What are the best Waves plugins for mastering, vocals, drums or [you name it]? I get that question a lot. Waves Audio make some great VST plugins.
Which Waves compressor is the best? What about reverb or EQ? I created this blog post to review what I consider to be the must have Waves plugins. Waves Audio was founded in There are Waves plugins for vocals. Waves plugins for mastering. Waves plugins for live sound. Waves plugins for drums, guitar, and so on. There are software instruments and utilities. With such a huge catalog it can be hard to decide which are the best Waves plugins for you to invest in.
So in alphabetical order, this is my review of the best Waves plugins. At the end of the post you will also find a video where I demonstrate many of the plugins. I only ever promote products that I like and use myself. Check out this post about how to make better buying decisions. I am referring to the compression section especially.
You really have to feel it out with different kinds of material and learn how the different settings sound. It really pays off to learn to get to grips with this plugin though. The EQ is smooth, the compressor is solid and snappy, and the stereo widener is beautiful in small doses. I had imagined for a long time it would be nice to have a plugin that models the sound of vinyl. It can add a lot of vibe and character to your music.
Waves Abbey Road Vinyl is one of the best Waves plugins for mastering. Link: Waves Abbey Road Vinyl. It can go from very subtle glue compression to sounding punchy and explosive to completely smashed or heavily pumping.
More importantly, it does all of that well. In addition it does expansion and de-essing. It has several different modes for fine-tuning the compression behavior. You can for example compress the low frequencies more than the highs and vice versa. The sound is excellent and the controls are well calibrated. I like to use it on the mix bus or the drum bus. It is a surgical precision tool that can be had for a great price. The C1 is like the Swiss army knife of compressors.
It can do a ton of different things. Link: C1 Compressor. The Waves C6 Multiband Compressor is a true workhorse. It has all the features you would expect and it sounds good.
There is a lot of good competition out there in the field of multiband compressors. Link: Waves C6 Multiband Compressor. Waves Center is one of the best Waves plugins for mastering.
You can adjust the volume of the Mid and Side components, push all the bass into the center, add punch on the center or the sides. Link: Waves Center. Waves are maybe not as well know from virtual instruments as they are from effects.
But the Waves Element synth is a great sounding virtual analog synth plugin. Element is a joy to play with and it has a superb collection of presets to get your creative juices flowing.
Link: Waves Element. But if you are still missing one in your toolbox, this is a good option if you can grab it for a good price. The latest version of F6 also features a real time spectrum analyzer which makes using the plugin a lot more quicker.
I love FM synthesis. In fact if I had to answer the questions: What is the best Waves plugin? I might just pick this one. FM synthesis can be a little intimidating to get started with.
Sure, by now I understand the basic principles of FM synthesis. But honestly I just like to have fun and be surprised by these machines. The Waves Flow Motion is not a pure bred FM synthesizer, however, as it also combines elements from traditional subtractive synthesis. On top of the synthesis features, there are great filter, EQ and FX sections. Having the different sections of the synth spread out across two different pages Flow and Motion, respectively is a great decision.
Plus I love the clean looks of it. All in all, Flow Motion is an inspiring package. The H-Series from Waves includes some seriously good sounding plugins for modern music production.
You can use it in a variety of situations — even on the mix bus. The H-Comp gives you some great mojo and it sounds good even when you hit it quite hard. It works especially well on modern hard hitting electronic, dance, pop and rock music.
The Waves H-Reverb is a fantastically versatile and fun reverb plugin to use. You can also get some very nice experimental sounds out of it. I especially like that there are a lot of classic hardware reverb units replicated in the presets. Link: Waves H-Reverb. I never gelled with the Kramer Master Tape. But the Waves J37 Tape is a different story. The original J37 was a one-inch 4-track recorder designed by Swiss recording pioneer Will Studer.
The Abbey Road J37 Tape has wonderful character. It comes with the cost of less tweakability of course. But I appreciate the ability get a good sound quick and then just move on. Link: Waves J37 Tape. Though extreme shifting will introduce noticeable artefacts, Torque generally preserves transient detail and tone at low to medium settings. And with zero-latency operation, the plugin is just as useful in live scenarios as in the studio.
Read the full Waves Torque review. Buy Waves H-Delay. H-Delay may be a decade old, but it's still one of the best Waves plugins around and still admirably holds its own compared to more modern peers. As part of their Hybrid Line of analogue-inspired tools, H-Delay has a hardware flavour in both its sound and simplicity of operation. Need more analogue vibes? Engage the LoFi button for a downsampling-style tone, and ramp up the Analog knob to dial in outboard-esque noise and flavour.
Read the full Waves H-Delay review. Buy Waves Scheps Omni Channel. Flexibility is the order of the day here. Meta-level usefulness indeed. Read the full Waves Scheps Omni Channel review. Buy Waves Smack Attack. The Sensitivity and Shape controls are fantastic for detailed defining of transients, the display is genuinely assistive, the Mix control is joyous, and coming from Waves, it almost goes without saying that the sound quality and precision are exceptional.
Drums are by no means the only valid target for it, either - it does a sterling job of fronting up or down basses, pianos, guitars, synth plucks, and anything else with a transient component. Probably the deepest transient shaping effect ever committed to code, Smack Attack requires a bit more engagement than other equivalent plugins, but the results it delivers are well worth the effort.
Read the full Waves Smack Attack review. Buy Waves Brauer Motion. In a nutshell, two independent, identical panners can be LFO-modulated around the colour-coded spherical display in unusual ways. A tone-shaping Filter is onboard, too. A real head-spinner. Read the full Waves Brauer Motion review. Buy API Like the original, this is a VCA design. Buy Waves Kramer Master Tape. The sound of analogue tape can impart digital signals with much-needed warmth and character, which explains why tape emulation plugins are so… ahem, hot right now.
Classic tape delay effects can be dialled in, too: set Delay Time, switch between Slap and Feedback settings, and engage a low-pass filter — perfect for dubbed-out echoes and time-based effects. Read the full Waves Kramer Master Tape review.
I want something I'll use for this project as well as use for some of my beats I play live plugged into ableton. I really can't get a read on the bundles as far as which one would be good. Does anyone use either of the bundles and would have any incite? Thank you much in advance for your help! I'm honestly not sure what you are asking. There are a crap load of bundles at different price ranges. Personally, I think the SSL is the most flexible.
I use it constantly. I think the API bundle is less flexible, but might have a tiny bit more personality. The Renaissance bundle sounds great, is also very flexible, and cheaper. I think any of these should do whatever you need them to do. If you can't make good sounding music with one of these three, you need to figure out what you are doing wrong.
Sorry for my lack of clarity. It's pretty much down to SSL or the Renaissance. For both those programs and mixing electronic, do you think it's worth the extra for the SSL bundle or will the renaissance get me through? It's tough to say. The SSL interface is simpler, and if you are not sure what to do the presets are pretty good.
I love the SSL and use it on every project.
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