What are your ‘go to’ Waves plugins in the studio?
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Pretty much my go to Waves products are IMP, the various CLA products and MaxxBass. Almost every one of my projects includes all 3 of those in various ways.
I also love Codex quite a bit! I’ve been using that in lieu of both Massive and Zeta. It kind of fills the shoes of both of those in many cases!
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hey Yishai. Welcome to everyone on the new forum. Great to have a discussion board here too. My go to Waves plugs? No such thing 
I use what works from the great Waves selection in the project that I am doing at the time. In mastering for example I use an established mastering chain that includes a final compressor. That compressor can be a Puigchild 670 if the project is a bit dull and needs brightening, a Vcomp if it is a solid set of mixes needing just that little bit of extra strength or the SSL Comp if it is a gentle set of mixes such as classical that needs that little bit of compression and ‘gluing’. I also always experiment with other compressors depending on the sonic qualities of the mixes before settling on the final choice. The idea of course is to acquaint yourself with all your Waves plugs so you’ll have an intuitive feel for what you need.
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I tend to not have too many gotos. I don’t believe in limiting myself to doing the same thing the same way, for the most part.
C6 and F6 are definitely good when you have need for them. F6 is my only dynamic eq, well outside the two that are in C6, so it’s kind of a no brainer. Though I do have a couple of multibands, but C^ is deftly called upon when I need it side chained as the others don’t have that facility.
Center is good for manipulating stereo spreads a bit as it does things I haven’t seen in another plugin.
The Buckets in CLA MixHub make it the best choice if I need to pull a mix together fast as it’s workflow shaves off time from conventional plugin mixing.
I’m pretty much the same. I have to be honest I’ve got so many plugins these days I tend to pick one that I think will do the job. If it does then great, if not then I’ll pick something else. I used to find I missed out on a lot of plugins and alternative techniques when I always went for the same one for the same job.
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Hi. I do have favorites instead of go-to’s (
), but they’re not used in every project.
RS56, F6, Sheps Omni Channel, R-Comp, MV2, and R-Vox are the most used ones, in that order.
All the best.
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What I definitely use in every project is NX and WLM+. They just live on my control room channel.
(for those who don’t know and curious, Control Room in Cubase is a kind of aux on the master that goes to monitoring output but does not render into the master.)
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I’ve created a Mix and a Bypass Aux within Logic, that are then fed to the Main Out. I use the Bypass for referencing and other miscellaneous things, My metering goes on the Main Out, so it can be used in both instances.
Unfortunately this technique doesn’t help in taking NX out of the “render pass”. If you have more than one stereo out, you can set up the other for that task, but my interface doesn’t, unfortunately. It was a cheaper one I got for the interim, because my last interface fried while trying to use it in one of our characteristically “hot” summer days, here in Australia.
That was several years ago and I still haven’t gotten around to replacing it.
I would say all of the CLA plugins, API, H-Series, PuigTec, J37, and have really been digging Flow Motion lately.
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@dnbpleaze what do you use PuigTec on?
PuigTec has some very quick attack times, so it can be good to use non really transient material. Especially if it needs some "fattening up. It can help bring elements forward in a mix, but not everything you want up front.
Some people even use it just as a “through box” just to get the harmonic goodness out of it, but not actually compress with it. I’ve seen Andrew Scheps do that, but there are others out there.
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H-Verb!
L3-LL
Omni Channel
F6
CLA76
VComp
AudioTrack
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Every project I work on have at least one (or all) of the following: L2, C1, SSL Master Buss Comp, API2500.
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WLM Plus is always on my control room.
I was doing that for the longest time. Then I realised just it being there was adding to the latency of my session where when I was writing and arranging and stuff. It’s not huge, but does add up with the other processes in the pipeline.
So I decided to drop it from my template, but drop it in when I go to mix.
I was wondering. I use the Studio rack and I only been mixing and mastering for the last 15 or some thing years which in the past my mixes were not as good but learning from watching others. But my question is. What plugins and settings would be the best choice for mixing and mastering a Jpop style cover?
Hi @s.mings,
Welcome to the Waves Forum.
For mixing since you mentioned StudioRack I highly advise you to check out Studioverse and the large amount of amazing chains that will help you with your mix regardless of the genre you’re currently producing.
Mastering: There are a lot of useful plugins that can contribute to the mastering process such as the Abbey Road TG Mastering chain.
Another option you can check will be the Waves Online Mastering Service for quick and great results.
You’re more than welcome to share your experience here if you’d like to.
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Mixing is more about what you do with those plugins, rather than specific plugins. Having said that plugin choice can have a subtle aesthetic effect on the music.
J-Pop, for example, benefits from a bright, modern energetic mix where as rock, on the other hand can be more dull, gritty and classic or vintage sounding by comparison. So you’d probably want to use a lot of older more vintage processors for rock, but for J-Pop you will most likely want to use more modern choices.
That said, there is also another thing to consider. Perhaps what you have is something that is too clean or too bright, then you’d most likely benefit from using something older and dirtier to take the edge off it and add a bit of weight in the process. Generally speaking, you can find modern tools that will do this also.
Consider Waves Hybrid plugins as an example. In the case with these plugins the Analog setting controls the emulation type, but for a cleaner sound you can switch them off. In the case of H-EQ the Digital filter emulations are the cleaner choice. Digital 2 in particular is better for more surgical work.
Too clean and too transparent can lead to incredible boring music, but here you have the option to use the other filter or Analogue settings to mix a but of dirt and character back in.
So that’s one way to approach it. Analysing the Studiverse settings as Add suggested to see what other people are doing would also be another. As always though there are many ways to achieve what you want to do.
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What Simon said about not doing the same thing for every song makes a lot of sense, particularly if working on other peoples’ music.
If it’s your own, though, a consistency in process can add to a consistency in sound (plus the obvious benefit of efficiency.)
I spent the last 4 years trying an enormous number of plugins. I started with Waves, tried MANY other competing products, but never moved past Waves as far as favorites go for quite a few things.
In particular, this is my core set for every song now:
- Tracks = Scheps Omni Channel
- Submix Busses = Pie Compressor
- Master Bus = AR TG Mastering Chain Live > Kramer Master Tape > Limiter (varies)
Scheps Omni Channel is just so incredibly powerful – it has almost no competition. Every track gets some mild saturation, some degree of compression (even if I just pass through the FET or OPT for the color), and a wee touch of limiting on the out. This goes a long way to softening harsh digital transients which allows the submix to sum together more smoothly and the next compressor in line (PIE) to operate more transparently.
Pie Compressor “just works” for me on submix busses. It’s not the most configurable of compressors, but it’s so predictable I know exactly how to set it every time.
AR TG Mastering Chain Live has a wildly good dynamics processor. I like the “original” mode. Based on a Zener diode compressor, I believe… Pushing to 0VU or a little past gives a nice, subtle coloration. The EQ is simplified, but perfect for my master bus needs because I don’t want a lot… And the filter section - many say the filters are too sharp for master bus use, but the presence control is always helpful, and occasionally the highpass filter at 40 is just what I need to tighten the low end. I use the Live version because I don’t want the latency of the full version.
Kramer Master Tape is something special. I’ve tried so many tape plugins by every possible maker, but KMT is ideal for the master (IMO) because it’s the best combination of sound (color, but not TOO much), efficiency (a usable amount of PDC latency) … but most importantly, the way it handles transients.
Using Kramer Master Tape right before your limiter allows your limiter to not work so hard. The saturation & transient control just helps the mix gel together so well.
The combination of all these tools has a particular sound. To my ears it’s an “analog sound.” That phrase is so subjective it’s practically meaningless, but I mean it in regard to how the high end of my rendered VSTs gets tamed, the tonal balance is rounded out or softened in the high end depending on my IPS setting in Kramer Master Tape, and then the compression & saturation that makes it all gel together just right… Striking a balance between loudness and dynamic range.
I love these tools the way some people love old bits of classic hardware!
PS. Occasionally I vary things up and use AR TG Mastering Chain on submixes. It’s a fantastic submix processor because you can safely make use of the filters and stereo width control more. (Automating the stereo width to slightly contract during verses and slightly wider during choruses is a subtle but clever trick!)
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These are all really good plugins.
Notably the original Pye compressor didn’t have an attack control, and so neither does the Waves plugin. That can be a bit of a limitation in some circumstances, but I’d suggest that people dont let that put them off.
The Scheps Omni on the hand was designed for the modern workflow and to be really flexible. Not just with its options, but with tonal crafting capability. It does old, it does modern, and does all sorts of variations in between. it makes for a good, all rounder first channel strip.for almost anyone in my opinion.
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