I feel very similar. I have found that a lot of waves plugins have a very noticeable and easy to get to sweet spot. The spot has a sound and when it works, it works well. I have also found that I don’t like the sound of waves plugs when they are not in a sweet spot. Put another way, waves can be super fast at getting a sound but not too versatile beyond their sweet spots. Uad plugins can be pushed and pulled more and still be useable. IMO.

You will still have to pry renbass and hdelay from my cold dead cpu though. I use those all the time.

I actually used Maxxbass on a project the other day and was surprised how good it was, I always remember I had issues with it originally, as it was so easy to over do, but this time it's actually dialled in nicely.

Normally I hit up Renbass or Subsynth first.

I went back to CLA-76 as my go-to vocal compressor after a couple of years using both UAD and Softube ones. It just sounds cleaner/more polished for the lack of better words. It has that characteristic, unique sound on the beginning of words (longer attack and slightly different release curve) which you can hear on the radio in so many songs. I like UAD 1176 better on a bass guitar however because it makes low end more even. RComp is also a great one, I like it on pianos, some synths or tambourines. It's so versatile and easy to use. These 2 plugin would be my recommendation as "must haves" for everyone mixing

The CLA 76 is good in fact Serbin Gaena, probably in the top 1% of pop mixers uses it pretty often according to his partner
Seeing as everything is on sale for 2999 right now if you ever had interest in a channel strip, I think their SSL EV2 is pretty deep. You can really dig into it and it doesn’t get harsh.
I usually use Ssls own channel strips, but finally updating to that EV2
I have to say I could live with that too.

its A pretty good bread and butter strip works on anything type of channel strip… It’s funny that waves never really got a good Neve channel strip that Gets any kind of love?

I hate to say it because I don't like them or their support or their attitude, but I use a lot of the Waves stuff.
I even use a one knob (the pumper). One dial to give me a subtle or extreme effect with a simple quantize like time selection., 2 input parameters total - I no longer use any other kind of those plugins as this gives me the result instantly.

H Reverb might be the most underrated verb of all time, it's very high quality.

I love the G-EQ for quick fixing

H comp has tempo based release

Ren comp still sounds great

MaxxVolume does super easy upwards compression and levelling

Doubler is still my go to for that effect as well as ADT

Kramer Tape is wicked at transient softening

Abbey Road Vinyl has taken over all vinyl plugins for me

Bb Tubes is the best tube simulation I have ever used, ever. It has completely put the new category of Waves stuff in a different light for me. It's exceptional in every way and stopped me buying a freqtube.

I use Center instead of traditional M/S plugins, usually

I use both the original multiband transient exciter (only works on attacks but so much control) and Smack Attack together.

WNS noise suppressor allows me to remove nasty artifacts with one knob pull

WLM loudness meter makes sense to me in the entire layout and it's always on my MB.

Ren Vox is still a go to vocal comp for me but now I use it with silk to de harsh

BSS DPR 402 is their best outboard emu, it's great and different.

There are so many more

BUT

I can not stand a lot of their analog emulations, particularly the DBX 160, it's SO bad and not even close to the hardware, their 1176 and LA2A also never ever get used here. I think if they were making them today they'd be doing it a lot better as is evidenced by the quality of BB Tubes.

Kramer and Vinyl are also 2 on my list. I'll add REDD (both versions) and Rbass. When I'm not using UA EMT250 (which is my all time fav) or Ocean Way, I like AR Plates. For me they are must haves, but there are a lot more to list (like that weird delay/modulation thing they put out), again too many to list that come in handy when you least expect it. Waves ADT is another, not just for vocals...

Agreed totally. REDD and the new Abbey Road Compressor, maybe the RS124 or something like that (off the top of my head), is great also.

Heck, I still even use PS22, one of their oldest ever plugins.

If I had to choose one set of native plugins aside from my DAW, I'd choose Waves as they cover so much ground. Yeah, I like slate and McDsp as much as the next person too, but they are not complete, there are gaps their full collections don't cover.

Waves sibilance is another one. It's one of the best de essers out there aside from Pro DS. Just works.

Their new de reverb and de noise plugins are insanely good.

I still use C1 too due to the excellent internal EQ sidechain capability for the gate and compressor.

Vitamin is one of the most underrated plugins they ever made also. It's just a dynamic upwards enhancement EQ but it works.

C6 and Lin MB get used here every single day.

Waves doppler - still irreplaceable for when that is needed.

Metafilter is another one because of the synced special fx it can do, but as a straight up filter, no, I don't use it because it's thrashed by plugins like the drop.

Oh, NLS, how could I forget that. I generally use that in combination with Kramer on some tracks and J37 on others.

There are more I use but this is all off the top of my head only right now.

More bad now though:

All the artist "ez mix" styles of plugins are just yuck except the JJP bundle and maybe the Greg Wells for certain uses.

Dorough meters are so silly and pointless I am surprised they still sell them in 2024.

Their SSL plugins are also awful.

The thing is, if you ever want to offload something, they have made it impossible with the transfer fees they changed a few years back. Before it was free for any plugin under a certain cost threshold, now they charge a percentage of the RRP and since they are always on special, if you buy a waves plugin, you are stuck with it for life. I bought all mine as singles when transfers were free, and when I wanted, no, needed to offload some, they would not honour the conditions under which I had purchased them, and I always look at transfer policies before I buy any plugin and I was a perfect case of it. Look what happened to me in 2018 when I got sick and stopped making music for over 5 years an only just started again a month back.

Mercury is about the only thing that can be resold if you want to get out of the waves ecosystem as the$150 fee can be absorbed by the sale price.

But the sheer, disgusting greed, $150 for a single account product transfer is one of the reasons I really can't stand them as a company.

the other is now they are releasing sub only plugins, so if you already had owned something like Mercury or other bundles and singles, you'd have to sub and double up on every single product you own to use the sub exclusive plugins. I mean that's outrageous.

Just another company therefore that punishes long time loyal customers (of 25 years in my case, since my PC pentium 233 days).

waves is greedy with the ongoing fees (transfers, WUP) but super generous with the upfront costs, almost all plugins can be had for 29.99. Personally its a better model for me in terms of cost over time than companies that charge 99-150 for the plugin upfront.

Specifically which plug-ins are unique to Waves Creative Access? Waves Stream or the online mastering are invalid examples as those are services and not just plug-ins.

They have a GEMS series that is unique, however it looks to me that they are just reskinned studio racks.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of this series, that is now called "Gemstones". I don't see why I'd be interested in this series, but I suppose it's their way to sneak in some of their ideas from the sub takeover plan, they've surely realised users don't want.

-- Waves Gems (Sound On Sound, sep 2023)

I've been using Waves plugins for years n years, and I always will.

They maybe hated by many for the stupid WUP , but they are great plugins tbh.

Rvox is something I cannot do without tbh.

And I love the CLA 76 even though I have other 1176's , that one hits the mark better imo.

Also, I use Codex a lot too and prefer it to the likes of Serum (the sound of it, not necessarily the features). I like both the synths, Element and Cobalt, but I am not using their sampled stuff even though it was in the bundle.

They also have a TON of starting point presets that really help you learn them, and both have super easy to use sequencing/arps.

Another FX I used today was Cobalt Saphira, another good one. It's a harmonics plugin.

The ones that I am LOLing about now like "How could I forget" as I type this are Maxx Bass and Ren Bass. I mean, they are dealbreakers NOT to have them. If only Mercury had them for example, I'd have to buy Mercury LOL.

I am really astounded at their new noise remover and the way it is spanking Izotope RX in head to head tests. It really works, even the cheap $29 version just works although sadly doesn't have a delta button which was a bit shitty of them.

What noise remover?

RBass and RVox are my 2 "can't live without them" plugs

Clarity VX and VX pro.

it's even removing a tv program background noise with one dial and isolating the vocal without artefacts. Let alone the usual hum and hiss style noises.

I recently discovered I really like J37 tape.
I also love CLA Epic for delay and reverb, it is my go to.
Abbey Road Mastering chain is another one I use a lot.

J37 can do an excellent saturated feedback tape delay also with the right settings dialed in. I can now mimic Logic's tape delay in Pro Tools. I got it really really close.

J37 as a tape emu is a lot more subtle than Kramer and is very suited to rock music.

For me I get more use as a tape emu out of the Kramer but to be honest, I tend to just still use VTM and/or UAD for that task. I am much more used to the workflow with them and the levels as I know them back to front.

I like the hi-fi sheen sound of the IK but even on the Mac M2 Ultra, they just are not worth the CPU hit to me, and I really don't think they are like tape, since there is zero compression/transient taming. I don't even use anything from T-Racks, I have no idea why I upgraded.

I am starting to narrow down my collection. I am thinking Waves with whatever I already own, plus the Slate and SSL total bundle sub for my native, and UAD and that's it. I'll go from 50 manufacturer folders in the plugin drop down list to 4 lol. Well 5, as UAD DSP and Native appear under two different dev folders (native is UADx where as the DSP plugins are just under UAD). I really want to streamline and stop the G.A.S. nonsense.
I mean if I can't mix any kind of music for the rest of my life with what I just mentioned, then I have no right to even be doing it to begin with.

Going to heavily trim down synths as well, and even hardware synths.

That is an understatement.

It's a very flexible workhorse, also not to be underestimated.

I differ completely with this opinion. It was almost spot on with the unit I was familiar with.

I think that's just it though, analogue emulations are highly subjective to the actual unit that was in their possession at the time when they studied it. The thing with analogue is no two units are alike, they age, they wear, they get maintained, even manufacturers change components over time depending on revisions.

So while it wasn't close to what you knew, it was much closer to what I'm familiar with. Such is the nature of analogue.