Waves Plug-Ins....

[mksphnx2001]

I have been making music for some time now, so I am no stranger to the art of soundcrafting. In any case I am new when it comes to plug-ins and the such. I recently picked up the Diamond Bundle of waves Plug-ins. The manual is not much help but I am getting around in terms of using them.

just wanted to know if anyone used these plug-ins and if you could elaborate on which ones where the best for bringing life to the sound you are using them with.

Thanks

[metalhead28]

I'm not sure "bringing life" is a good way to narrow down great plugins. It seems they are all great for their own respective purposes.

[noisedude]

I find quite a lot of them to be very marginal. The Ultramaxxxxxxxbass thingy is quite useful as a shortcut to sorting EQ out on kick and bass guitars. The various Ultramaxifancypantyisers are useful especially for the dithering on them.

A lot of the crappy doublers, garblers and needless manglers seem like a total waste of money to me. I will take another look and remind myself what I most commonly use. What software package are you using? Some of them come with some really good stock plugs (Sonar in particular, but Vegas too). And there are a tonne of great free ones including the Kjaerhaus Classic series.

[Massive Master]

Originally Posted by mksphnx2001

The manual is not much help...

I'm not a huge fan of Waves' stuff, but that's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that...

[sushi-mon]

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...92009530&itm=1

This is a pretty good book. I don't have it, but I have skimmed through it, and it offers a pretty compreshensive look at all types of plug-ins from a range of manufacturers and what they are used for and how to use them.

I am a newbie to the digital audio world, but I plan on getting this book soon. Before I dump a big wad on a Waves bundle

[gordone]

Ditto that. I have the Rennaisance Collection and Native Power Pack and the manuals are great references for compression/eq/limiting/reverb in general.

Waves plug-ins are just tools. They each do something specific. Hopefully when someone puts out the $$$$$ for these plug-ins, they have a good idea of what compression/eq/limiting/reverb is used for (and when)

It's like spending tons of money on a Craftsman Toolset and asking what do I use to really make my Toyota Corrolla "come to life"

The best way to make your tracks come to life is to record a great take in a great sounding room with an appropriate microphone(s) through an excellent signal chain. Once it's recorded, there is only so much you can do to make the tracks come to life.

If you really did just spend $1K (or whatever) on the Waves bundle, do a search here about compression/limiting/reverb/eq. Once you know about compression (or the other effects), you will learn when to use the Waves compressors.

Originally Posted by Massive Master

I'm not a huge fan of Waves' stuff, but that's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that..(that the manual is useless).

[RAMI]

I hope this isn't too much of a topic change, but I don't think it's worth starting a new thread about.
I have the WAVS bundle, and my PC (I use Wavelab) "sees" almost all the plug-ins, but not the L3. I can find the program in the program files, but Wavelab doesn't put it in it's list of effects. It sees the L2, which I like just fine, so I didn't make a big deal of it.
But I'm wondering if anyone would know if it's because I have to have Windows XP and up. I have ME, and there are other things like anti-virus, etc... that I can't get the latest version of because it says I need XP at least.

[noisedude]

I wasn't going to ask this, but I was wondering this too. I've seen this on a number of DAWs and have always been too polite to ask (or too lazy to fix it).

[gordone]

Are you sure your license is for the L3? I have the Renn. Collection and the Native Power Pack, but I believe I installed a whole bunch more (I can see the *.dlls in the folder) and the effects show up in my Plug-ins list in N-Track. But if I select something not in those two bundles, I get yelled at by N-Track. The PAZ Analyzer is one of the non-authorized plug-ins.

Just a thought!

[Carter]

Originally Posted by noisedude

I find quite a lot of them to be very marginal. The Ultramaxxxxxxxbass thingy is quite useful as a shortcut to sorting EQ out on kick and bass guitars. The various Ultramaxifancypantyisers are useful especially for the dithering on them.

A lot of the crappy doublers, garblers and needless manglers seem like a total waste of money to me. I will take another look and remind myself what I most commonly use. What software package are you using? Some of them come with some really good stock plugs (Sonar in particular, but Vegas too). And there are a tonne of great free ones including the Kjaerhaus Classic series.

I cannot believe that you just said what you said, how many Wave plug-ins do you have? I know Master is not a fan of the Waves Bundle But I personaly like what the plugs can do they are clean! as long as you know what you are doing you should yield a good mix! I currently use run with Stenberg but I have owned a Digi 002 rack and found it limiting so I sold and got Cubase SX3 and the Mackie Control for better results.


*NOTE* I do not hate Pro Tools Nice program

[noisedude]

Sonusman is on our side too!

Nah, I think there are some good ones and some cack ones. I just don't quite see what all the fuss is about.

[Zetajazz44]

I've used Waves stuff for quite a while now... Most of it has served me well... I mainly only record acoustic/bluegrass music and vocals so there are tons of the plugs I never touch... I'm sure if I recorded a different genre of music there might be others that might see some use, but not for bluegrass/acoustic.

I mainly use:
Q-10 EQ
RVerb
RComp
MaxxBass - occasional use
L3 Ultramaximizer
Shuffler

I recently bought the URS Everything EQ Bundle and they (The FullTec seems to get the most use) seem to be taking the place of the Q-10... I have all the FREE Kjaerhaus Classic Series stuff too, I use those occasionally as well... I really like the Waves RVerb and RComp... Those are my most used/liked plugs from Waves. Really, from Waves, if I only had the RComp, RVerb and L3 I could make it just fine without the rest of them...

I've said all of this to say this: I like the Waves plugs I use...they have served me well. Looking back, I think I could have spent my money more wisely since there are so many plugs I don't use. When I bought my Waves plugs several years back, I knew very little about recording and Waves seemed to be the fit-all wrench, and myself not knowing exactly what I really needed, I bought them.

I'm a bit from the old school and still use ProTools LE and the Digi001. I've used this for over 7 years now... The best plugin buy I ever made was the VST to RTAS adapter ($99). There are so many free VST plugs out there, some of them pretty good...including the Kjaerhaus Classic Series, I find myself using more and more of the free VST stuff on a day-to-day basis... With this adapter, it's like getting 100's of plugs for $99... If you get 100 free ones, it's about $1 each!

[sushi-mon]

The first bundle I plan on purchasing is the Waves Rennaisance Bundle. I can get it for less than $400 at my local music store. Pretty much has all the basics you need and high quality. The only thing after that would probably be a mid level mastering bundle.

But, I am going to work with the basic Digidesign RTAS for now, so I can learn the ropes, then appreciate the upgrades when I am ready.

[Hi_Flyer]

those bundless are so damn expensive. I don't think it would ever be worth it for me because there's a bunch of stuff I would never use.

[sushi-mon]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

those bundless are so damn expensive. I don't think it would ever be worth it for me because there's a bunch of stuff I would never use.

For the one I want, $400, it is a pretty nice package, I don't think that is hefty considering I paid $510 for my Mobx two with the Factory Bundle of some good plug-ins.

But the Diamond bundle originally listed at the beggining of this thread lists for $3,800 on the Waves website for the Native version !!! That is some serious money to lay down and not aparently know how to use them or what he really purchased...

No offense to the guy at all, I had a sales rep tell me about the Diamond bundle. But, when he told me the price, I said, I better take time to learn about all this plug-in stuff first.

[4everfresh]

I fooled around with the waves stuff quite extensively:

Waves Q10:
These sounded very good to me. I would actually do overdubs while sweeping the parameters in real time (totally ghetto pre-automation style) and they made a very good sounding filter sweep for me. I think they sound better than Acid's native eq's.

the maximizer:
The ultramaximizer worked pretty well, better than wave hammer. Once I did a car test to listen for the supposed subconcious bass enhancement of the bass maximizer and I didn't really get it, but it may have helped.

TrueVerb:
I really liked trueverb. The tail of the reverb would flutter interestingly, not just slap around. I have never heard a reverb that "fooled" me, but this one sure sounded good. back then I was using it with 'generator', that synth modeling program and it was a lot of fun.

who knows if its worth the price compared to what else is out there?

hope that helps.

ps yay that was my first post

[bigwillz24]

I can't see myself spending that much for a diamond bundle blah, blah, blah...

There are only like 4 or 5 plugs I use a regular basis when it comes to the waves plugins.

C-1 SC or RComp
Q4
LINE MB
L2
& Trueverb

The rest of the stuff hardly ever gets touched and thats on the schools system.

[dunebuggy]

I have the gold bundle , i use:
C1 not a warmer but precise
C4 for warmth
Q series, precise and not to DSP consuming
Maxbass for Lfe

[Hi_Flyer]

what the hell does that mean when you say "native"?!?! I have been trying to figure that out for awhile now...

[gordone]

Native means the plug-ins run on the "native" processor of your system, meaning the CPU which runs everything else on your PC. The opposite of native systems are those like the UAD card or real ProTools (ie not the MBox or PT LE), which offload the heavy processing to dedicated processors.
Hope that makes sense!

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

what the hell does that mean when you say "native"?!?! I have been trying to figure that out for awhile now...

[LemonTree]

If you've installed waves of any sort and they don't show up on your effects list make sure you go to your start menu/programs/waves and click the DX register thing