Hey all, I was thinking about purchasing a few Waves plugins while they are on sale. The ones I've chosen seem to be discussed quite a bit so I know the quality will be decent for my purpose however I am a little behind in what's currently available on the market so I'm not sure if there are better options out there. To be honest I don't know how anyone can stay on top of this. Anyway, by better, I mean can do the job these can do but perhaps has a few additional features. UA plugs are off the table for me. I record and mix/master mainly classic and modern metal, rock, pop and yes some country ;). Also, please recommend a good mixing course .

API 560
API 550
API 2500
PuigChild Compressor
dbx® 160 Compressor/Limiter
Scheps 73
CLA-3A Compressor/Limiter
SSL G-Master Buss Compressor
Scheps Omni Channel
H-Delay Hybrid Delay
L2 Ultramaximizer

 

Those are all pretty solid picks in my opinion. Only thing I guess I'd say is that in my opinion I'm not a big fan of the waves 1073 emulation. I think Plugin Alliance has the best console channel emulations out there. Idk how much you know about their stuff but each channel is modelled different so you get slight phase changes between left and right channels across you whole mix, which you can actually see in oscilloscopes, and it has a really nice big sound. Plugin Alliance is also coming out with an API console series soon too. So if you're a fan of Plugin Alliance's console emulations then maybe hold off on the Waves API stuff. That being said I am a huge fan of the waves 2500. And also in my opinion, the waves ssl buss compressor is one of the weaker ssl buss comp emulations out there, so maybe try a demo of it first.

But really overall I think those are great picks and I don't think you'll regret it. I like the PA Neve better but the Scheps 73 still sounds great. Same with their SSL comp.

 

Acme Opticom XLA-3
RoyalCompressor varimu
MagicDeathEye varimu
Vertigo VSC-2 vca
RoughRider2
manic compressor
Sknote.Disto.V2
and many more

 

Some of these plugins alias like hell at 44.1k or 48k. But are few are better than most of the rest.

Here are the good ones from Waves:
dbx160
SSL EQ (not the channel strips)
H-Delay
H-Reverb
RVox
RDeesser
MV2
MaxxVolume
IR-1 and IR-L
RBass
RAxx
S1
SuperTap
any of the meters plugins

Most of the rest is pretty shitty and harsh, especially due to aliasing at lower sampling rates. Not to say that a lot of people don't still use them. But they're not that good and their are a lot of better alternatives out there. If you're at 96k then a lot of the other Waves perform noticeably better.

Produce Like A Pro
Eric Valentine
Pensado's Place

 

Thanks a lot for the heads up on on PA API console series. I'll definitely be waiting for that. I picked up the PA sub a few months back but then life got in the way so I'm just now starting to go through it all ;0.

 

Thank you for sharing your preference. Gonna check them out.

 

"Pull the plug" in this case is not the correct idiomatic phrase, because when you pull the plug you disconnect the energy that goes to the machine. I guess you want to say "pull the trigger"

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 16, 2020

Oh hahaha, that's exactly what I meant...didn't even notice. All this bloody research...my brain my eyes are shot!

 

First some general thoughts:
(Almost) every single analogue emu plugin has its own sound. So, which company's plugin is 'best' mainly depends on the source and your (sound) aim.
ATME dbx 160 emus need a lot more CPU than other compressor models.
You can grab every meter and analyzer you need for free, so I wouldn't pay a dime for any of them. Additionally most DAWs already have some.

Of course I haven't tested all of their plugies but this is what I'd recommend if you opt for Waves only:
Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain (tape, EQ, filter, compressors, L/R, M/S option!)
API's
CLA -2A, -3A, -76
GEQ
H-Delay
IR1
MaxxVolume or MV2
MondoMod (if you need something like this)
PuigChild
REEL ADT (the best I know of)
Renaissance Vox (simple and great)
Scheps Omni Channel
SSL G-Master Buss Compressor
Torque

Other than that L2 is inferior to DMGAudio TrackLimit (and e.g. FF Pro-L 2) but comes close in price and TBProAudio GainRider 2 is very useful too but maybe a bit costly.

 

Last edited: Nov 17, 2020

Thank you for your recommendations. I'm definitely not opting for waves only. My goal is to build a decent pallet of tools that will cover as much ground as possible for as cheap as possible (I suppose we are all trying to do that lol). It looks like I'll be adding IR1, MaxxVolume, REEL ADT and Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain to the list . Thanks again.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2020

My gotos:
CLA VOCALS
GW MIXCENTRIC
Scheps Parallel Particles

 

in my opinion, majority of Waves plugins are crap (doesn't mean bad, but inferior compared to tons of other options online),
if you want to filter out those, go to "Waves Compare Bundles" and compare Diamond, Horizon and Mercury - there you'll see which plugins are "too good" to be part of lower bundles, starting with CLA 2A, 3A, 76, PuigChild, Kramer stuff, Bass and Vocal Riders, API stuff, F6, CLA stuff, JJP stuff etc...

I personally don't use Waves nowadays at all, but still hear decent results in studios they buy them (and complain about Update Plan fckery)

 

About to pull the plug... on WAVES
There is much better stuff around Melda, Plugin Alliance. No more waves for me. Do what tzzsmk said, less crap to scan on startup.

 

So you are basically saying that if it's in the Mercury bundle but not in any of the others its a great plugin? If that is the case then most on my list and the ones others have suggested are great plugins ;). I get the crappy history surrounding waves but for less than two hundred dollars I can have a fairly decent toolset. Even if they aren't nice and shiny.

BUT...if you recommend something specific i will check it out.

 

yes, at least that's how it seems to me,
since you picked analog simulations, I'd highly recommend checking out GEM series by Overloud, because their analog simulations sound in a different flavour - not essentially better than Waves, but different

 

waves are overated plugins in my opinion, better ones out there that do a better job

 

"While they are in sale"… they are always on sale.

And with waves it's like this: you may think you save now, but you will pay later - big time. Once you can no longer install waves plugins on next gen OSes, you need to pay the price for the so-called "Waves Upgrade Plan".

Besides that: all of these plugins are nice, except for PuigChild. But it's maybe because I don't produce acoustic music. I'd swap the dbx160 for the bss dpr402.

 

Very often in the audio forums everything is said and its opposite. If you are interested in "pull the plug" on that kind of plugins in my opinion you should first try them intensely and listen with your own ears if they really do what they promise to do.
That's why there are "try before you buy" versions (to find them I can recommend our uncle site AZ)
And if you consider these plugins good, you have the freedom to re-enter legality by buying them

 

RE: The last few posts.
Thank you for the Overloud suggestion. I'm a Acoustic/Electric Guitar/Bass player so I already had my eye on THU so I'll check their other offerings as well.

RE "waves are overated plugins in my opinion, better ones out there that do a better job". This is sort of the intent of my post. To receive constructive feedback and suggestions. Do you have any suggestions?

RE: "While they are in sale"… they are always on sale." Good to know, thank you." I feel like I can take my time now ;).
I think by the time this exercise is over I would have replaced most of the Waves plugs on my list with others. I'm already digging into the PA offerings and so far I'm quite impressed. Can't wait for their API release.

RE: "Very often in the audio forums everything is said and its opposite. If you are interested in "pull the plug" on that kind of plugins in my opinion you should first try them intensely and listen with your own ears if they really do what they promise to do." Absolutely agree, I'm trying everything suggested so far before making my final decisions on which ones to pull the 'plug' (trigger) on .