Waves Plugin Bundles, General Opinions Please

[Jathon Delsy]

Hello, I'm considering purchasing the Waves Horizon plugin bundle. I am running Ableton, using its effects, and also I have some Sonnox effects. The Waves stuff seems popular from reading interviews with pro engineers. There are some great sounding things there that promise mix-magic, such as the RVox, the Vocal Rider to automate vocals, the similar Bass Rider, and various other toys.
Is it all worth it? Or shoud I stick with what I've got?
Thanks.

[Stuart79]

Most plugin manufacturers offer free trials of their products. Give those a go and see how you get on.

I think Waves also offer a subscription service now. It might also be worth looking at that as a way of establishing how much value you get from their products rather than committing to a purchase which you may or may not regret.

[Drew Stephenson]

I've got a few waves products and they're generally solid but like most plugin providers, never pay full price because there will be a sale along shortly.
Stuart's suggestion above is a good one because you may find that your stock plugins will do most of what you need and you only need to fill a couple of gaps.

[James Perrett]

I'd always suggest learning to use what you have already first - it will probably take years. One advantage of using stock plug-ins is that you are much more likely to be able to open old projects in years to come and revisit them. If you use too many third party plug-ins then there's a good chance that old projects won't be usable. It is also worth checking out plug-ins that are available for free - you can often find pretty much all you need with freebies.

Also check the plug-in manufacturer's upgrade and transfer policies - I've been bitten in the past by being left with unsupported versions of plug-ins and the manufacturer's answer was to just buy a complete new set. I'd have to say that Izotope (and probably NI) seem better than some others in this respect as they usually offer upgrade prices to people owning ancient versions of their software.

[The Elf]

These days the effects bundled with most DAWs should be nearly all you need - and if they aren't then there are oodles of free offerings to consider.

[yeroc]

Is it all worth it? Or shoud I stick with what I've got?
Thanks.

In my opinion, a handful of things;

1) Definitely stick with what you got.

2) Plenty of comparable free/cheap alternatives. Or spend a bit more for even better alternatives.

3) If you do go in to the Waves ecosystem, make sure you understand the Waves Update Plan (WUP). It’s a sticking point and divisive with folks. Personally (and again, just my opinion!), it’s enough to where I don’t have anything Waves on my machine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioPlugins/s/mozDRBYr4i

4) FWIW, most of the “pros” who I see using a Waves product or plugin here and there are longtime legacy users, back when Waves was one of the top devs for emulations, etc. Can be argued that’s not the case anymore. So of course, you use what you know and works, needs to be available for large amounts of project recalls, and any WUP charges are drops in the buckets for folks who are professionals

[R_A]

RVox

It's a compressor, with auto make-up gain with a built in exciter (that's not suitable for some voices & music genres). I really don't like it!

Vocal Rider

Horrible plugin. You'll always get much (much) better results manually automating your vocals.

Waves make some good tools, though you'll already have a mind boggling number of plugins in Ableton, so I'd say no to Horizon.

[paul tha other]

I used to use waves plugs..there is only 3 I miss..h delay the one knob series and the ssl channel strip...ive not bothered getting them again and tbh honest ,as the a couple of the replies have said the stock plugs with most daws are pretty damn good these days..

when I say I miss them I think its got more to do with I knew them plugs inside out and it was easy for my to dial in what ever was needed..when I t comes down to it ,the ssl channel strip the main one I miss mostly because I liked having a eq gate and compressor in 1 plug and it sounded good to my wonky ears..

waves used to the best/most used, I don't think they hold that position anymore..

to me the one thing waves suck at is anything in the modulation realm ,I thought all the plugs like chorus ,phaser and flanger etc were awful and got better results from the stock logic plugs but thats just my tuppence worth

[Jathon Delsy]

Thanks for this most excellent advice. I am going to follow your suggestions and not purchase the Waves bundle, but instead investigate the possibilities of my Ableton stock plug-ins.
I was very nearly seduced by the hype and very nearly ready to further diminish my limited finances on the Waves bundle. Not so much by the company's advertising, which of course is slick and promises everything, but by the many good reviews from seemingly independent sources.
But maybe these reviews are not so independent? I remember a satirical video about buying beds, where it showed how the industry somehow influences independent reviewers to give positive reviews for their products.
Does this somehow happen in the music industry?
And thanks again, this forum is the BEST.

[Alperian]

I bought the 'always on sale' Horizons bundle years ago. Since it is necessary to update the thing every year or two, I decided to abandon Waves products altogether and take the hit, especially when they attempted to abandon perpetual licences.

Others on this thread are right. If your DAW doesn't have what you need, you can always explore a few select perpetual licences for VSTs from other august manufacturers.

[forumuser936783]

Skip Waves. They ruined their credibility last year and lost many customers by not supporting products licenses. Lots of other as good or better plugins available. Try UA’s Spark @$99 per year for the top plugins,

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