Years ago I owned Waves Native Gold- like back in the late 90s. I dropped out of music production for a decade, and am in the process of rebuilding my project studio.
I received a promo for Waves Sound Design Bundle-- at $299. On the surface this seems like a great deal. Then I see it 'retails' at $1400- or something like that-- then I dig up this old thread: introducing-waves-sound-design-suite which shows a retail price on a magnitude of 10 (like $3200 back in 2010 ?!?!).
So I am thinking-- half of the plugins are the same ones I used 10+ years ago. It isn't looking like there is much of an evolution in them.
Back in the day, I mainly used limiting, multi-band compression, and EQ. I found the results OK for mastering, but a bit dull and lifeless, which was acceptable at the time. I have much higher expectations these days, given the evolution of virtual instruments, processing power, etc.
I realize this suite is not designed as a mastering bundle, but it is realistic to find alternatives to Waves in this price range? Or is this a good deal considering today's state of the art of plugins? Also, I am not up to date on their copy protection scheme, but do I need a USB port for a dongle?
I received a promo for Waves Sound Design Bundle-- at $299. On the surface this seems like a great deal. Then I see it 'retails' at $1400- or something like that-- then I dig up this old thread: introducing-waves-sound-design-suite which shows a retail price on a magnitude of 10 (like $3200 back in 2010 ?!?!).
So I am thinking-- half of the plugins are the same ones I used 10+ years ago. It isn't looking like there is much of an evolution in them.
Back in the day, I mainly used limiting, multi-band compression, and EQ. I found the results OK for mastering, but a bit dull and lifeless, which was acceptable at the time. I have much higher expectations these days, given the evolution of virtual instruments, processing power, etc.
I realize this suite is not designed as a mastering bundle, but it is realistic to find alternatives to Waves in this price range? Or is this a good deal considering today's state of the art of plugins? Also, I am not up to date on their copy protection scheme, but do I need a USB port for a dongle?
Revisiting Waves Plugins
