Ok i use to just compose,  send in stems and someone else would mix my music.  But times have changed.  Now I have to mix my music because most of it is for music libraries now days and to be honest,  I have not paid attention to the mixing side of things for many years.  It's a new thing for me.
 
So I have one music library client that says, "your music is fine, your mixes are weak.  You need to get Waves Plugins and mix with those".  He rejects about 50% of what I send to him because he can hear that I'm not using Wave.  And i have to admit, the tracks he produces sound great.
 
So are Wave plugins that good, or are my mixing skills the weak link?  I just bought the Gold Bundle from Sweetwater 'cause they are dirt cheap right now,  but I'm afraid it's not the tools it's the operator and my mixes are not going to improve that much any way.
 
So is True Verb and the Waves compressors better than Breverb and Sonar's compressors?   i really like the concrete limiter.
 
And why does it take so long to scan Wave plugins??
 
    

Your client is wrong...
 
Not to make you feel bad, but it isn't the plugins. It is learning how to use them that makes the difference. Waves plugins, though great, are not magical. I have them and, for the most part, can reproduce my results using Sonar's tools. The "for the most part" aspect are the things that certain Waves plugins bring that are not in Sonar's tools, like emulations of certain hardware.
 
Mixing is a skill like any other and takes time and practice to learn. Be patient with yourself. You should avail yourself of the Techniques and Songs forum to get advice and help for your own mixes.
 
Regards,
Dan

I have all the waves plugins. many of them have "a sound" particularly the analog emulations. they are great tools but you have to know the fundamentals of mixing or it won't matter what plugins you use. it's like driving a car, once you know how to drive, you can drive any car. so it goes with plugins.

Jimbo,
 
I've got about 25 or so Waves plugins as well as plugins from Eventide, Melda Productions and others.  Waves have always been stable for me.  Honestly, I've only been able to buy them when they were on sale, so with the Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. sales, I have been slowly building them up over time.  Sometimes they are on sale for as low as $29 as well as offering a some of freebies for promotional purposes.  I just picked up Trueverb this weekend as a free plug.
 
Now, as far as them being better than other plugins, including those offered by Cakewalk contained within the DAW, it is my opinion that they are not significantly better than what comes with Sonar.  Waves plugins certainly are equal to or might exceed Sonar's somewhat since they are a dedicated company that specializes in audio plugins and that's what they do.  They do provide more variety of plugs overall if you're looking for certain plugins that Sonar doesn't offer, even though Sonar offers a lot.  So, in brief, I do not believe that having Waves plugins are going to make or break your mixes.  Plugins from other companies, such as Izotope, ToonTrack, etc. will also serve you and get the job done.  
 
It sounds like the client wants you to process your audio at certain steps or levels in your mixes, either to fatten up, brighten, compress, etc. tracks or final mixes, including "mastering" before you send it out. You indicated that you have not been mixing very much until lately.  Perhaps some folks here on the forum can help you with that.  Either way, you got the most important part down: the Music!  You just need some help with mixing I'm guessing.
 
Regards

Jimbo 88
 
 
 
So are Wave plugins that good, or are my mixing skills the weak link?  I just bought the Gold Bundle from Sweetwater 'cause they are dirt cheap right now,  but I'm afraid it's not the tools it's the operator and my mixes are not going to improve that much any way.
 
So is True Verb and the Waves compressors better than Breverb and Sonar's compressors?   i really like the concrete limiter.
   

I think you answered the first part of your question on your own.
 
I wouldn't say that your mixing skills are the "weak link" (because I don't know you or your mixing skills, work etc.)  but i would definitely say that the waves bundle is not the "missing link" (nothing against waves). A skilled engineer can make a good mix with the plugins that you already have.
As far as True Verb being "better" than Breverb, it's a matter of taste and skill. I have used both on professional mixes, and no one has ever complained about or even cared about what reverb or comps i used, they were just interested in if it was a good overall mix or not.
Work on the mixing part. Now that you have the Gold Bundle(you bought it, so enjoy it i.e. no buyers remorse) you can just concentrate on skills.

It sounds as if this client has heard some good mixes using Waves plug-ins, so they equate a good sound with that kit. This in and of itself shows a lack of mixing knowledge by the client. They help pay the bills I understand, so getting those plug ins can't hurt if there's money to be made, but I don't see where it is absolutely necessary. I own a handful of Waves plug-ins. I haven't been happy with their update policies so I don't look to Waves as my first choice in plugs anymore. The plug-ins aren't really head and shoulders above any others in the same categories, but they are good plug ins. 
I think it would be interesting to make a mix and lead them to think the plugs are Waves, but use other plug ins. I'll bet if you mixed it well they couldn't tell the difference.
 

Starise
It sounds as if this client has heard some good mixes using Waves plug-ins, so they equate a good sound with that kit. 

^^THIS^^

watch a few videos on mixing / mastering. (You can google them, there are a zillion of them out there) Some are better than others, but most should help familiarize you with the landscape. You will see some common techniques, that should get you started. Waves is just a brand, there are a lot of good plugs out there, and dare I say, the toolkit you get with Sonar should be enough to get you good results when properly applied. Come back and post when you hit snags, and the community will help steer you down the right path. 

Have you asked the client what they are hearing or want to hear different.  Are they not liking the compression, balance, reverb tails, tonality?  The variables in mixing far, far exceed the plugs you use.  Find out what they are specifically wanting to hear. 
 
The environment you are mixing in can have a ton to do with how someone perceives a mix.  A room properly treated for recording a guitar is not necessarily great for mixing in.  What type of monitors are you mixing on? 
 
Throwing waves plugs on a mix in and of itself is not what they are missing.  They may think it is, but there is nothing waves can do for a standard mix that can not be done with the tools Cakewalk supplies with Platinum.

Are there particular instruments that they want a certain sound from that a particular waves plug has a signature sound for, possibly, but it has little to do with the mix but much more so the timber or shape of the individual instruyment.  AKA, use a Telecaster there, not a Les Paul kind of thing, but the overall mix, they have no idea what they really need if they think using waves plugs is the magic wand.

I failed to get business from a few clients early on simply because I did not have pro tools.  I gained several of those very clients business in later blind bids based on quality of work and they choosing the sound they wanted.  Once I got to working with them, they were all glad to have been educated as to the fact that pro tools was not a magic wand for professionalism they had been led to believe it was.  As long as the tools used are capable of professional results, it was the professional himself that made the difference.

Sonar and its accompanying plugs are more than capable of professional results.

Someone claims to be able to "hear" you're not using Waves? Wow, they must have the hearing of a cat. Or did they ask you "did you use Waves?" and when you said "no" then announce that you "have to use Waves"?
 
Seriously... Which Waves plugins can they clearly hear you're not using? I've a bunch of Waves plugins, and the ones I use in Sonar are mostly the effects that either Sonar Plat doesn't have, such as hardware emulation of exciters, specific antique and quirky consoles/eqs or Reel ADT's flanging, and things like the Waves multi-band compressor that can be side-chained per band. Plus a very few I prefer over Cake's offerings, like the Waves NLS. I also use BozDigital, D16, PSP, Melda, Overloud....
 
I use Waves stuff far more in Logic Pro, but that's because many of the plugins that come with Logic aren't as good as the ones that come with Sonar, in my personal opinion at least, so there are gaps in Logic's plugins which Waves (and other plugin makers) fill.
 
I would defy anyone to listen to an entire mix and spot that the guitar track has, say Sonar's Quad Curve eq running on it rather than Waves' equivalent plug. Or the mix bus final limiter was Concrete Limiter rather than Waves L2. And for fx plugs there are many companies making stuff that's as good as or better then the Waves equivalent.
 
Unless you have to supply the entire project in Sonar format so they can see what you used just don't worry about it. By all means get Waves plugs that you think might be useful to do a specific function, but don't get them just because they're "Waves". Work on improving your mixing and if questioned about plugins nod, smile sweetly, enthuse about how AWESOME Waves are and thank them for their advice. Then take their cheque.