The Linux audio world is growing and since my favorite DAW Reaper has working Linux support I dared the jump to use Linux as my main OS (mainly because of awesome JACK audio) and so far there is always some workaround to get audio plugins working on Linux, but sadly I did not get the job done at using Waves plugins.
I request Waves Central to support Linux as OS, or at least some way to get your product and licences offline ported in some usable way. Maybe if Wine gets PowerShell support this is possible, but at time of writing it is not.
Since other awesome DAWs like Bitwig or Qtractor gets more popularity I am sure I am not the only one looking forward to use your plugins on Linux systems.
I’ll take it a step further. I would love to see Super Rack and LV1 running on Linux. Windows is a pretty heavy platform to run this software and it’s getting more bloated with every release. With Linux you could have an ultra streamlined purpose built system optimized for the task. Just like the SoundGrid servers.
I moved from windows 11 to Linux and the only thing I’m missing is some of my waves plugins. All my other brand’s plugins work great, it seems to be only waves plugins that don’t work with wine. You’re quickly going to fall behind the curve without Linux support, either native or using wine.
Waves on Linux would be incredible, and Waves is one of the last things keeping me tethered to Windows. There are a few options for paid mastering and mixing plugins but they’re not as good, yabridge sort of works but isn’t stable enough for my sanity.
I wouldn’t mind having to upgrade or purchase a new license for them, just releasing C4, C6, L360, Tune Realtime, and Clarity VX would make such a huge difference in Linux recording quality-of-life.
I’ve been testing Waves on WINE, the plugins work beautifully once installed and authorized. I’ve noticed issues are generally caused by the installer, Waves Central. 13.0.1 worked for me and I could install, authorize, and run all of my plugins. I purchased some more and went to install with Central 13.4.1 (latest) and the app cannot identify any attached disks and doesn’t detect any USB drives, so no authorization is possible. I haven’t finished debugging the issue and don’t have a lot of context for WINE but there’s absolutely a community out there who makes Waves on WINE work, albiet with some delay after the mandatory Central updates. It seems like a win-win to support the platform, making sure people CAN buy and authorize plugins would encourage to actually purchase the software.
Rather than supporting all Linux distributions Waves could just hire a WINE maintainer to make sure the installer isn’t broken and leave the rest to the open source community; there are a ton of talented developers out there worldwide who would love a position like this.
Or, taking things a step further, Linux support could just be WINE, valve has done this with Steam.
Yep! New Windows 11 (OS? or is it an Updating System!?) basically ruined my new laptops etc.etc. Said: “No More!” and made the leap to Linux! I thought it would be difficult, BUT actually it is and was a great learning experience. I will not go back (My audio systems are very, very fast now!). That being said, I miss the few Waves plugs that I really found helpful and sweetened my sound! (BTW- One bull-pucky argument I keep hearing is that “Linux Peeps” would not be willing to pay for Big Boy plugins etc. etc. etc. Dumbest argument ever as most Linux users ARE former, current or parallel users of all. IMHO as users throughout the world become more accustomed to customized systems, they WILL want faster, more bespoke alternatives and design specific tools to suit their own studio needs. IBM didn’t buy RedHat in the Billions for nothing and…Microsoft is heavily invested in Linux. So…time to take a deep breath and make it happen. Also: I have actually bought MORE sound plugin tools now that I have been on Linux---- Ha! (So the argument that Penguin Peeps won’t buy anything is basically ignoring the burgeoning rest of the world…)
i am also at the transition to Linux on our machines in castle studios, the fact that windows decided to deactivate our win 10 licenses that we upgraded from win 7 has been the kick off we somehow needed. So far we have found reaper running very stable in sessions up to 300 tracks, and thank â– â– â– our main plugins from fabfilter run smooth too.
Migrating our Waves plugins would be nice as we own a ton of it, but what i´ve heard so far is that there are a lot of alternatives.
Arno Jordan
CEO Castle Studios
So, like a lot of people, i am frystrated with windows 11 and all the useless â– â– â– â– that comes wit it. Been using Linux for years and now that pipewire works ok now, thought id have another go at configuring it for audio recording and getting Waves plugins working on Linux. I use Manjaro XFCE, i now have waves central working and licences on my machine and with the help of Yabridge, the plugins work fine. The bit that needs doing is installing Windows Powershell for Wine, then it just works.
