Hi everyone. I need some help with an issue with Waves plugins, hopefully some of you can give me some insight.
I use a small selection of Waves plugins, installed and activated with their Central. Last October I changed the studio pc (i9 CPU, Win11, Cubase 13)
and successfully relocated all licenses to the new machine. This month the motherboard had a malfunction and had to be substituted. Windows and all software had to be re-installed. When I tried to relocate the Waves licenses, the Central reported that I only can relocate licenses once a year, so I cannot activate them on the new installation. They say that if it’s an emergency, I must contact support, which I did, but they’re taking forever to reply. My question is: did any of you faced this issue in the past, and if it can be solved by subscribing to their Waves Creative Access. Sorry for the long post, but my business is stalled, my clients are angry with the delay, and I’m very annoyed with this company policy; all help is much appreciated. Thank you all
That sucks…
If you can predict when you’re going to have difficulties, such as upgrading some of your internal components or buying a new computer you can easily store your licenses back in the “cloud” and reregister them again later. That only works when you know ahead of time you are going to have issues.
Some people store their licenses on a USB drive. That makes them more portable, I’m just not sure if Waves Central still gets upset when the “components have changed”. The other way around it is paying to upgrade you plugins to the latest version (WUP). That would entitle you to more than one recovery in a year.
Or there is the subscription that you have mentioned. On the plus side, that will eliminate issues like this and paying for WUP and will make sure everything is up to date in general. Plus there are the new plugins that get added. The downside is you would just have to start treating it like your internet, or electricity bill where a monthly payment is required too make sure you “stay connected”
Personally I found it a good trade off. People get a bit too obsessed in “owning” plugins, but they’re always forking out money to make sure those are up to date. If they’re not they just stop working on your current setup, just as if you stopped paying your subscription. What people thing is a “pro” also ends up becoming a “con”. Though the same can be said for subscriptions.
At the end of the day, when I weighed it all up one wasnt better than the other, just a little different.