Do waves play nice with sonar? 
Which bundle would you get? 
Any must have single plugins?
Better than what already comes with sonar, eg pro channel?

What are your favorite plugins from any vendor?
 
Thanks,
 
Kevin

Kman88

 

Do waves play nice with sonar? 
Which bundle would you get? 
Any must have single plugins?
Better than what already comes with sonar, eg pro channel?

What are your favorite plugins from any vendor?
 
Thanks,
 
Kevin

I use Waves on all of my recordings. Works well with Sonar, no issues.

These are the plugs I used on all my music.

1) UltraVerb (Eventide)
2) Fabfilter Pro-Q
3) Eddie Kramer Tape (Waves)
4) Sonitus Delay (Cakewalk)

You can hear these on my Latest Single: Telephone Love.

I must tell you, it is easy to get drown deep in plugins. I avoid this by using very little and avoiding plugin overload.

Just get what works and stick to it.

Fabfilter, Waves, Eventide and SoundToys are my go to.

I plan to replace Sonitus Delay with Echo Boy. But it has been one of the best for me.

Good luck!

I use Waves plugins but I've had more instalation problems with them than any other plugin maker.
 
These make it onto just about every project
J37 Tape
NLS 
SSL-Bus Comp
Abbey Road Plate Reverb (uses a ton of CPU though and usually only on a track or two)
 
 
Schepps Omni Channel is probably the best bang for the buck plug they have when on sale for $29.  If you are going to get one, that is probably it.  Saturation, EQ, Comp, etc and they play nice together.  Looks simple but there are deeper options under the hood (check out some videos on it).  
 
Also note if you use more than one computer, Waves is one of the only company that gives you only one single liscence.  I HATE that.  You can author to a USB stick, but then you have to use a USB port just for that.
 
They make pro quality stuff, but I seem to have trouble with them every single time I try to add another one to the collection and the Waves Installer.  They also take a LONG time to scan on startup, so if you buy them, you might want to check the don't scan at startup button and just run it when you add more to the computer.
 
Cakewalk's quality will depend on what you have.  Things like the EQ, MB Comp, Limiter, B-Reverb, Rematrix Reverb, and CA-2A are all top shelf.  (you might not have some of this unless you had Platinum before Bandlab).
 
Depends on the effects you are looking for.  Don't get trapped into thinking Waves is "it," but they do have quite a few useful tools. 
 
I use Izotope a lot (Neutron, Ozone, RX)
 
Boz Digital (Mongoose used on every track with Bass)  
 
Toneboosters had good quality for cheep
 
If you have Platinum, there is likley nothing you actually need (other than noise reduction).  There are are just different flavors and workflows by other manufactures.  Example, I could use the Tape Sim in Cakewalk, but find the J37 does sound better to my ears, same with the NLS vs Cakes'  But these are subtle color things and in an blind test, might not even pick the right one.  

I use NLS, PAZ, and Kramer Tapes, Tubes & Transistors on just about every mix. I have good results with all of them, and they very rarely give me any trouble. I would also look into Klanghelm Plugins. Great plugs, and they're very affordable. Definitely check out his MJUC compressor. Awesome... PSP also makes some great plugs. The Xenon limiter is excellent. Softube plugs are great, but they're expensive. I got their mix bundle when it was first introduced at a great price, and I use them on almost every mix. I've heard Fabfilter makes great plugs as well, but also expensive. There are many more that are great as well, but just make sure you make the most with what you have, instead of always chasing the next great plugin. :)

Thanks everyone, very helpful. I have the latest platinum pre bandlab and love all their plugs. I use ozone 8 and rx. When waves first came out i was poor and couldn't afford them. Lol. Now they're having a great sale and wondering if i should see what I've been missing. But they have so many it's hard to find the sweet spot. Only want to spend a couple hundred away most. I was thinking gold $99 , ssl 4000 $99, then i get 2 free, cla-2a and I'll look into that shepps omni channel. Sound like a good start?

Kevin

I used to use Waves Gold back in the 32-bit days. Hated the iLok dongle thing so I actually used a cracked version. When I went 64-bit, I left them behind as the plug-ins in SPLAT did what I needed, and the Waves stuff was still expensive to upgrade.
 
I see the current sale on the Gold bundle for $99 and am quite tempted at that price. When I had them, I used them a lot. I also see that Waves ditched the iLok thing and doing more of challenge/response deal I guess with Waves Center.
 
These days, I don't use a lot of effects on sends (BREVERB2, Sonitus Delay) and find that ProChannel is OK for simple EQ and compression. I like the Renaissance plug-ins and MaxxBass. But I'm just recording my own bands now, no more outside projects unless they are really good friends.
 
I suspect I will pull the trigger on the Gold bundle just for old times sake as I'm familiar them and generally liked them. The other bonus is that they won't be locked to single DAW like many of the plug-ins that come bundled are.

Garry good point about not being locked to a single daw!

Kman88
Thanks everyone, very helpful. I have the latest platinum pre bandlab and love all their plugs. I use ozone 8 and rx. When waves first came out i was poor and couldn't afford them. Lol. Now they're having a great sale and wondering if i should see what I've been missing. But they have so many it's hard to find the sweet spot. Only want to spend a couple hundred away most. I was thinking gold $99 , ssl 4000 $99, then i get 2 free, cla-2a and I'll look into that shepps omni channel. Sound like a good start?
Kevin

I agree with Brian's comment regarding what you get with Cakewalk, especially if you've got Sonar Platinum as well.
 
Also, take a closer look at the BlueTube collection that came with Platinum. There's a fair few emulations in there that aren't obvious - e.g. pultech eq.
 
With regard to your proposed selection...
 
Cakewalk's Pro Channel already more or less emulates the SSL E EQ, SSL G EQ, the SSL console and the SSL Bus Compressor. Whether or not the waves ones are better or not is probably subjective. I guess the PC4K Channel Compressor is the obvious missing component here, which (unless you bought it), is not available for purchase any more.
 
I've got the Waves SSL collection, and it does sound fantastic - but more often than not, the ProChannel does it for me.
 
The Scheps omni channel is a good choice. 
  
You may already have Cakewalk's CA-2A compressor as it was given away a while back. There's very little difference between this and the Waves CLA-2A.  Personally, if you've got CA-2A, I wouldn't bother with the CLA-2A but instead look at something like the Scheps 73. 
 
Some Waves plugins are just really useful, such as Vocal Rider, L2 Ultramaximiser, and a few more.
 
Take a good look at what you've got already before make your choice.
 

I just listened to some processors in Native Komplete 12! They found really good. Any experience with that package of goodies?

The old cakewalk stuff is good. Between pc and the sonitus you are set for eq and dynamics. Get a great reverb or some eventide fx and you’ll be ready to go. Waves is good but not special the cake stuff is as good if not better. And like everyone else, they try to lock you in to their product line and make you upgrade.