same thoughts. Now it looks like bundle upgrades will take even more time, so I decided to jump on getting some plugins that I use updated via WUP (through a dealer). Glad I waited for the 25% off sale.

We were both right! WUP sale ended, and now upgrades have returned. Everything back exactly as it was.

[Aloysius]

... which was crap anyway.

[LoveEnigma18]

The 25% WUP sale has returned, so that just leaves bundle updates as the only thing not restored. They've said it is coming but couldn't give a timeframe, I guess they'll just slot it in whenever it suits them in the sales schedules. It makes sense to do it after a WUP sale (not before) as they'd get more money overall that way - people will WUP who wouldn't if there was an upgrade sale.

Yeah, same thoughts. Now it looks like bundle upgrades will take even more time, so I decided to jump on getting some plugins that I use updated via WUP (through a dealer). Glad I waited for the 25% off sale.

We were both right! WUP sale ended, and now upgrades have returned. Everything back exactly as it was.

Yes, good to see everything back to how it used to be. However, now we need to wait for bundle upgrades sale. Else I am not bothering for now.

[noiseboyuk]

Yes, good to see everything back to how it used to be. However, now we need to wait for bundle upgrades sale. Else I am not bothering for now.

I think they're quietly running one now, but - as ever - it's selective on what the upgrades are.

I have a Platinum license. WUPping at even 25% off is $180. Now I can upgrade to Diamond for $85. Maybe they do deeper discounts for this jump, I can't honestly remember.

In this case I won't bother, for two reasons. 1 - I don't yet need to upgrade yet - the license is for my old macbook pro, and everything is working fine. Next year I plan on getting an M3 replacement however, so at some stage I'll need to jump. But 2 - I'm waiting for a good Horizon upgrade deal instead, then I can roll my L3-16 license into it. That's $149 at the moment, and specific sales will definitely be better there.

[soulata]

After the shitstorm I basically uninstalled Waves and that's it. If needed, I'll install few of them again but I'm definetly not buying more.

I really like Waves ADT, everything else I can do without.

k

[LoveEnigma18]

Yes, good to see everything back to how it used to be. However, now we need to wait for bundle upgrades sale. Else I am not bothering for now.

I think they're quietly running one now, but - as ever - it's selective on what the upgrades are.

I have a Platinum license. WUPping at even 25% off is $180. Now I can upgrade to Diamond for $85. Maybe they do deeper discounts for this jump, I can't honestly remember.

In this case I won't bother, for two reasons. 1 - I don't yet need to upgrade yet - the license is for my old macbook pro, and everything is working fine. Next year I plan on getting an M3 replacement however, so at some stage I'll need to jump. But 2 - I'm waiting for a good Horizon upgrade deal instead, then I can roll my L3-16 license into it. That's $149 at the moment, and specific sales will definitely be better there.

You may be right, but from what I recall, the prices look to be the same as before. In any case, when they officially do the bundle sale, which should start sooner than later, the prices will come further down. Then, we could buy it from a dealer for an even better price. Best to not upgrade right now.

Yes, definitely target the Horizon upgrade. I highly recommend skipping the Diamond bundle. It is not worth it at all IMO, and you will pay higher if you eventually need Horizon anyway. That's the best bundle for most unless you want everything in the form of Mercury + Studio Classics Collection, to which I will be upgrading to from my plugins and bundles once the price comes down low enough.

I wonder if V15 is imminent.

[noiseboyuk]

Mercury is really unappealing to me. I've never seen it less than about $800 above Horizon (which I have on the main rig). There's just not enough really good quality stuff to justify it. If you knew you were going to get everything automatically added in the future, that might be different, but they scrapped that long ago. (It wouldn't be that crazy a notion either - obviously libraries not effects, but Cinesamples Musio is $499 for life in a sale, and their catalogue is outstanding).

So practically Horizon is pretty much the end of the road, unless they do one of their bundle bundles (Horizon + whatever).

[LoveEnigma18]

The thing with Mercury is you can upgrade to it if you have enough plugins and bundles you bought over time that count towards the upgrade. My Mercury + Studio Classics Collection upgrade is currently $440, but I will wait for a deep discount on it and only buy it if really necessary, just to consolidate everything and get that 1 year WUP on top to stay relevant now that I own a Mac. Though I just checked my list and see that over 80% of my plugins are V13 and up, so they are Apple Silicon M1/M2 compatible. I am thinking if I should WUP the 3 plugins that I like and are below V13. I will probably wait for a bundle upgrade sale or the next 25% off round of WUP and see what's worth more.

Horizon is indeed the most valued bundle and why I said it is best to upgrade to it from Platinum, but it helps to have Studio Classics Collection along with IMO as it is one of their best work, and for some Abbey Road Collection, which I personally don't have.

[ATS]

Mercury is really unappealing to me. I've never seen it less than about $800 above Horizon (which I have on the main rig). There's just not enough really good quality stuff to justify it. If you knew you were going to get everything automatically added in the future, that might be different, but they scrapped that long ago. (It wouldn't be that crazy a notion either - obviously libraries not effects, but Cinesamples Musio is $499 for life in a sale, and their catalogue is outstanding).

So practically Horizon is pretty much the end of the road, unless they do one of their bundle bundles (Horizon + whatever).

Go with Melda. Free updates for life, no WUP. If you buy everything you get everything they ever make and all updates for life.
I been testing their stuff like crazy since a sale on right now. It's great.

[noiseboyuk]

Go with Melda. Free updates for life, no WUP. If you buy everything you get everything they ever make and all updates for life.
I been testing their stuff like crazy since a sale on right now. It's great.

Melda is a no-no for me for two reasons. 1 - when I demoed something years ago, I was unable to remove or clean it up. It stayed on my system forever until I moved on to a new system. It was like a virus, I've been sworn off them ever since. 2 - I don't need them. At all. As well as Waves, I also have a ton of UAD, Sonnox, NI, Eventide, IK, Audio Ease, another dozen odds and sods. Unless there's something genuinely new and innovative, I need nothing else from anyone tbh. Currently the only thing on my radar is Spectralyers 10, which genuinely looks to be breaking new ground. I don't need a 167th vintage compressor.

My point about Mercury was specific to Mercury. Very happy with Waves overall. I know many people love to hate them - there you go. I know there will be people saying "but you can't ever trust them again" - that's an understandable but not a rational response to me. The March debacle is, from my perspective, a lesson learned by them, and serves as a massive lesson to everyone else that forcing a migration to subs-only will be suicidal, so all's well that ends well.

[musicproducerdee]

Quick question. Would you guys still invest in Waves plugins? I know they decided to go subscription based only, and then reintroduced perpetual licenses. I'm still considering investing because, the prices are fair in my opinion, most of the plugins I want are available for $29 or $35. Their plugins aren't that CPU intensive (I have used them previously). I actually had a few plugins, which I lost, when I impulsively decided to get my account deleted. Obviously, the customer service warned me that this was irreversible, but I went ahead and did it eventually.

More specifically, I'm looking at the DBX 160, The API 2500 Bus Compress, and the API EQs, and some R series plugins. What would you guys recommend?

PS: Not once in my life I bought a WUP, and the plugins never gave up on me. I'm on Windows

EDIT: I'm on UAD Spark at the moment, but not all of their plugins are native, and even the ones that are, seem pretty pricey for me to justify. Of course I'll still get some UAD plugins, but not all of them. I'm looking at a mix of Waves, Softube, UAD.

[soulata]

Probably yes but I won't.

[noiseboyuk]

I'd have no issues going with them were I starting from scratch, or at least no significant ones. It's a bit annoying that there are separate mono and stereo versions of everything; would like 2 installs per plugin (you get a second, but it's only valid when the WUP is current so if you need it it's usually cheaper to buy 2 copies). There are a lot of solid low-CPU workhorses (like the R series). Some plugs are thirsty though, especially the Clarity series (unsurprisingly) and IIRC the Abbey Road plates.

[jens]

Would you guys still invest in Waves plugins?

Personally I don't see any reason not to. They messed up, realized it and owned their mistake - all water under the bridge now.

[GMDuss]

Quick question. Would you guys still invest in Waves plugins? I know they decided to go subscription based only, and then reintroduced perpetual licenses. I'm still considering investing because, the prices are fair in my opinion, most of the plugins I want are available for $29 or $35. Their plugins aren't that CPU intensive (I have used them previously). I actually had a few plugins, which I lost, when I impulsively decided to get my account deleted. Obviously, the customer service warned me that this was irreversible, but I went ahead and did it eventually.

More specifically, I'm looking at the DBX 160, The API 2500 Bus Compress, and the API EQs, and some R series plugins. What would you guys recommend?

PS: Not once in my life I bought a WUP, and the plugins never gave up on me. I'm on Windows

EDIT: I'm on UAD Spark at the moment, but not all of their plugins are native, and even the ones that are, seem pretty pricey for me to justify. Of course I'll still get some UAD plugins, but not all of them. I'm looking at a mix of Waves, Softube, UAD.

I have LONG been frustrated by their ethos, the WUP nonsense and now their attempt to go subscription only. But I plumped for the latest upgrade on everything of theirs I own... I feel pretty lousy about it but here are my reasons:

1) I had V9 and newer plugins installed on the same system and I got completely fed up with the whole "dual installation" thing. Every time I installed a V10 plug it wiped my V9s and I'd have to go through the process several times. I admit, I feel extorted on this.

2) I do this for a living, and breaking projects from last year or whatever is not an option. If an update or lost plug-in breaks a complete project from a decade ago, so be it, but not a more recent one.

3) While I definitely know that just about anything their compressors and EQ's can do can also be done by a hundred other plugins just as well, a load of which I own, I can often get the desired result much more quickly with a Waves one. Ren Vox, Ren Axx, Ren EQ, C1 Comp, Reel ADT... I use them everywhere. I may replace them with something more tweakable later in the life of a project, but they do what they do well and quickly.

4) Related to the above, I've been using their products for decades between my studio and the others I've worked with. I know them inside and out and along with my other tools, I know before I bring them in whether or not they'll give me what I'm after.

If none of these things are true for you, I'd look into other devs. TB, Valhalla, Black Rooster, Klanghelm... And definitely explore the freebies.

EDIT: But I'll tell you what I definitely will NOT do. Unless they develop something earth-shattering, I will never buy from them again. I don't like being bitten by the same dog twice.

G