I'm going with SoundOnSound and SoundBytesMag for reviews. Never duped.

sharke
I've always been on the skeptical side when it comes to any on-site reviews hosted by the same company who makes the product. I mean they have 100% control over the reviews which appear, and can even spin them from whole cloth without ever having to answer for it. 
 
The Waves site is a classic example. I look through the product reviews and it's all glowing 5-star reports across the board. And a lot of them don't even sound believable - for instance, who leaves a review like "Love you guys, can't live without my Waves plugins, everything you make adds life and sparkle to my tracks"? Even though you can't quite put your finger on why that sounds fake, there's no denying that it does. 
 
Just wondering if anyone actually buys these write-ups. 

Reviews on the Waves website are voluntary.   The "Verified Buyer" next to each person who reviews indicates they have an active Waves account with purchased and registered licenses. Waves is fortunate enough to have a large enough user base that not only enjoy our products, but like to talk about them.  While not all reviews will resonate with everyone, they are genuine. 
 
Keep in mind, Waves offers 7 day demos on all of our products. While it is a nice resource to see other user's opinions, it's not necessary to take someone else's word on the quality. Only you truly know what works best for your workflow and projects.
 
Have a great day everyone!
 
Tim Holbert
Waves
 

Another zombie post -- forum is wack.

Just goes to show vendors (and competition) do read these forums...

Thanks to Tim for responding to the conspiracy-mongering in this thread.
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 
 
 

zombie post

kitekrazy1I don't know of any company that allows negative reviews on their sites.

 
Universal Audio does, and to a fault at times. When their updated Neve 88RS channel strip came out, an army of trolls flooded its review section with 1-star ratings, for no other reason than they didn't like the price. That's not a review, and the plugin's average rating -- clearly shown next to its listing in the store as with all UAD plugins -- suffered unfairly. Everyone already knows that UAD plugs are expensive, and this one was no more pricey than similar plugins in UAD's lineup.
 
At first, UA didn't want to do anything about the trolls, saying that deleting them would compromise the integrity of the reviews. But after some user forum comments making the point that it was the trolls who were compromising the ratings, they finally went and got rid of the obvious fakery.
 
Anyway, UA's customer reviews are among the most helpful I've seen. Sites where everything gets uniform raves don't help me much. But always, the point that any review should be taken with a grain of salt can't be emphasized enough, as everyone's tastes, ears, systems, rooms, and moods vary.
 
It's best to take note of comments from known trusted reviewers, and then DEMO PRODUCTS YOURSELF before buying.
 
Cheers,
Eddie

paulo
My favourite ever amazon review (for Fire tv stick)...

That's a good one. Seems like time to post once again the classic reviews of Audioquest's K2 Terminated Speaker Cable, a product long discontinued in favour of a yet more expensive waste of money... like a $1500 6 foot HDMI cable...

An example -
"We live underground. We speak with our hands. We wear the earplugs all our lives.

PLEASE! You must listen! We cannot maintain the link for long... I will type as fast as I can.

DO NOT USE THE CABLES!

We were fools, fools to develop such a thing! Sound was never meant to be this clear, this pure, this... accurate. For a few short days, we marveled. Then the... whispers... began.

Were they Aramaic? Hyperborean? Some even more ancient tongue, first spoken by elder races under the red light of dying suns far from here? We do not know, but somehow, slowly... we began to UNDERSTAND.

No, no, please! I don't want to remember! YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME REMEMBER! I saw brave men claw their own eyes out... oh, god, the screaming... the mobs of feral children feasting on corpses, the shadows MOVING, the fires burning in the air! The CHANTING!

WHY CAN'T I FORGET THE WORDS???

We live underground. We speak with our hands. We wear the earplugs all our lives.

Do not use the cables!"

And plenty more where that came from -
https://www.amazon.com/Au...bmissionDateDescending

dmbaer
With music (CDs) it's harder because someone may be perfectly excellent at communicating their opinions but happen to like a type of music that you cannot stand.

I think it helps if the reviews are written by "regulars" so that you can get a feel over time for what the reviewer likes and therefore whether you are likely to or not. Back in the late 70s/early 80s I discovered a lot of music by basing what I bought on reviews in the New Musical Express. I found if Mick Farren and/or Charles Shaar Murray liked a record or band I probably would as well. These days there's so much article churning, uninformed opinion and straightforward plagiarism on the interenet I'm not sure that kind of principle is still useful....

interpolated
Be that as it may, you should evaluate the product and make your own mind up. A product is only as good as the person uses it for. I trialled the Brauer Motion and whilst it was interesting as an effect...it's not something I would reach for over anything else.
 
There are plenty other companies out there with decent products. Waves realised this and created a sale which seems to have worked. I think though the best effects I personally have used are by Universal Audio and TC Electronic which essentially require hardware to use however fair enough.
 
Also with products like Harrison 32C console mixer (Mixbus) available now, could this be another outlet for musicians to finely craft their sound?
 

This is because you probably don't understand the options of the effect. Beyond the prescribed use of the plug, you can use the plug to create spatial mixes...think when a mix is too dense, by using the plug in stationary mode you can place an instrument at the far side of the stereo field, or you can change the height of the instrument...even depth. This is the problem with all these plugins...you actually have to invest time in learning how to use them.

And no I'm not a waves ambassador lol.