10 Waves plugins worth getting ?

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Only 10? I'd re-buy all of them all over again. Fantastic plug ins. Best on the market probably.
I wonder what happens if I press this button...

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ramseysounds wrote: Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:27 pm Only 10? I'd re-buy all of them all over again. Fantastic plug ins. Best on the market probably.
I do think things have swung far to far in the "all waves are crap" camp. They really aren't.

I get some of the WUP rants, and I definitely get the Waves Central rants - that damn thing has caused me no end of grief over the years. But I have to say the latest version seems MUCH better, was easy to use and most importantly it hasn't stuffed anything up.

I just updated MacOS from 10.14 to 11.6, and Gold and L3-16 no longer worked. I looked on the Waves website, and I could upgrade Gold to Platinum for $55, and WUP for the L3-16 was $18, all of which meant I also got a free plugin (Center - brilliant). In the end, it really wasn't so bad, about £50 for a ton of new plugins and everything updated to the latest version.

Sorry if I've started the thread derailer by saying something sorta positive about their business practices.
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Abbey Road:
Saturator
REDD
TG Mastering
RS124
Plates
RS56

then:
Ocean Way
SSLEV2
Sibilance
NLS Summer

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Codex
DBX 160
CLA Comps
(Wait for sale)
Honestly, I don't use the Gold package that much because a lot of it is just daw stock replacements.
Last edited by arkmabat on Thu Mar 10, 2022 3:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Scheps Omni Channel
SSL EV2
CLA MixHub
CLA76
CLA EPIC
MV2
API 2500
RBass (The whole Renaissance Bundle really.)
RealTime Tune
Vitamin

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Vitamin is probably the only Waves plugin Ive never got good results from 🤷‍♂️
I wonder what happens if I press this button...

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Frankie.T wrote: Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:01 pm
fese wrote: Thu Mar 10, 2022 7:53 am What, eight posts about Waves plugins already and yet no WUP rant? C’mon, people, it’s mandatory for Waves threads!
Sorry for being late

Don't buy waves because if you need to upgrade in the future (cause your OS could not support older versions) you mostly need to pay the plugins again

@fese was i good enough? :hihi:
Nice try, but without the word “scam” no WUP rant is complete!

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I can get to 5:
API 2500
MV2
Sibilance
J37
Reel ADT

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1) Reel ADT
2) MV2

These two I can't mix without.

3) Scheps Omni Channel
4) J37
5) Abbey Road Reverb Chambers
6) Abbey Road Reverb Plates
7) Rennaisance Vox

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I looked through my last 4 completed projects and these are the Waves plugins I used the most:
  • H-Delay - great for gritty/grungy delay effects. i have heard people complain that it's noisy, but that's by design (the "ANALOG" control in the lower right). if you don't like the noise you can just switch that control to "off" (or slap a gate on the fx track).
  • H-EQ - powerful, intuitive parametric eq with analyzer
  • L1 - It just works. For mixing I use it purely as a peak limiter. For mastering, I use it to dial in my desired loudness.
  • Vocal Rider - Have used it on every project where I've got vocals since this plugin was released. It's purpose is to keep the vocals at the same level relative to the rest of the mix, and that's exactly what it does.
  • MannyM Delay/Distortion - These are actually 2 separate plugins, but where I use one I find I often use the other. Just some really good-sounding delay and distortion effects that add a bit of character you don't get out of most bundled DAW effects.
  • MetaFilter - This is a totally feature-packed filter, but the most common reason I use this thing is MIDI-based modulation, which gives me filter key-follow support when doing filter automation on hardware synths that don't have easily automatable filters.
  • Bass Rider - Same concept as Vocal Rider, but for bass.
  • Doubler - Simply the easiest/fastest way to do the classic trick of beefing up a vocal or instrumental part by duplicating the source, slightly detuned and panned. I don't use all its features.
  • Aphex Vintage Exciter - I still don't fully understand its different mix modes, and as a result haven't used it much on individual tracks. But I sometimes place it on the master bus for a little bit of sparkle.
  • Element - One of the easiest-to-use, all-parameters-on-one-screen synths out there. I use this for sketching out ideas, when I just want a basic synth patch for composing/arranging, which I may or may not replace later in mixing.
BONUS PLUGIN:
Playlist Rider - Not something I use to produce tracks, but I've been using it to import my old mix tapes, some of which had vastly different volume from one track to the next, and sometimes vastly different sound, since my mixes sometimes used vinyl, CD, or cassette as source material. This really helps deliver a more "radio-friendly" version, where both the volumes and the mixes sound more cohesive than I was ever able to achieve in my mixtape days.

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I really like Scheps Parallel Particles on drums, maybe I'll buy it later. But I'm still not sure, maybe I can get the same result with what I already had

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The ones I'm always finding myself reaching for is Maxxbass and VocalRider. Sometimes I also use the Maserati Vocal channel too - but anything could do what it does really. Maxxbass and VocalRider are two damn fine plugins.
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Is Ovox seriously usable are just a one-trick pony?

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It's fine. Not exactly the stuff I'd use often. But I like it better than izotope's vocal synth.

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Renn everything
CLA comps
Vocal Rider
Bass Rider
Trout Rider
H-Delay
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