Exactly what i meant about "equivalent of FabFilter Pro-Q 3"
There is a similar thread about "why limiting plugins to analog design ?"

Analog SOUND is one thing
Analog GUI/features ... is another thing

I hate stupid limitations pretending to be "accurate".
With this thinking, we would still use stones because it is "accurate"

That's why my workflow tend to be go-to EQ,comp... AND add analog vibe with Nebula and others saturation plugins.

Using a bunch of "analog" GUI EQ, just to get the right fixed band ?
Is it a joke ?

 

Not a fan of Slate, here, but they have in fact an very good solution for precise digital EQ like the proQ3, with their Infinty EQ:

On the contrary, Waves doesn't have a really versatile and easy to operate digital EQ (no, I don't think the 20 years old Q10 is on par with Slate's Infinity EQ), so on this particular topic Slate is the winner for me.

But for all other tools, I'd go with Waves, they allow you to choose between analog emulation and precise digital tools in every other category.

 

I was more speaking about this "analog like" pile of plugins.
Missed the EQ in the stack
And yes, this EQ seems good

 

I'm a big Waves fan. I won't use Slate after a horrible experience with iLok/PACE. (Unrecoverable system crash related to iLok/PACE.)

I have Mercury, Abbey Road Collection, and miscellaneous others. Waves covers the bases as far as most of my utility/problem-solving needs with plugins I use all the time but aren't particularly exciting to recommend...

But here are some FX classics off the top of my head:

• Scheps Omni Channel (a deeply powerful, nuanced channel strip
• SSL EV2 (my favorite SSL strip)
• AR TG Mastering Chain (I love the EQ, the unique compressor's color, filter & stereo width)
• Kaleidoscopes (2 stages of Chorus/Phaser/Flanger with additional modulation options & drive)
• H-Delay, a dead simple tape style delay that responds extraordinarily well to automation
• H-Reverb, a complex feature-rich reverb that I use like a souped up stock reverb. Includes built in ducking
• Retro Fi. This is Waves's answer to RC-20, but very different.
• Harmony. Generates harmonies locked to your key/scale. Brilliant. Works with synth & vocals
• Vocal Bender. A clone of Little AlterBoy except they added some hidden modulation options that are awesome for samplists trying to hide their samples (modulate your pitch/formant by the input pitch!)
• Ovox. A truly exceptional vocoder
• IR-Live. (IR-1 is great, too, & has more features, but the UI isn't as simple & appealing as IR-Live) Comes with Waves's 4.5 gig impulse library, really good convolution reverb
• Waves Tune Realtime (different product from Waves Tune) ---- Realtime "just works" but you can also control the pitch by midi.
• RComp & RVox are simple compressors that are simple to operate and just work.
• Smack Attack. Dead simple transient enhancer, works like a charm
• Abbey Road Saturator. Really good saturator with compander and EQ all in one.
• ClarityVx -- outstanding for ripping voice samples, removes background noise with AI
• CLA-2A, CLA-3A, CLA-76 and SSL Master Bus Compressor all get a ton of use
• J37 & Kramer Tape are Waves's tape emulations and I enjoy them both

I could just go on and on and on... I didn't even mention the NX tools which are really cool if you work in headphones and have a webcam for head tracking. Or the Abbey Road reverbs which sound great.

The UIs are consistent -- you can double click to enter values, always. (I wish Plugin Alliance/brainworx was consistent in this!) There's a consistent preset system so you can save presets between DAWs. Sounds like an obvious thing but a lot of companies don't have this (Black Rooster, etc.) Out of all the plugin companies I use -- Waves has the best consistency, stability, bug-free and a lot of times CPU since many of the plugins were coded ages ago.

I'm a fan of other companies, too. Every company has its gems, but something about Waves keeps me in their ecosystem the most.

To be critical -- Waves is probably most lacking in the AutoEQ department. I love what Voxengo, Izotope, and Sonible are doing in this regard. And they don't have an EQ on par with FabFilter's Pro Q3 (Plugin Alliance has Kirchhoff EQ now, which is fantastic.)

Oh, and most Waves plugins don't offer oversampling which is unfortunate for all the analog emulations --- however, Reaper users can enable oversampling in the DAW which is efficient, sounds great and reliable. (Set it in the plugin settings and you do it once and never have to do it again.)

Last note --- a lot of Waves plugins max out at 96k, so beware of that. They have a full list of those limitations here: https://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs/sample-rate-support

But aside from those issues, I'm a super fan. And if I wait 3 years between WUP purchases --- I only pay $180 for all the updates & get the ~10 plugins added to Mercury. So it's just $18 per plugin + updates at that point. So if you own Mercury, WUP isn't all that bad.

I do like that Slate has a subscription feature, but I don't like iLok. (Waves's subscription is not a good deal.) Plugin Alliance probably has the best deal, at $15/mo with no iLok, and that includes ownership of a few plugins per year.

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2023

I did think of a Waves plugin I use all the time- Kramer PIE

 

These are my 2 least favorite plugin devs. Slate just makes bad emulations in general, Waves is just the definition of quantity over quality.
I guess I'd go with Waves since they're dirt cheap most of the time & sometimes makes a good product.

Edit: I'd like to clarify that by "bad emulations", I really just mean "sounds bad"
They aren't accurate, but even if I ignored that, I still hate the way they sound. The saturation is too harsh and difficult to tune, the release timings seem very off, horrible pumping effects, the EQs aren't anything to write home about and anything "modern" they make is just a rehash of what we've seen before except usually worse
(Infinity EQ, their autotune, exciter, ect.)

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2023

What's funny is that to create a true PWM emulation you have to either go the Acustica sampling route or have insane internal oversampling (over 1mhz) to avoid aliasing caused by the pulse width modulator. Waves does neither; so I can only imagine it's just a generic feedback compressor on the inside with maybe a bit of saturation.
Again, not necessarily bad sounding, just objectively inaccurate.

 

I wager pretty much no one here has ever used an actual Pye, and accuracy means nothing. I just like how it works on various things.

 

If i had to choose, it's Waves. Slate has some cool sounding stuff, but Waves has way more useful utility plugins. So much variety. And i don't like having to pull up an instance of Slate Virtual Mix Rack for every Slate plugin i wanna use, shit workflow

For analog emulations i use other stuff though.

It's funny, Waves plugins have been so shat on and ridiculed by snobby audio hipsters over the years that they've actually become one of the most underrated plugin companies now imo. Also, basically every single Grammy nominated engineer on MWTM uses Waves stuff.

 

Difficult question to answer since both of them have terrible subscription or payment plans. They both have good plug-ins, but I would probably lean toward Slate having the better sounding ones. Waves have so much more though, and they also have plug-ins for surround/immersive/spatial audio.

However, I would choose Plugin Alliance over both of them. Not because I like PA/Brainworx, only because their subscription plan is more economical, they have a better variety of plug-ins than Slate, and some of the PA developers have higher quality plug-ins than Waves.

 

Of the two, I would pick Waves; especially after reading the above pros/cons. The main problem for me isn't that it would not cover everything, but how many variations of everything you really need installed at one time (menu space). I would replace the EQ with Fabfilter ProQ3 or Kirchhoff most likely with either one so that point is not a big one to me.

Someone else's computer and money? definitely waves.

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2023

Kramer PIE sounds really good (one of the best plugs ever), and this "accuracy" talk is just for audiophiles that never ever touched the real deal (eddie kramer did). Would you compromise all the functionality of a plugin in the name of accuracy of analog modeling? So better stay with AA. Waves is a good company for mixers and producers, not audiophiles.

 

Waves plugins with its Grammy winning Digital-Aliasing™ character will be close to my heart forever.

 

Both. I wish Slate would split his plugins. I love the microphones plugin. I dont care what it does but choosing the Neve pre and Sony mic its an instant 50% improvement. So Slate is always there somewhere in the chain. At one time I was anal about the Distressor emus and found that slate's beat the the Arousor (developed by the developer LOL). Well it might be me. But the latest Waves plugins are excellent. So both.

 

slate plugins are a joke compared to waves!

 

I liek apples....but I liek oranges too.

 

I am not a fan of Slate VMR like at all. It's a garbage container plugin concept.

And I am completely removing Waves from my workflow. Because in Maschine on macOS, the settings will reset on a lot of plugins (all synths, H reverb, Scheps Omni CHannel, etc). Fuck whoever is responsible for this mess. Some plugins don't work at all in Maschine as AU. Like SSL G Comp or API 2500. They work when you throw them in Studio Rack – i guess it's because it loads in the VST versions. But it's just a major pain to deal with in old projects

And even worse: Waves Upgrade Plan. The #1 reason I tell people to not go into buying Waves plugins at all – especially on macOS. It's a scam, imo. I will never pay Waves one dime ever. The new SSL EV 2 sucks ass, btw.

I mostly use plugins by SSL and Plugin Alliance, Soundtoys, Softube and iZotope.

 

If you go with a company dominantly controlled by an adjustable channel strip and you hate the workflow. The fix is very simple. Create a preset for each processor with a good default value in your DAW. Most modern DAWs let you create presets outside of the plugin. If you feel a few go together well as a single processor... make another preset. That will resolve much of the argument regarding Slate. I think most Waves plugins are garbage and the re-up every year for no features at low starting prices is bait and switch. That said, some of the plugins are great and most others are garbage. If you are running your sessions and no oversampling is available I would consider skipping some of the Waves plugins or force oversampling. I think both of the companies have some excellent products but you should never put all your eggs in one basket. My 2 cents

 

Between these two, if I had a gun to my head, I'd choose my DAW's native solutions.

I have 1 plugin for each job specific to my needs, aside from reverb and delay of which I have 5 & 3 (flavors) respectively.


So mainly NoiseAsh, Brainworx (PA), Softube & Kirchhoff(3BT,PA).

 

Last edited: Mar 8, 2023

I completely agree with the rest of your post and the amount of money to invest into waves. But this one part, I attribute to NI 100%. It's the same thing with Komplete Kontrol. Must I have a VST copy of every perfectly working AU plugin just so this one piece of gear has meaningless wallpaper or pictures on screens? According to Ni, yep!

Do you use your Maschine for mixing functions? Isn't most content production done by the time you start adding Waves plugins into a session? Admittedly, I would normally only even open the Waves menu while working because it would open a full screen worth of 900 plugins and lag ;) .