latency chart
http://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs/plugin-latency

 

Unfortunately, there are some really good plugins from Waves. For the Rest I'd stick to other Verndors. But the following I really like and some of them are pretty unique and useful.

EDIT: Oh Top 10 only… okay… I need 13, sorry ;)

DYNAMICS:::

CLA-2A: I actually prefer this over TR-White and N.I. VC 2A. I like what it does to the stereo image. It helps me a lot in placing basses and synths in the Mix. For 1176 = TR Black 76 all day!

API 2500: A versatile Comp for Busses and Master.

DPR-402: Killer on Drums. A different kind of animal. Lots of Controls

L1: Great simple Limiter for taming peaks on heavy processed Snares or piercing Hihats Also nice for introducing distortion to basses by reducing the release time.


EQs:::

There's really no good clean EQ from waves… but as far as Virtual Analog is concerned, I like

SSL EQ: Goto EQ. Most people think it's too aggressive and harsh. I love it

PuigTec Bundle: The EQP1A is great for Basses, Vocals, Kicks and on the Master Bus
The MEQ5 is nice on Vocals and for shaping snares.

Scheps 73: Go to Snare EQ. Low Cut at 80, Boost 220, Check 700 Hz or above, cut or boost, add or remove some 12 kHz. Done. Either that or Stillwell 73.


BASS MANAGEMENT:::

RBASS: my goto tool for thicken up basses or the Drumbus

LoAir: Awesome for adding real deep sub harmonics.


DELAY & REVERB:::

H-Delay: Goto Delay. It just sounds good and you can use it to create a Haas Effect easily to widen a track. Can be really psychedelic like a tape delay if automated right.

ABBEY ROAD Plates: Uhhh boy these sound good, but need a lot of CPU

Doubler: Just awesome for spreading a snare or Vocal across the Image by doubling, pitchshifting and panning and all in a simple interface. Just works. Alternative: Little Microshift from Soundtoys.

STEREO IMAGING:::

S1 Imager: All Day. It's just so simple and reliable

 

Last edited: May 15, 2016

Vocal Rider --> It rides the levels of all tracks (not just vocals, don't be fooled by the name) automatically. No need for compressors.
I am really impressed no one mentioned this.
It's a miracle plug in from Waves.
Always on my channel strip.

 

Hey man, just had to comment on this one. Under what criteria do you consider a plugin "outdated"? Does it do what it is supposed to do? Great, it's not outdated then. There's no such a thing as "outdated" in music. Is the Neumann U87 outdated? Is the Shure SM57 outdated? Are SSL and Neve consoles outdated? It does what it should do. Just like Waves plugins. And any other plugins. If it worked 5 years ago and was great, it still sounds the same as it did 5 years ago. Use it and don't throw bullshit around.

Make sure to use it in sidechain to music! Love the automatic boost of vocals when the music gets energetic and the chorus starts.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 14, 2016

In fact, what I like about CLA Vocals is that it gets you in the ballpark every time. If I am to cut a rough vocal mix to show or a starting point to see how a vocal might fit, the presets get you there. However, as a mix progress, I have to tweak such presets to make them sit better in the mix. If the tweaks get too wild, then I have to replace it for something else.

I use Wave Rider from Quiet Art. The auto ride is more musical to my ears, a bit less agrressive. The downside for some is that it is Pro Tools exclusive. For little money, HorNet offers a set of auto ride plugins too.

 

Thank you very much for the suggestion of Hornet plug ins!I had never heard of them.Will check!

 

When it comes to Waves plugins it has to be surf board and 10 footers. Not a big fan of the Shark attack either

 

@Steve Faoki
If you are a BDSM lover then Waves stuff are perfect for you. The more you use it the stronger will be the pain (in the ass). Better stuff out there... (NI, FabFilter, Brainworx, Tokyo Dawn Labs, klanghelm etc)

 

Last edited: May 14, 2016

Vocal stuff from waves can give quick results.
That's it.

 

Agree with this. Duende was also much nicer than waves SSL (esp the bus comp!). Softube is the best for me in most areas (great plugs)

No, I found the same. I used waves a lot in the past and looking back they were my worst mixes. I really do not like waves emulations. They really do seem harsh compared to Softube, slate, acustica etc. I would personally avoid waves for eq and compression in most cases. The big studios are probably ok with them as they use good outboard on the way in.

Nebula, softube, some slate, uad yeah these are better than waves emulations. I agree waves only have good plugs with their utility plugs, they make some useful stuff. For good sound I'd go elsewhere.

To the O.P. Forget waves and look at softube first. Waves emus 'sound' completely generic to me, and in worst case, damaging to audio. It's not that the gear they emulated is 'outdated' just that they were never the greatest coded plugs in the first place, and have been outclassed by better coders many times over since their hey-day!

People can believe this or not but so many have said the same thing about waves plug-ins, and my own findings have backed it up many times, that if you use many waves plugs all over a mix, your mix will probably suffer as the harshness and plastic/digital sound of them builds up. This is not the case with the best from other brands like softube, slate, UAD and acustica. Even the lesser brands that I don't like to use much (IK, PA etc) are still much better than waves in that they don't actively fuck you over while mixing ;)

Waves lived on name brand for years, back then they were the only game in town hence being used a lot in pro studios (much like pro tools which as we know is crap compared to better DAWS) so that means little. Many of those pro studios also (now) use UAD, SLATE, SOFTUBE etc as times have changed and lessons have been learned.

My music production results got 10x better after I stopped using waves all over the mixes. Thank god I got off that hype train.

 

Last edited: May 14, 2016

How is the waveshell method stupid? The mono, mono-to-stereo and stereo options are exactly to minimize CPU usage. If you're using a mono track, you only need to process in mono - half the CPU usage. Flexible GUI? You have A/B compare, custom presets management, 20 levels of undo, a button to open manual, and a full reset option right from the plugin, without requiring your DAW to handle that. The WaveSystem toolbar is there for every single Waves plugin and offers great flexibility.

Ease in installing and upgrading? How is it stupid? Download the software, log in, select from the plugins you have, click download. Come on, it isn't rocket science, you can figure it out, and if not, they did tutorials for almost every DAW you could think of so every single dummy could set it up no problem. You don't complain about "ease in installing and upgrading" when using Steam, do you? So what's the deal?

Less is more these days. Yes! People put tons of shit all over their plugins instead of giving you stuff that works. You can have 30dB boosts/cuts in EQs and go crazy. People just grab these plugins and do screwed up stuff instead of getting a nice little EQ and doing maybe 3dB cuts here and there. Everyone goes visual and feature-packed instead of encouraging people to just listen.

In terms of DSP code... for the most part there's not much you can update. A saw is always a saw and it can't be different without not being a saw. A volume knob will never change unless you do some weird non-linear stuff to it, though most people won't even notice. Filters? Yeah, you can try different stuff till a point. Though most developers just use ready-to-go DSP libraries because of complex FFT math involved. Especially true for freeware or little indie developers. Making filters sound different doesn't make them better though. They're just different. And since the "outdated" stuff didn't change at all and still sounds great, why not use it?

Also, you're missing a major point. If every studio used all kinds of plugins... FabFilter, Brainworx, NI, Softube, scattered all over the place, all fucked up... man, moving sessions between studios would be a NIGHTMARE. Back in the day everybody just got the Gold bundle from Waves. And now everyone is good to go, you can be sure wherever you go, your session keeps working. And Waves stuff is simple enough to throw the technology out the window, dial that "compression" knob in RVox using your ears, not your eyes. And make history. Make great records. To stop thinking about what's "best" and just do your job is priceless, and that's where Waves delivered.

 

Back in days, PAZ, Q10, C1, C4, REQ, RComp were my go-to plugins.
For surgical/first-aid process and multiband compression, now I use FabFilter ones.
PAZ switched to Voxengo SPAN.
But still using C6 and Reneissance Bundle stuffs. (Mostly DeEsser and Reverb)

H-Delay, H-Reverb
: straight-foward controls, easy to tweak (for me)

CLA-76, CLA-2A, dbx 160, SSL & API emulations, Scheps 73
: for advanced tone shaping. SSL & API comp for bus compression.

WavesTune
: Guess this one's just for me. I tested lots of newer & cooler pitch-correction plugins but turns out I always using this one. It does not have Window Size/GUI scaling function, multi-track in single instance function(like melodyne). But when it comes to really surgical tweak, WavesTune's workflow suits me. I'm so used to it, and I cannot help it. Tiny instance window on hi-res displays... killing me. but still.

WLM
: for checking True-Peak and Loudness on mastering stage.

Doubler
: perfect for simple detune on stacked vocals.

 

Waves Tune
SSL Eqs
ClA-2A
Manny Reverb
Kramer Tape
Api 2500
REDD Console
RBASS
MAXBASS (Good for 808 sub)
H-Reverb & H-Delay

 

Hello everyone, first post here so please be gentle.
As for Waves plug-ins, my opinion of them has changed quite drastically over the last two years. It's not that I like them any more or any less, but the way I value and use them is different now.

About three years ago I had some spare money and decided to get the Studio Classics bundle since it was on sale and I'd been wanting to try out analog emulations for quite some time. The first time I slapped the API 2500 on my drum bus felt like a revelation, like I had found the holy grail. Before, I always struggled to get my mixes to sound "smooth" and "vintage" and I loved how Waves plug-ins got me closer to the sound I aspired to. They also taught me a lot about different pieces of vintage gear and what they were used for, so in my case I guess it's fair to say that Waves opened my eyes to the long history of music production. I continued to buy more plug-ins from Waves and for a time I was really happy with that. But after a year or so the excitement wore off and I felt like I was back at square one. My mixes sounded better to my ears, but still something was missing.

I slowly started to realize that it was the writing and the arrangement that weren't up to par. After that realization sunk in, I reverted to using more "modern" plug-ins (think DMG, FabFilter, etc.) and started to selectively work on my writing-skills. You can slap a hundred plug-ins on your sub- and mix-busses, but your drums will never sound as cool as Bonham's and your basslines won't sound like Bootsy when all your sounds fall right on the grid. In my opinion, if the writing works you can get away with much less treatment.

Now I don't want to say that vintage-sounding plug-ins and emulations don't have their place (gotta love SoundToys, right?). But the way I see it now is that they're mainly sound-design tools, whereas balance and "fullness" in your mixes are the result of a conservative approach to gain-staging, a little bit of distortion all over the place (check out Kush Omega for that) and subtle EQ and Compressor moves. What plug-ins or outboard gear you use doesn't really matter as long as the writing is good (subjective, obviously) and as long as you know what kind of processor you need/like for a certain task.

All that being said, here's my Waves top 10 in order of frequency of use:

1) NX - really like it in combination with the Sonarworks correction thing. Helps me to place sounds and the head tracking is really psychedelic.
2) L2 - I don't mix into it and it's almost always bypassed, but I like to check how my mixes will sound when "pumped" from time to time. Never bounce with it though.
3) API 2500 - still like it on drums. On the 2bus it's mostly Presswerk nowadays.
4) API 550b - for drums as well. Really like the proportional Q thing for low-end boosts/low-mid cuts. In my opinion better suited to dancefloor-stuff.
5) RVerb - love it for ambiance.
6) Soundshifter Pitch - great for drones and crazy FX during breaks. Try pitching a drone up/down a 5th over 16 or 32 bars.
7) CLA-76 - Rarely used, but I like it on old samples. Take a keyboard or drum break and slam it hard. Go for something crazy like 20db gain reduction. Doesn't always work, but when it does it's really awesome.
8) J37 - Really like it for Shed-like techno stuff. Place it on every track and on your mix-busses and slam them hard. Works even less often than the CLA smash, but, again, when it does it's glorious.
9) King's Microphones - Try it on FX channels. For example go Delay -> Kings Mics -> tiny bit of RVerb. Don't use it that often though.
10) NLS - with this one I'm quite undecided. I used to like it, but I'm using Kush Omega now and feel that it works better for me. I know that conceptually they are different things, but still...

One last piece of info and then I'm out: The best plug-in-purchase I ever made was VUMT by Klanghelm. Set your Kick and Bass so that on your 2bus you're hitting around 0db VU. Use this as an anchor to set the levels for other instruments. This worked wonders for me.
Obviously it works best with pop or dance floor oriented stuff. I could imagine that it's terrible for jazz or classical music, but I can't speak from experience in that forte. Hope this was helpful!

 

The only plugins from Waves I see myself using over and over again are the APIs, most specially the 2500 comp and the 550B EQ. These are really wonderful plugins. I think they're way better than most of their stuff.

 

Last edited: May 15, 2016

Suppose I use some more than others.
At the end of the day Plugins not the B all and that.
Also as said it's genre specific and some gonna be used in some circles more than others.
Use whatever u like to get the job done and achieve the desired result. Go sample some vinyl for real instead of using a half baked thing that don't really work. Do what you gotta do as someone said.
Sure some are really helpful & needed but there more than one way to skin a cat and if you know what your doing then u can probably use many different plugins to get the result u need.
Also remember that quite a few waves plugins and others are simply aimed at emulating high end hardware that average users can't afford. Waves makes some good plugins but so do many other companies.
Do whatever it takes and use your own judgement & ears. Most people never even touch their stock DAW plugins because they seem to assume somehow they are not good enough.

Well no imo it's the user that's at fault in the main. Just my opinion

Personally I don't like their reverb plugins as the question was about favourites API as said is pretty good

 

Waves are very good plugs, I m not making a list, I ve seen my favs in others' messages
Flux are also excellent plugs, as UADs for those who have a card, Soundtoys, PSP (vintage emulations)...
I like the IK ones too, but the list would be long
of course I have my fav plugs, but I try to use different plugs for a wider sonic pallette and... to have fun and don t get bored of the same plugs

personally I think that Waves are overpriced, which is not good to me but it s good for many people
hype

 

MondoMod.....it's the only one I use from Waves.