Ok, thanks for the insight.

...an industry "secret weapon" of choice for many of the top mix engineers

Hmm, now that you mention it, the above phrase does sound like it could have been pasted from Waves' own press release. And there has been a lot of talk about Waves recruiting "street reps" ...

So one "yorolpal" (obviously an alias) stands accused of being a Waves sock puppet. Let's review the evidence:


1. Compared to Waves' own marketing-speak, ol' pal's words are faint praise. THEY call it nothing less than "perfect". +1 point in favor of the defendant for avoiding overt hyperbole.

2. "Secret" appears to be an accurate description. I'd never heard of the plugin before this thread, had you? +1 point in favor of the defendant for literal accuracy.

3. The phrase "secret weapon" does appear in the user manual: "Trans-X is the mixing engineer's secret weapon" -1 point from the defendant for lack of originality.

4. They do not, however, make reference to "TOP engineers" specifically. That would seem to be ol' pal's own flourish. +1 point in favor of the defendant for at least not using CTL-V. 

5. Among the testimonials cited by Waves, more than one of them uses the words "secret weapon". Example: "TransX is my secret weapon...". This attributed to one Bodo Schulte. Whether this bolsters the defendant's position hinges on whether or not Mr. Schulte is indeed a "top" engineer. This, I have not determined. Consequently, this evidence is inconclusive.

6. Can a VST plugin even be used as a weapon? If not, then this word is being used improperly. I, for one, have never used any audio plugin as a weapon. However, the manufacturers do live in the Middle East, where many unusual items have indeed been adapted for weaponry. I would submit as possible precedent David v. Goliath. "Weapon" will be allowed. 

 7. "best thing since sliced bread" does not appear in any Waves literature, and appears to be original. Clichéd, but original. +1 for originality, -1 for hyperbole.


Taken in its entirety, the evidence presented thus far suggests the defendant may indeed be innocent. I will now let the defendant speak in his own defense...

---

Hey, ol' pal, you around man? If so, flip back to the bottom of page 1, where I revived this thread to pose a puzzler.

From the WavesStreetRep application form:




Which forums do you visit the most?    
List any existing profiles you can share with us. 
Are you a follower of Waves on any social media sites?   
If so, which ones?
List any social media profiles or blogs of your own that you’d like to share with us.     

How would you respond to the following comments?
“I hate Waves and won’t go near them. They’re way overpriced and force you to pay every year if you want to keep using your plugins.”
“I’ve tried both versions of that, and while Waves is good, it doesn’t have the same punch to me as XYZ does.”
“I’m a struggling student and can’t afford Waves. Why should I pay for plugins when I can download them for free?”
“You’re just a shill for Waves. No one should listen to a word you say.”                   

Quite right rain, I wouldn't mind being one myself if it meant cheap waves plugs!

That's it? That's all you have to say in defense of a plugin - that you touted as "the best thing since sliced bread" - totally screwing up? 

Sorry about the mono thingy, I haven't actually used that plugin? Tovah, Tovah, Tovah! And I stood up for you!

OK...I'll try the mono plug on some kicks and bass right now and see what my ragged ol ears tell me.  Be right back.

Well...you are indeed right that if you use the Wide Mono mode to "soften" a kick or a bass, say, you indeed get some mid/side action going on in that the softer the transient becomes the more "dispersed" it is in the stereo field.  This is much more pronounced when listening to the track in isolation whereas in a full mix context it sounds pretty dern good IMHO.  I've been using it mostly (in Wide Stereo mode) to soften the transients on strummed acoustic guitars but it also will push a kick right out onto your desktop if you use it to "harden" the transients.  It does great on staccato electric guitar solo stuff too where you want to accentuate the attacks.  I don't know from analyzers...I just twiddle the knobs till I like it.  And I like it:-)

@Bapsi:  Long enough for what??
 
@Bit:  Just saw your new info:  So you were trying to increase the attack and not soften the attack??

I got this a while back on your recommendation, but hadn't really tried to install it or use it yet? I have it installed now and it is a killer plug.

It was a PITA though... I downloaded the waves 9.0 SW managler? And it didn't work, I called and they said Win XP/32? You need 8.0, so I deleted and re-installed. Then I got an error that my iLok drivers weren't supported w/that version, tried to update my iLok drivers, "problems..." Then I called back, they said, Sonar 8.3? You need version 7! So I uninstalled 8, and installed 7, the whole time, they were pushing and pulling to and from my iLok account? Got 7 installed, "no tickie, no washie..."
So I called back, and they "remoted in to my DAW!"
 
Then they rescanned my VSTs? And all of a sudden, "NONE of my iLok SW was working..." And I use Altiverb? Which is an expensive reverb plug-in! So they told me to unplug the iLoks from their USB ports and move them to different ports? And this seemed to fix things. I guess I can see why people hate those things.  I also had to disable x-ray mode.
 
They figured it out for me, it's now working w/version 7 of their SW and I must say, their tech support, while it took a while to get me up? They hung with it, and they were very polite and professional. I regard the company highly based on my experience with their employees in Israel. And I really like TransX. Thanks for the recommendation.