I have a bunch of waves plug ins and now i have had to redo my PC several times because i got new hardware etc.

I just can't be bothered to install my Waves. It is such a hasstle to install Waves if you want to use it without upgrading each time.

The stuff included with my Cubase is enough for me and the inbuilt effects in lots of my instruments and my non Waves effects.

Why can't they make waves like every other VST. You do all the stuff on the website then install whatever version you have.

I know there are going to be a bunch of people responding oh it was easy for me.....etc.

Thats my 1 cent.

Absolutely hate Waves, their upgrade fees are criminal. People new to electronic music production should be warned away from Waves--most of their catalog is absurdly out of date, and with the way they price upgrades you're only ever renting, not buying, their products. Garbage company.

I had several Waves plugins for many years but honestly didn't use them as much as others, with exception to J37.

I found their updates increasingly cumbersome and when I set up a new computer last year decided to shake off my Waves plugs completely and did not install them. Best decision I ever made. Waves plugins, for the most part, are mediocre at best so why bother with the hassle. It's the reason why people only buy them when they're on sale for $29.

Using it for decades & couldn't disagree more. Upgrades are done whenever you feel like you need to - along with any new hardware you've bought in order for everything to be compatible. Prices are cheaper than any other companies - both individuals & sets.
Quality is high end & can compete with any other - both on the new stuff they come out with as well as the older plugs.

How do you deal with different updates and older project? I mean are you gonna installing i.e. 12.1 12.2 13 13.1 to be able to load also other project?
This is one of the worst things imo. And one of the main reason i've only bought one of their plugins, otherwise i'm pretty sure i would own and use a lot of them

Have I been lucky or something? I’ve never had issues opening up old Pro Tools sessions with updated Waves plugins like L1/2/3 and R plugs. Which plugins have you had issues with?

So if i.e. you used an l2 on v11 and now with another pc, where you didn't hat installed v11 but v13 only, can you load the project that was made with the older version?

I had a project with waves tune real time with v12.7, than i've upgraded to 13 cause was free, than i've uninstalled v12.7 and installed v13, and the project with v12.7 plugin version doesn't open up anymore. I had to instal 12.7 again to be able to use it again (and wasn't very easy to understand how to do it)

If you buy their stuff "cheaper" (during one of their sales), it's very possible the upgrades will cost more than the original plugins did. Anyway, those upgrades are not necessarily optional--if you're using an up-to-date OS, say.

Honestly, I don't think that they are bad. I was trying a few plugins from WAVES and when I started to get my own equipment I decided to get my plugins from them (I think they are in a good quality for the price). I really don't think it is necessary to upgrade so you don't have to pay for the upgrade plan unless you will be changing the pc/mac you are using or they haven't been upgraded for a long time.

I'm guessing you didn't activate the v13 license in Waves Central? Even after you purchase an upgrade, you need to do that. I feel like Waves are the absolute best with backwards compatibility on PC and the newest version of Waves Central makes it pretty easy to update. Mac is another story, get ready to WUP every time the O/S changes. PC users can pretty much never WUP ever unless we want to get the new plugins added to a bundle. Part of this is due to Waves almost never updating the sound of their plugins, but many of them are already 20 years old, so they've had lots of time to refine them.

I had a project with 12.7. I had a free wup to 13. I cannot load the plugin anymore in that project because of different version, i had to go back to 12.7 to load the plugin in that project.
Not a great experience

Never mind upgrades, just initial installation was such a pain in the ass I dismissed them outright. Plenty of great plugins out there that don't do this.

I'm opening old projects with original v9, v10 and v11 plugins into a new platform (Apple Silicon) with v13 and have seen no issues like what you suggest. Ableton Live 11 native and v13 of Waves Horizon and some other.

So you've had this issue with one Waves plug-in? Which one?

This Install and Activate is really killing me. Why do I have wait 10 minutes? Everything works as expected? It's outrageous.

It's a bug, i've opened a ticket with waves support they told me "where V13 aren't working under Windows account with non-English characters in their names."

Let's see if they will fix it