TStranger,
 
I know exactly what you are talking about. I had to sell my waves platinum a few weeks ago. Even selling Waves was a nightmare.
 
I now use Universal Audio's Solo Laptop pluggins. They blow Waves away as far as sound quality is concerned. I wouldn't be surprised if Waves is out of business soon.
 
The reason I got rid of my waves is exclusively due to the 64bit issue.
 
I even read on a recent blog on Eric Kramers recent complaint about Waves. Even though he got Mercury for free. It's a shame that they force you to buy a pluggin for $170 every year. 
 
I really believe that the number of complaints forced them to close their forum.  There were some STRONG STRONG messages of hatred on their forum about their products.
 
To me..... Waves should be reduced to shareware. 

TomBO77

I don't know anyone who paid for Waves LOL until now.......There is nothing waves does that can be found for far less money, They are the "Pro Tools" of the efx market.

Hey TomBO,
 
I absolutley deserve a good laugh on being suckered in this one...so I don't mind you laughing.  Perhaps it will help me ensure that I never get ripped off again.  Hehe........
 
But for me, after two wars in the military, three stock market crashes, losing my kid's college savings twice through financial institution corruption, and builing my company from small to an industry leader, ..... I just got to a point where ripping off software was not where I was at...
 
It takes much more skill to negotiate life ethically than it does to produce music/technology.  The latter does not show much talent.  But I will definitely get the less costly versions first from now on....
 
TS
 
 
 
 
 

gtgarner

I now use Universal Audio's Solo Laptop pluggins. They blow Waves away as far as sound quality is concerned. I wouldn't be surprised if Waves is out of business soon. 
 

Universal Audio's Solo Laptop pluggins

 
Thanks GT!!!  I will go check them out now.
 
TS

That's a bummer that you're having problems.  I hope you get everything figured out.  I have a buddy that uses Waves Plugins just fine on 8.3, so I'm sure it will get sorted soon. 

I must be crazy, but I'm one of the few that actually think waves plug-ins are a good value.  For the price of 1 killer rackmount FX unit, you can get a decent sized plug-in bundle that has arguably everything you'd need to record an album.  I don't think Waves is trying to be the Wal-Mart of audio plug-ins, if you know what I mean.

dontletmedrown


That's a bummer that you're having problems.  I hope you get everything figured out.  I have a buddy that uses Waves Plugins just fine on 8.3, so I'm sure it will get sorted soon. 

I must be crazy, but I'm one of the few that actually think waves plug-ins are a good value.  For the price of 1 killer rackmount FX unit, you can get a decent sized plug-in bundle that has arguably everything you'd need to record an album.  I don't think Waves is trying to be the Wal-Mart of audio plug-ins, if you know what I mean.

+1 Dave. I have the Mercury bundle here and love them. No issues using them on XP or Vista using any version of Sonar. When I get the GUI thing, I just close the plug and reopen it and it's fine. Sorry you're having problems TS.

When you say the WAVES plugs do not work, what are you seeing or not seeing that indicates they are not working?
 
I have all of the waves plugs and SONAR 8.5 ruinning w/o any issues with XP SP2 32-bit.
 
I would download the latest installer and try it again. Make sure you scan the waves plugins and also make sure all of the WaveShell.DLLs are current.
 
Reset all of your plugs, then rescan VSTs.
 
This is all of course if you are NOT 64-bit. I don't believe Waves V6 supports 64-bit applications.
 

dontletmedrown


That's a bummer that you're having problems.  I hope you get everything figured out.  I have a buddy that uses Waves Plugins just fine on 8.3, so I'm sure it will get sorted soon. 

I must be crazy, but I'm one of the few that actually think waves plug-ins are a good value.  For the price of 1 killer rackmount FX unit, you can get a decent sized plug-in bundle that has arguably everything you'd need to record an album.  I don't think Waves is trying to be the Wal-Mart of audio plug-ins, if you know what I mean.

I agree. I use Waves plugins every day on all our products. The only other "go-to" plugins I reach for (in Sonar) are the Sonitus delay, Sonitus Gate with SC and PSP vintage meters.
But the company sucks.
Fact.
 We used the subscription service for the first year then dumped it. The last time I looked at their forum, it was mostly angry customers and spam.
We have debated getting some of the new plugins/collections, but...meh! Too many bad memories. "Once bitten twice shy".
The product is fantastic IMO. The company not so much.
 
I haven't purchased the latest Sonar patch and threads like this make me nervous.
But then again we've personally had some issues with the Sonar online sales/support crew as well over the years.

I too am a happy owner of Waves Platinum bundle.  I notice a huge difference in audio quality when I use my waves plug-ins in comparison to Sonar's plug-ins.  Especially on comparisons like Sonitus Compressor in comparison to the Renaissance Compressor.  Their plug-ins don't only sound great, but they are designed very well so that they are easy to understand and use.  

With that said, I also think the business practices of the company are horrible.  For my business, Waves is a necessary evil.  If their plug-ins didn't sound so good and if so many people weren't using them, then I would definitely be using other plug-ins.  

My experience with support and Waves really varies.  When it comes to Pro Tools, they are always fully updated and working great and I have rarely seen any problem with compatibility.  They will have their plug-ins primed and ready before releases of Pro Tools.  Sonar is a completely different story.  As long as I have used Waves with Sonar, I have always had buggy issues from the GUI to multiprocessor engine and etc.  It is really disappointing.  But when it comes down to it, Waves biggest customers are the Digidesign customers that are forking out the cash for the TDM plug-ins.  I know very few Pro Tools HD users that don't own any Waves plug-ins.  Much of the Sonar crowd is happy with the stock plug-ins or would purchase the Wal-Mart type plugs before even considering Waves.  Therefore, Sonar is an after thought to them.  It is sad, frustrating, and infuriating.  I know....  I've been there many times. 

Danny Danzi

dontletmedrown


That's a bummer that you're having problems.  I hope you get everything figured out.  I have a buddy that uses Waves Plugins just fine on 8.3, so I'm sure it will get sorted soon. 

I must be crazy, but I'm one of the few that actually think waves plug-ins are a good value.  For the price of 1 killer rackmount FX unit, you can get a decent sized plug-in bundle that has arguably everything you'd need to record an album.  I don't think Waves is trying to be the Wal-Mart of audio plug-ins, if you know what I mean.

+1 Dave. I have the Mercury bundle here and love them. No issues using them on XP or Vista using any version of Sonar. When I get the GUI thing, I just close the plug and reopen it and it's fine. Sorry you're having problems TS.

Are you running 32 bit, Sonar 8.5 and the latest version of Waves 6?  Just curious.  

Had a similar problem with WAVES plug-ins not showing up in Sonar...the DirectX ones did, but none of the others. My memory's a little hazy about exactly what happened, but IIRC WAVES installed the plug-ins into a different folder than a VST plug-'ins folder...might have been in Program Files or something. Anyway, once I located it, I moved it into the VST folder that Sonar recognized and all was well.

I think some of the WAVES plug-ins sound fantastic, but I also have to say the Universal Audio plugs are excellent, and I've been impressed by how the company treats their customers. I have the UAD-2 Quad card in my desktop machine, and got a SOLO card for my laptop...I figured the bundled plug-ins were enough for the task at hand (editing videos on the laptop at trade shows). But I was pleasantly shocked to find that UA lets you "sync" the solo card to an existing card, which lets you use the plug-ins you already paid for with the SOLO without having to re-buy them. Good move!!