Opinion(s) on plugs?

What does anyone think about plugs like Waves Mixcentric and Center?
Center
http://www.waves.com/plugins/center?utm_source=wnletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=center-sale
Mixcentric
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7e0CPhg_z4
I'm always tempted because they sound like a quick way to do remarkable things but surely you should be able to mix and master without such things?
Is anyone using them, got an opinion?
 
Thanks - rev
 

I though about buying Waves Center Yesterday because it was 29.99 for that one day only, but I realized that I didn't need it.   Yes it does a great job of Compressing the signal and it bring up & lower the sides or middle, but you can do the same without the plug.  
 
But if you wanted CENTER, you should have gotten it yesterday.

Greg Wells gets a piece of the action, so of course he's "very excited" about MixCentric.
 
I wouldn't waste my money on either of them, and not just because I've sworn off Waves products. I wouldn't bother with similar products from other vendors, either. 
 
 
 
 

I've quite a few of the Waves plugs that emulate hardware, but the "signature" ones that combine several processes into a single plugin with a few controls mostly unappealing. I can see why people might go for them as a simpler, quicker, alternative to learning about compression, eq and doing lots of experimenting though.

Mixcentre did interest me, because it struck me as a possibly useful short-cut tool, but having demo'd it I came to the conclusion that perhaps I don't really want the "Greg Wells sound".

And if he's being "very excited" in those videos he must be among the calmest, least excitable people on the planet :-)

As has been said, never pay full price for a Waves plugin, wait for it to go on sale. Unless you've a paying client that insists on a particular Waves plugin being used on their recording and you can add the plugin price to the bill and you're sure the client is good for the money.

Many of the Waves emulation plugs I have are no better than the plugins that come with Sonar Plat or the Cakewalk developed plugs like Concrete Limiter by the way. I got them mostly for use in Logic which comes with a much weaker set of plugins. Though I do sometimes use Waves Abbey Road set (though not the mic imitations), their exciters/enhancers and side-chainable multi-band comp in Sonar.

> "very excited" in those videos he must be among the calmest, least excitable people on the planet :-)
That's a crackup! I thought he had one foot in the grave and the other in clinical depression...
 
I got the Maserati plug for acoustic guitar and discovered that all the controls on the right side do almost nothing at all. You can swing the Color control from 0 to max and I swear it does nothing or it's so subtle that you can forget the difference in a mix. I don't really want to pay for another set of controls that don't work.

Reviews on Center tell you it's not a necessity.

 I don't remember but I read them after I bought it. 

revnice1
Digi:
>Just have Waves put you on their email list, and, every so often, a discounted plug comes up.
Yeah, but what do you think of them? 

Leaving aside the "signature" ranges, to my ears Waves plugins range from "that sounds really good" to "nope" via "useful in the right place at the right time". Which is pretty much like the offerings from most plugin developers. Some of the most generally useful are the kind of thing like Cakewalk already provide in tools like the excellent Channel Tools. You don't need them very often but when you do you're grateful. InPhase (and the LT version) is one such, DeBreath can come in handy. The Waves C6 multi-band compressor likewise if you want to do something complicated with side-chaining.

Some of the more "effect" type plugs are good. I like Waves' exciters, Doubler is good on the right material though sometimes a simple chorus effect does better, the REDD and T12345 consoles are fun if you like a truly old-fashioned feel sometimes. ReelADT provides instant 1960s Beatles/Small Faces/through-zero flanging.

Waves reverbs and delays are in the "don't bother" class, Cakewalk's CA-2A comp is better than the Waves version I think, and the ProChannel compressors are Waves's equals. For a different but excellent (if you like what it does) comp+eq BozDigital's 10+dB is at least as good as anything Waves makes.

Given what comes with Sonar Plat, the Waves stuff I'd personally go for are the oddball effects like ReelADT and T12345. Most of the other stuff you can do with Sonar's plugs pretty well unless you want a different tone-colour - often subtly different - rather than "something that's the same just better". Much of Waves's range really fills in gaps in what the various DAW makers provide. SonarPlat has very few gaps. I've found myself learning Logic Pro over the last 8 months or so and I was surprised at how much better SonarPlat's plugin range is than most of what comes with Logic.

Waves once upon a time had a reputation as the "top of the tree" plugin house and prices to match, rather like ProTools HD. The world has moved on since then. You really need to install trial versions of a few things and see what you make of them.

I have a few Waves plugins that I use all the time. The Aphex Aural Exciter is one of them as well as Bass Rider. I've also been using the H series compressor and delay in my guitar chain and I like what I hear. They carry a few unique processors that I haven't seen anywhere else and the quality is very good in my opinion. Once again, if it makes you happy and inspires great music, it's a win.