I have become a Waves customer after all these years

I have never used any Waves products nor had any desire to, simply because I don't do dongles. 

But to their credit, those clever folks in Israel have finally figured out that there's a big, previously untapped market out there among users who refuse to let Pace infect their computers. So tonight I've joined the Waves universe with one small purchase (I'll have to become as rich as bapu before I can get any bundles).

Now this better be good, or I'll be back to harass all of you who sold me on Waves. Not that my ol' pal or bapu would ever lead me astray. 

I mean, is this a face you can trust, or what?

TransX, like you told me to.

I will do just that. When I get my license, that is. No instant gratification this time. I bought from Waves Universe ($4.35 less than Waves' store price). They said wait up to one business day. Clock ticking.

For a lot of software users you go on a bit of a journey (leaving dongles to one side) but I'd probably have gone Waves and FabFilter from the off knowing what I now know. I'D recommend that route, while pointing out that I don't own any of them, apart from GTR Solo. The small band of people who I trust through the years of this digital journey don't really have a bad word about them.

I'm with ya bitflipper! I was sucked in my the lack of iLOK and that damn sexy yellow hat!  Kramer Master Tape for me.

Then Rain had to go all "musicians bundle is nice" blah blah bah.

crap. Now I just ordered that one too! :)

If you give a mouse a cookie...

Whew - four more days, four more days, four more days! :)

Does anyone know how the L2 compares to IK's Brickwall limiter or Cake's Concrete Limiter? I have those, and I wonder if it's worth an additional purchase...
Pssst - please say No! :)
 
 

During the night the email came with my license number.  Yay!

But holy crap, what a convoluted, bloated  installation and authorization process.

Nobody else ever made me download so many files to obtain a single VST effect plugin. I thought I'd missed an option because although I chose just the one plugin from the list, it announced that it was installing "Waves Complete", as if it were downloading the entire catalog. It wasn't, but it did download and install a whopping 52 megabytes worth of stuff, which seems excessive for a single effect plugin.

[Backing up and restoring Waves products might be potentially complicated. I keep an image of my vstplugins folder on an external drive as a backup. Should my primary drive fail, most of my other plugins (aside from instruments and sample libraries) will need only a quick file copy to restore. I suspect that Waves re-installs may be more complicated. But I'll worry about that when the time comes.]

So once I got it installed, I ran the Cakewalk Plugin Manager (the most time-consuming part of any install). At this point I am thinking the finish line must be in sight. Alas, it is not.

The scan presents me with a "No licenses found for Waves Plugins" message, because I neglected to run the Waves License Center first. Oops. Reading the instructions, it turns out, is a prerequisite for a successful Waves install.

They offer an option to install my license on a USB drive. How, exactly, is that different from an iLok dongle? Is it not just a home-made dongle? I elect to install the license on the hard drive as well as "My License Cloud". I hope that's the best option.


At any rate, it's up and running. Now to see if yorolpal will starting getting mystery pizzas delivered to his house.

I debated about the USB versus computer thingy too Bit, ol pal.  I went with a generic USB thumb drive.  In truth it is like an iLok except for one very important respect...IT"S NOT AN ILOK!  You are no longer a slave to a quirky, proprietary sometimes trouble causing copy protection scheme and website where you have to buy "their" key to protect "your" license.  At least hopefully that is the case.  You can now use any USB flash drive (as long as it's formatted to FAT32) OR your computer, whichever you like and if you lose or damage your drive or change or upgrade your computer you can now (supposedly) simply restore your licenses from the cloud.  The only reason I went with the USB option is that it's possible I might need to use this or that plug on my downtown studio DAW at one time or another and that gives me that option.  Waves certainly does still have an "interesting" download and install method and you are right to follow instructions as close as possible.  Hope you love the TransX...I think it's a honey.

So can the USB DIY-dongle be duplicated? Even if I had a spare USB port free, which I don't, I'm reluctant to forever trust a $10 piece of plastic I bought at Office Depot.

I'm also a new Waves customer.
Bought Gold and CLA bundle.
Happy as a puppy! :D

bitflipper


But if I want to use this plugin on my laptop? Is that even allowed under the license?

The paranoia of this company is amazing. No wonder it took them so long to get off iLok. 

BTW, the plugin I bought does what it (and yorolpal) advertised. For $45 it was a bargain. No complaints there. But if Waves and FabFilter both made the same products the choice would be easy.

My guess is that that's the main reason to opt for a USB key - that way you can work on any computer: just install the plug-in and as soon as your key is detected, you're good to go. I don't think they'd let you run one authorization on different computer otherwise (unlike Cake and others). There's no "good faith agreement" w/ Waves.

I have watched the Waves saga unfold for years now, and I always considered them to be the "evil empire" of software based on not only the iLok but other nasty business practices as well.  I think I'm going to sit on the sidelines for a while and watch, but they do seem to have made a significant departure from the dark side with the Version 9 release.  I'm not sure I can convince myself to buy duplicate Waves plugs to enhance/replace other plugs I already have, but listening to you Waves converts (especially bitflipper!) is causing me to rethink the whole Waves thing.

Thanks bapu

Some of those bundles look very enticing. 

leapinlizard


I have watched the Waves saga unfold for years now, and I always considered them to be the "evil empire" of software based on not only the iLok but other nasty business practices as well.  I think I'm going to sit on the sidelines for a while and watch, but they do seem to have made a significant departure from the dark side with the Version 9 release.  I'm not sure I can convince myself to buy duplicate Waves plugs to enhance/replace other plugs I already have, but listening to you Waves converts (especially bitflipper!) is causing me to rethink the whole Waves thing.

I used to think they couldn't be trusted either, something didn't feel quite right. But as I mentioned in another thread, the few times I've had to communicate w/ Waves, they answered promptly and even went a step further than most companies by sending me an extra e-mail once the issue was solved to acknowledge/thank me/formally close the conversation. 


That's by no mean essential, but I consider it a sign of professionalism, and something that's almost unheard of in this business in my experience.