Waves users, oppinions needed

Hi everyone, I'm looking at getting some waves plugins, there are some great deals at the moment, I have been thinking about diving into the waves for a while, but haven't as yet got wet. I have read quite a bit about peoples experiences, for some it seems the waves get pretty rough and they end up drowning in the heavy seas, and thus get out of the water never to venture there again, others seem to frolic in the calm and have no problems swimming daily.
 
I hear that the 'waves shell' can be fairly sharp and cause serious injury if stood on, and is very hard to get rid of, also the WUP seems to be a bone of contention.
 
I have read enough to confuse myself, so I thought I would have a reboot, and try again by asking here.
 
I prefer to avoid things which are known to be problematic, that is why I am not married or in relationship , so . . .
 
The waves shell - is this something one must have ?, it's not optional ? like you can't just install the plugin's like any normal regular plugin without all the extraneous bit's and pieces ? Does it have any negative impact ?
 
The WUP procedure, I believe you get 1 years worth with your purchase, and then must update yearly after that, what are the benefit's if any, and any downsides if you don't keep it up to date ?
 
Installation, I have seen a lot of people complain about the installation process, and a lot having trouble with the installation, what is your experiences ?
 
Are they worth it ? in your opinion ?
 
Thanks for reading, and for any input/advice you may give.
 
 
 

I've been using the SSL 4000 stuff on just about everything, sounds great. AFAICT the Waves Shell maps the plugins into your DAW space so I think you might need it.

I have had some bad experiences with the waves stuff and won't be purchasing any more, I didn't even accept the free plugs they gave away the last two years. I only represent a small percentage of people who do have issues but, if/when you do, don't count on Waves support to give you much help even if you are currently under wup. 
 
I needed to use them on two separate machines which some people are able to do using the License cloud or a thumb drive. If I didn't have the license on the machine Sonar gave me all kinds of weird problems even when I didn't have a waves plug instantiated.
 
Waves support worked with me for awhile using remote connections to my machines and still could not figure it out. Their final suggestion was that I was going to Have to transfer the license to whatever machine I was using prior to opening Sonar, or, I could just purchase a license for each machine. So I ended up spending the extra money to make the problem go away.
 
Now I never use the Waves plugs because of others I find more desirable. I am stuck for two licenses of each plug and I can't sell them unless I re-wup each plug and then pay a transfer fee for each plug. It would cost me more to sell them than to just write them off.
 
They were nice plugs, even though most are old, but there are other plugs available with less cost and strings attached. Some People love Waves and that is cool if it works for them but I just don't personally have any use for them today.

Waves deserves your money. They have spent millions in advertising trying to get it. Just do it!

WUP? It's hard to say if you need it. I haven't used, in the past 10 years, any of the Waves stuff that I have bought so I've rarely worried about an update. I was worried about 64 bit so instead of WUP I bought a few more Waves to set up a x64 system but I haven't actually used any of them either.

Everyone should buy some Waves. They have great sales and some real good advertisements.
 
 
 

I have Platinum, which I bought many years ago (v7 ?) and WUP'd when I bought a new DAW two years ago. It was well worth it. Since then, I've added single plugins that I wanted, like SSL 4000, Aphex Aural Exciter, and so on, when they are on sale. They have been great plugins.
 
As far as installation issues go, I've found it best to simply unininstall the old ones and install the new ones whenever I update. Once, I had to clean out Sonar's plugin inventory in the registry to get things working again, but this only happened once.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

I would not buy too much at full price. CLA Sig could be as low as $99.00 on sale. I have it and think it's great. Gold is the stuff at that price. About $5.00 a plug. There should be some good things on sale in the next few weeks.

First,  I appreciate that I am in a position that I can pick up a plugin from Waves every once in a while.  That said,  Without knowing your skill level, I think you will find that there are enough tools inside Sonar Producer X3 that it might be a smart idea to choose what you add instead of buying the larger bundles - but they are nice to have.  I like to read about the effect, then see if I don't already have it in Producer and try to mimic it just so I can tell if I need the darn thing anyway.  Thats' probably the cheep skate in me talking.
 
I had trepidation early on when they used a hardware dongle to authenticate, but that's now history.  I really like the ability they have built in to put keys on the PC, or store them other places so you can use them virtually anywhere.  I have used that feature to work at home, then head over to another place and use them on a different machine.  That's a welcome feature.
 
My current purchasing has centered around mastering.  I started with the L products (L2, L3, L3-16) and added Linear Phase EQ and C 6 multiband compressor, the latest was Vitamin.   What I learned is,  I benefited from waiting and taking my time.  First, I could not learn everything all at once - the cash outlay was not being converted to anything useful. Second, there are great deals, but none of them occurred when I wanted them.  Its funny, I use these tools the most, and are a welcome addition.
 
I have also bought some tools that I have only used a few times like vocal rider.  Great product, but I am blessed somehow in working with singers who have good control. Or Aphex,  its a sweet tool but I use it sparingly, and not at all on most of my mixes. Thats me, your milage may vary.  
 
Some plugins I use whenever I get the chance, like MaxBass.   I record with a a great old Pbass and run that through an SW900 - that combination gets a really sweet growl and low end, but I still lightly hit it with that MaxxBass every time.  It helps translate that bass onto many devices like iPOD, cheep car stereo systems and the like. 
 
My point - you might try the 'I have a need, therefore I try to understand and shop' process.  But heck, its fun to fill the cart and just buy, isn't it?   
 
L 

jih64
Not quite sure if Mr Mccue...

Just telling you my opinion. The first DAW I operated in the early nineties came with a everything Waves makes bundle... at some point I bought a x86 Diamond license for my DAW... later I bought a x64 license for my x64 DAW... at some point I just moved on to using plugins that I like. Over the years I have observed that people seem to feel obligated to treating themselves to some Waves. I've done it. It seems like everyone does it.
 
Enjoy!

I like the CLA comps  - very nice and they get used a lot.
Got the Q10, SuperTap & C4 when they were on one of those $20 sales.
 
All of them are worth it, but the WUP is almost as much as what I paid for the lot, so I'm WUPless.
 

Well I bit the bullet, and took a little dive into the waves, I just got the Abbey Road Reel ADT and while I was there I grabbed the Scheps 73 to compare it with the T Racks 73. The ADT was as expected, like I seen on some videos, not something you would use all the time, but does what it does nicely, and I have just the place for it. Although I love my T Racks '73, I must say that I think the Waves Scheps 73 has a better quality sound to it, to my ears anyway, I messed around with the T Racks version for a while trying to match it, just couldn't get it there.
 
Installation, registration and Authorization all went fine, without a hitch, although I would prefer the old fashioned way, just download the individual plugins and have backup copies etc, but I guess it's not that different/bad.
 
So all good, off to get the rest on my list :)

BassDaddy
I would not buy too much at full price.

No, I don't plan on doing that :)
 

BassDaddy
CLA Sig could be as low as $99.00 on sale. I have it and think it's great.

 
Yeah me too, I was a little skeptical about it, thought it may be a little limited due to it's nature, but to my way of thinking I was getting it for free. Slapped it on the the snare, yeah that's pretty good, slapped it on the kick, then the toms, then the overheads, and literally started laughing, for something that you just insert and 2 or 3 mouse clicks to instant gratification, awesome.
 

BassDaddy
Gold is the stuff at that price. About $5.00 a plug. There should be some good things on sale in the next few weeks.

 
Yeah I got Gold for $146 at PluginDiscounts, just going to have a look at all the plugs after dinner.
Over all I am very pleased with all the purchases I made today thus far, can't see any reason that will change over the coming hours when I get a chance to check out the rest of the stuff