Waves Version 11

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by citizenkeith

Yup, that’s exactly what they should do. Scrap this system and make actual VST plugins.

Their copy protection scheme doesn’t work.

Yes it does. Just that you have to be 10)% sure you have followed all the instructions correctly - and also gotten rid of any old waves crap from before Waves Central became a thing. There are so many people like me that have seamless performance from Waves stuff that you cannot ignore that you are likely missing something out in the install & maintenance procedures.
Howeever, I do agree that prior to Waves Central, it was all a bit of a crapshoot, but then in fairness to Waves they didnt officially support Reaper back then, despite many people like myself having little or no problems with using Waves for VST as well as VST3.

NOTE they only officially support VST3 in Reaper still, too.

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by ivansc

Worth remembering that Waves are essentially an Israeli company, so who knows how klunky their internet is over there, assuming that is where their support desk is based!

Yes there is that I suppose :-(

But seriously, it would be interesting to hear other people's experiences. I'm 65+ and although reasonably IT literate for my generation I have found the experience of trying to move (rather forcedly) to Waves v11 very unpleasant (and OK I'm using Reaper on a portable USB drive plugged alternatively into two machines each running a different version of Windows which complicates things but...) and it is quite a coincidence that my laptop was had it's general performance wrecked at the same time (though knowing pc's it might well have magically fixed itself next time I start it up!

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by mikeonb4c

OK I'm using Reaper on a portable USB drive plugged alternatively into two machines each running a different version of Windows which complicates things but...) and it is quite a coincidence that my laptop was had it's general performance wrecked at the same time (though knowing pc's it might well have magically fixed itself next time I start it up!

(grin) And there is the likely cause of your problems.

Why not just install Reaper on both machines & put your Waves authorisations on that USB stick?
All you need to do is copy your Reaper .rk licence file onto the laptop & it will work.
That would do away with any issues concerning the location of the Waves shells & plugins AND mean you dont have to mess about moving reaper all the time. And of cdourse Repaer will run faster off your internal drive than off a USB stick.

I have Reaper on my studio machine and my laptop, the only real difference being that when I go to France ( which I do regularly) I have a different audio MIDI interface on the laptop.
In order for my iLok stuff and my Waves stuff to work on both machines, I have to take the Waves USB drive and of course my iLok with me to plug into the laptop. But that is all.

Surely this will be an easier and more reliable way to switch between the 2 machines you use? The operating system difference shouldn`t affect anything.
Good luck!

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by ivansc

(grin) And there is the likely cause of your problems.

Why not just install Reaper on both machines & put your Waves authorisations on that USB stick?
All you need to do is copy your Reaper .rk licence file onto the laptop & it will work.
That would do away with any issues concerning the location of the Waves shells & plugins AND mean you dont have to mess about moving reaper all the time. And of cdourse Repaer will run faster off your internal drive than off a USB stick.

I have Reaper on my studio machine and my laptop, the only real difference being that when I go to France ( which I do regularly) I have a different audio MIDI interface on the laptop.
In order for my iLok stuff and my Waves stuff to work on both machines, I have to take the Waves USB drive and of course my iLok with me to plug into the laptop. But that is all.

Surely this will be an easier and more reliable way to switch between the 2 machines you use? The operating system difference shouldn`t affect anything.
Good luck!

The reason I wanted to try running Reaper from a USB stick was so that I had all my customised Reaper stuff (effects chains, templates etc) all being saved (by setup default) into one portable location so that I could in theory work on any machine and could pull up all my personalised 'stuff'. Reaper seems to load as fast from my USB as from anywhere (faster maybe since its a fast solid state device whereas my PCs don't have SSDs). It all worked absolutely great (and still does) and all I had to do was ensure my Waves licenses were on the USB stick when I load Reaper, if I was using Waves plugins on a project. For safety, I could always move the licenses back to the Waves Cloud if/when I was concerned about losing the USB. I could also back up all the USB stuff on OneDrive and that could be restored onto another USB stick if need be - tested and worked fine, Reaper doesn't seem to detect and refuse). In short, it all worked/works like a dream. The problem (for me) is the way Waves makes you do all this moving of licenses, installing new products (onto each PC) etc through Waves Central. Even WC v10 was a bit slow to load, but I could live with that. Waves v11 though (which I felt I was obliged to move up to since when loading WC v10 I suddenly got a 'You are using out of date version of Waves Central - click here to update to V11' message) just seems to have been the start of unending woe. I really think that an upgrade like this should work for the non-IT literate 'creative': it should pull down to the PC any updated versions of plugins required, and it shouldn't take an age to load as it is doing. And I'm deeply suspicious that it's installation is linked to the slugging of my laptop. The one reply I had from Waves Tech Support in reply to my contacting them (to say v11 was being very slow) was:

"The Waves Central V11 loading time is longer because he performs more steps in order to function better when it's fully loaded. "

Oh, really!?! I found that reply a little defensive and maybe hinting they knew users were complaining about its slowness?

I did find Waves Central v11 listed in my Uninstall program list this morning and have uninstalled it. I think the laptop is now running quicker, though not nearly as quick as before. Which heightens my suspicions. And just now I have a round-robin email from Waves entitled 'Waves v11 Update - Your Questions Answered'

See - https://www.waves.com/support/waves-...-marioso-nov-2

Under 'Do I have to update to v11' it says

'Operating systems and DAWs are constantly updated. In order to make sure that your Waves software is fully compatible with all the latest OS and DAW revisions, we highly recommend that you update all of your Waves plugins to V11.

Furthermore, new products and software updates will be added to V11 only, so updating means you can continue to enjoy all future plugins and updates.

That said, as long as there are no changes to your current system, your current Waves version should continue to work as usual, so this update is not mandatory.'

I find it interesting that the sentence that could have been put first, appears at the end. Also of course, this email arrived a few days after I had been presented with the 'You are using an out of date version - click here to update to v11' message.

I'm losing a lot of trust in Waves.com and I wonder who else might be also. I mean I have WUP coverage and yet I've had no useful help from them despite sending them details of my problems. But perhaps the Minion Market isn't important to them ;-)

[ivansc]

Well you`ve had my $0.002 worth.
Obviously it`s up to you how you like to work.

Good luck!

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by ivansc

Well you`ve had my $0.002 worth.
Obviously it`s up to you how you like to work.

Good luck!

Thanks and I really do appreciate it. Had a bit of luck at last this afternoon. After googling my Dell M4800 (as you do!) there was a suggestion about turning off something in the BIOS that if ticked lets the PC go into slow mode (maybe as part of power saving for battery etc). Well I unticked it and magically my old machine was back (more or less, I wonder if v11 plugins may be a bit more taxing on CPU than v10 as I'm getting a bit of break-up on a track with Ozone 9 on it). All this suggests that something may have changed something in the Windows power management (it weren't me guv!) but at least I have a fix for now and a clue about where to check altered Windows settings that could cause this to happen again.

Out of interest, if you are using Reaper on two machines, how are you keeping your custom settings (Saved effects chains etc) available/synced on both machines. It was this as much as anything that made me want to have one portable Reaper for use on both machines.

Right, time to get back to making music, which is what I have missed for a few days with all this malarky!

Mike

[Liquid Fusion]

Installed Waves Central 11 - no problems. See all Versions - V9 and V10.

Earlier installed V9 plugins via external installer - https://www.waves.com/downloads/v9.

Checking Wave 11, I see V9 and V10 plugins. A long time ago, I bought a few duplicate licenses (on sale). Learned having duplicate plugins on 2 machines raises the cost of Waves Update seriously high. So these licenses are just sitting unused in the Waves license cloud. Can't even give them away, as transfer fees are high as well. Not good Waves!!

Waves Update Message: "1 year of Waves Update Plan coverage is capped at $240 for all non-WAVES: identical products. Your Waves Update Plan exceeds the $240 cap due to either selecting multiple identical licenses, or the coverage you’re about to purchase is for more than 1 year for some of the selected licenses." - https://www.waves.com/account/get-waves-update-plan

Have 82 plugins (bought dirt cheap on sale since 2017) plus 13 unused plugins in the cloud. Since plugins are from different years - 2017, 2018, and recently 2019, it will cost me 420.00 JUST to update plugins on my Main PC. The Waves Update 240.00 CAP, covers updating plugins ONLY within the same year. So it's not a cap at all. Smoke & mirrors. There is an option to update selective licenses: Renew Waves Update Plan - Group by products. Might do this. Hate to spend any more $$$$$ on waves.

Recently, buying quality plugins from Power Toys, Softube and Plugin Alliance - again getting plugins only when on sale, for a fraction of stated prices. Nice to have a digital library for sound work. Trying to be selective in what I buy.

Waves Central - 440.00 for an Upgrade is steep!!! Not happening now.

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by Liquid Fusion

Installed Waves Central 11 - no problems. See all Versions - V9 and V10.

Earlier installed V9 plugins via external installer - https://www.waves.com/downloads/v9.

Checking Wave 11, I see V9 and V10 plugins. A long time ago, I bought a few duplicate licenses (on sale). Learned having duplicate plugins on 2 machines raises the cost of Waves Update seriously high. So these licenses are just sitting unused in the Waves license cloud. Can't even give them away, as transfer fees are high as well. Not good Waves!!

Waves Update Message: "1 year of Waves Update Plan coverage is capped at $240 for all non-WAVES: identical products. Your Waves Update Plan exceeds the $240 cap due to either selecting multiple identical licenses, or the coverage you’re about to purchase is for more than 1 year for some of the selected licenses." - https://www.waves.com/account/get-waves-update-plan

Have 82 plugins (bought dirt cheap on sale since 2017) plus 13 unused plugins in the cloud. Since plugins are from different years - 2017, 2018, and recently 2019, it will cost me 420.00 JUST to update plugins on my Main PC. The Waves Update 240.00 CAP, covers updating plugins ONLY within the same year. So it's not a cap at all. Smoke & mirrors. There is an option to update selective licenses: Renew Waves Update Plan - Group by products. Might do this. Hate to spend any more $$$$$ on waves.

Recently, buying quality plugins from Power Toys, Softube and Plugin Alliance - again getting plugins only when on sale, for a fraction of stated prices. Nice to have a digital library for sound work. Trying to be selective in what I buy.

Waves Central - 440.00 for an Upgrade is steep!!! Not happening now.

Agree with all that. I have one license and move it between Waves Cloud and (usually) my USB stick. I should put licenses back on the cloud when not in use in case I lose the USB stick but after this weeks experience I'm afraid to go near Waves Central (though I know I'll have to sooner or later).

The WUP cost structure is outrageous really and must surely be a disincentive for hobby / non revenue earning prospects to buy Waves stuff.

Thanks for the pointers on other plugin suppliers. Except that I've already spent a lot of my meagre pension (ha ha) on Waves stuff (and Ozone 9, that wasn't cheap but seems well worth it) I would like to try some other stuff. Fabfilter seem to get talked about a lot? Also, if only I had that kind of £s, UA Apollo interface and plugins.

[citizenkeith]

Originally Posted by ivansc

Yes it does. Just that you have to be 10)% sure you have followed all the instructions correctly - and also gotten rid of any old waves crap from before Waves Central became a thing.

When I said "their copy protection scheme doesn't work", I meant that it doesn't stop their software from being pirated.

I get it, you have to follow certain instructions 100%... but you shouldn't have to do that. Fabfilter, TDL, Stillwell, ValhallaDSP and many others are doing fine without something akin to Waves Central and Waveshell.

[Pashkuli]

Waves cosmetics. The face-lift artists.

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by citizenkeith

When I said "their copy protection scheme doesn't work", I meant that it doesn't stop their software from being pirated.

I get it, you have to follow certain instructions 100%... but you shouldn't have to do that. Fabfilter, TDL, Stillwell, ValhallaDSP and many others are doing fine without something akin to Waves Central and Waveshell.

The big thing I wonder is how many people who might buy (or stick with) Waves are put off because of reading stories like we've been telling on here. Waves really need to do better (assuming they care!). They could start by answering their Tech Support queries (still no reply from them since I took the trouble to describe in detail the problems I was having - and I'm supposed to be still under my free WUP 12 months cover so I'd be very unhappy if I'd paid for it though the cynic in me says they may prioritise replying to those paying an annual fee after the 12 months period).

[Judders]

Anyone know if V9 and V10 work in Mac OS Catalina?

I hope so, because it's probably bye-bye Waves when I update if not...

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by Judders

Anyone know if V9 and V10 work in Mac OS Catalina?

I hope so, because it's probably bye-bye Waves when I update if not...

A whole new meaning to the expression 'waving goodbye' ha ha.

I see they're moaning about v11 on gearslutz (some similar problems to mine) and there's Catalina talk on there. Sounds like it was the driver for rushing out v11

[Judders]

Originally Posted by mikeonb4c

A whole new meaning to the expression 'waving goodbye' ha ha.

I see they're moaning about v11 on gearslutz (some similar problems to mine) and there's Catalina talk on there. Sounds like it was the driver for rushing out v11

Yeah, I'm not paying the WUP whatever happens.

It would be cheaper to buy new V11 licenses for $29 on sale.

[airon]

I grabbed the offline v10 installation package and already had the v9 one.I'm giving v11 a pass for several reasons.

Some of my plugins are still WUP-covered, but I'm reading reports of problems with some v11 plugins, so no thanks until those are fixed. I'll have v11 plugins of covered plugins no matter when my WUP runs out.

The second reason is that I get no real value from paying for WUP coverage for my plugins that are currently not covered, which is most of them.

No value.

Waves, YOU put the bugs there, and I'm not on MacOS either. v9 plugins work fine on Windows 10.

If there were actual new features, I might consider the $240 pricetag to update all my plugins, but there are none. A GUI redesign is not a feature, it's an asthetic option. The Renaissance plugins already had a GUI that worked, and I do not run a high-dpi 4k screen.

I like the plugins. They're great, and I keep buying the occasional one, new or bargain-bin sale price. But the WUP tax is not on my happy list, whereas places like Fabfilter can command an upgrade price because they're actually upgrading the fucking capabilities.

"It can run" should be a given.

[mikeonb4c]

Seems to be agreement about Waves shabby setup. I wonder if they bother to read these forum threads. Sooner or later, collective customer dissatisfaction may burn down da house

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by mikeonb4c

Out of interest, if you are using Reaper on two machines, how are you keeping your custom settings (Saved effects chains etc) available/synced on both machines. It was this as much as anything that made me want to have one portable Reaper for use on both machines.
Mike

Dead easy. Every time I update Reaper on the studio machine, I copy everything onto the laptop.
Alright its an extra step, but I have to confess the worst one was making sure I had exactly the same plugins in both machines! The only thing I cant do is use my old UAD-1 pci boards & plugs in the laptop.

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by Judders

Yeah, I'm not paying the WUP whatever happens.

It would be cheaper to buy new V11 licenses for $29 on sale.

Me neither. I sometimes suspect that the whole WUP thing is aimed entirely at pro studios who can write it off as a business expense and billionaire bedroom producers...

[mikeonb4c]

Originally Posted by ivansc

Me neither. I sometimes suspect that the whole WUP thing is aimed entirely at pro studios who can write it off as a business expense and billionaire bedroom producers...

That would possibly explain why a minion like me who has 12 months free WUP as part of his purchase is receiving no proper service from tech support. They're probably tied up dealing with fury over v11 issues from the mighty and powerful. But who was it said beware, for the meek shall inherit the Earth ;-)

Thanks for the info on keeping Reaper synced across 2 PCs - food for thought. To be honest I'm still trying to understand how/why/where the various plugins put themaelves on install - it'd be nice to corral them in one folder+sub folders. But its just making time for that when i want to get on and make music!

[Judders]

I saw one mention on Gearslutz of someone using V9 and 10 on Catalina after taking them off a security list or something, so I'm hopeful.

No plans of upgrading OS as yet, but if at some point in the future software I use for work needs Catalina then I'll have to.

[Alabam Travel]

Hey. All installed plug-ins vst3 have one name "Reel ADT (Waves)". How to return plugins their own names? thank

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by Alabam Travel

Hey. All installed plug-ins vst3 have one name "Reel ADT (Waves)". How to return plugins their own names? thank

Ask Waves. Doesnt sound like a Reaper problem. You ARE installing with Waves Central, aren`t you?

[Alabam Travel]

Originally Posted by ivansc

You ARE installing with Waves Central, aren`t you?

Absolutely rightbut, during the scan the plugin names are displayed correctly.

[ivansc]

Like I said, ask Waves. Off the top of my head, you are the first reaper user to have this as a problem. And I still think it is coming from Wave`s end. Let us know what they say.

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by Valle

I don't believe the "issue" is that the "issuelized" user doesn't know how to clear and re-scan. The issue is that Waves' poorly written installer doesn't know how to clean its own shit from the computer, which instead the user must do manually on his/her own, or else the installer won't cope.

Maybe I should remote in to Waves servers instead and code them a better installer

In fairness, that "leaving their shit behind" thing is happily a thingf of the past once you have scoured all the old stuff out by hand. Waves Central seems to be tidying up behind itself like it should.
Such a relief! Once I finally figured that stuff out and did a manual clean out - took me three or four goes to find all the crap - I have had no issues with waves plugins, even when version 11 reared its ugly little head.

And I use my Waves plugins enough that it`1s worth putting up with having to do the cleanup. Once. And the clear/re-scan. Occasionally.

But we all have different "meh!" thresholds.

[Rednroll]

Originally Posted by citizenkeith

When I said "their copy protection scheme doesn't work", I meant that it doesn't stop their software from being pirated.

I get it, you have to follow certain instructions 100%... but you shouldn't have to do that. Fabfilter, TDL, Stillwell, ValhallaDSP and many others are doing fine without something akin to Waves Central and Waveshell.

I skipped out of town doing audio work for awhile, I missed most of the 32bit to 64bit transition growing pains. So when I last used Waves plugins they were at V5, when I came back they were at V10 and I was due for an update due to needing 64bit versions. I have to say, my overall impression of going from v5 to v10 was that there was some big clunky Waves Central program that needed to be installed which none of my other plugins needed and seemed like its main purpose was copy protection and adding bloatware to my system.

So curious what Waves provides us in v11? More copy protection bloatware?

[citizenkeith]

Originally Posted by ivansc

In fairness, that "leaving their shit behind" thing is happily a thingf of the past once you have scoured all the old stuff out by hand. Waves Central seems to be tidying up behind itself like it should.

I’d rather spend that time working so I can get paid.

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by citizenkeith

I’d rather spend that time working so I can get paid.

It`s the nature of our business that it will always be necessary to maintain your system at top performance whenever possible. You can`t do that without allowing a minimum amount of "down" time to make sure all is well.
And as a professional, you shouldn`t need to spend a lot of time chasing solutions.
I spent maybe three or four hours total sorting out the correct way to prepare my computers for Waves Central, including (with the help of Heart Doctor on here) mining for all the stuff left behind from earlier waves installs. A one-time investment which left me with a 100% reliable Waves methodology.

Since then I regularly help people out on here that either don`t have the experience, don't have the smarts or for other reasons which I don't care to go into don`t manage to "get" how Waves works nowadays.

Since you have the benefit of the collective experience & expertise available on here, you aren`t going to be losing too much time when you could be working & getting paid. Especially since you only have to do this ONCE.

[citizenkeith]

Originally Posted by ivansc

It`s the nature of our business that it will always be necessary to maintain your system at top performance whenever possible.

Agreed. And that's why I use macOS and Reaper, and only use plugins that do not require DRM or self-serving licensing schemes. I have very little downtime and I get my work done so that I can have a life outside of the studio.

Originally Posted by ivansc

Especially since you only have to do this ONCE.

That was not my experience with Waves Central. It happened TWICE. I recently upgraded a bundle and my v9 plugins did not upgrade to v10. So I had to do it all over again. No more, I'm done with Waves. I will not do this three times. They aren't getting any more of my money.

[airon]

It's a weird corner they're in.

It's down to the nature of the Waves ecosystem. Way over 100 plugins in 32-bit and 64-bit formats for VST2, VST3, DirectX(it was still there for v9 iirc) AAX and just 32-bit RTAS. Licenses are stored on a disk or checked online at every startup(right?). So you have one application to handle it all, though it's hardly perfect. It does its job way the fuck better than the first version of Waves Central did though.

Personally I'd prefer plugin DLLs I can just dump in to my directory of choice, but I do suspect that would seriously blow up the installer. Graphics resources are shared across all plugin versions. Then again Waves Central can install specific plugins. Just VST3 64-bit for me please. Everything else can stay away. But we don't get that yet. Plus, if you want older versions, get ready to download the huge offline package for that version because only the NEWEST version can be installed from an online resource.

Lack of "just that VST3 x64 version please" and Waves just not having developed their 100+ plugin manager far enough to install olders versions from online resources are my two serious negatives for the platform.

So v11 is a complete negative for me. No added value whatsoever.

[Larry Kriz]

I just got done dealing with Waves on this issue... upgrading from Waves Central V10 to V11. My problem was compounded by the fact I'm still using Windows 7 (64). WC V11 is not Windows 7 compatible. I know. I tried.

And yet, a phone call to their support staff got me up and running. There is a workaround to get V10 running without it trying to auto-update. I can't explain what that is but there was a log file created on my desktop that provided the workaround. Some of my Waves plugs were updated to V11 and they seem to be working OK under Windows 7 & Waves Central 10. Reaper scanned all the plugs and I tried a few and they seem fine.

I had to allow them remote access to my PC. But it didn't take long for them to fix everything. Good luck with this! Call them if you're getting nowhere.

I would now like to talk about arcane and convoluted copy protection schemes. Oh never mind

[ivansc]

If you want to talk about PITA copy protection, let`s talk about the CmStick that SSL used to use!

I was beta testing for them & it was about the ONLY thing we ever had issues with.
Utter nightmare, which is why they finally dropped it & went to iLok!

[Larry Kriz]

Originally Posted by ivansc

If you want to talk about PITA copy protection, let`s talk about the CmStick that SSL used to use!

I was beta testing for them & it was about the ONLY thing we ever had issues with.
Utter nightmare, which is why they finally dropped it & went to iLok!

I have a Codemeter dongle. It was a mandatory requirement for Samplitude (although they've since added a web/software style registration option). The first one I got failed after a year or so. Codemeter sent me a new one and it's been working fine ever since. About ten years now. Go figure. I like not having to worry about re-registering every time I have to rebuild a PC or replace a hard drive or whatever. I'm using it on a desktop PC here in my studio that rarely ever moves.

[ivansc]

I have often wondered whether the physical CMstick worked more reliably than the virtual one that I used...

Certainly my physical iLok 1 and 2 both work/worked very reliably once I got my head round how the system works. Same with Waves` usb stick.

[Larry Kriz]

Originally Posted by ivansc

I have often wondered whether the physical CMstick worked more reliably than the virtual one that I used...

Certainly my physical iLok 1 and 2 both work/worked very reliably once I got my head round how the system works. Same with Waves` usb stick.

I have iLok also. No problems. I wish everyone used it but there's probably no chance of that happening. I'm not actually sure how secure iLok is. If it can be cracked then it's worthless. But for "honest me", it's a nicer alternative to the various confusing options that some companies use. I'm also considering moving my Waves licenses to a USB stick (that would make 3 dongles). It's getting stupid lolol

[Tod]

When I got my latest Waves plugin, it not only didn't work, it also took out a couple of other Wave plugins that did work. I tried for 2 days to get them to work, even contacted Waves, but still no results.

Then on the 3rd day, I opened Wave Central and it said I didn't have the latest update. So went ahead and got the update and presto, all my plugins worked.

I'm on Windows 7 professional.

[airon]

I've got my licenses on a USB stick. Works nicely.

As far as iLoks go, my story is anecdotal(anecdotes are not data but 100 of them start to be).

iLok1, fine. Still works but nobody wants that any longer.

iLok2 fucking died never having been moved from its USB hub in its entire lifetime. 3 years iirc. Had to send it in($49 + shipping) and got all my licenses back. Now I'm using an iLok3. Hope lasts at least as long as the plastic iLok1, which still works :P .

I'd rather use cracks in a pinch(broken dongles, company c/r servers fucked,etc.) to be perfectly honest, but thankfully I never had to. The iLok broke at an opportune moment. I prefer MY investment to be safe with either no copy protection(Klanghelm), serials or license files. Spectrasonics is amongst the few I trust with challenge/response authorization. Never let me down in the past 15 years.

Oh and btw, iLok stuff has been and continues to be cracked, though not all of it. It's a good backup if the manufacturer goes tits up.

[winbe]

Originally Posted by Tod

When I got my latest Waves plugin, it not only didn't work, it also took out a couple of other Wave plugins that did work. I tried for 2 days to get them to work, even contacted Waves, but still no results.

Then on the 3rd day, I opened Wave Central and it said I didn't have the latest update. So went ahead and got the update and presto, all my plugins worked.

I'm on Windows 7 professional.

I am with you here!!
I am slowly replacing all my Waves by alternatives, because I hate their "one license" only policy, and because each time I installed a new plugin from them, it was a nightmare...

And...

Still the case!!

Suddenly, my projects stopped working. Ok, on some of them I still have CLA Mixdown (happily replaced by SDRR2), license is not active. What?

So I launch Waves Central.
No wait, this thing is always requesting itself to be updated. I have never been able to launch it directly once. So downloooooooading... (170 Mo!!! compare what it does - nothing - to Reaper!!)

installllllliiiing

starting it, ok, the only Waves plugin that still work and are activated are the ones for which... the update plan expired! Why on earth did I, at some point, renew this stupid update plan that does nothing?

So now my plugins are in v11... and not activated.
To activate them, I need first to... downlooooooooad them... and installlll them.

But...

the installation fails.

So my w10 are gone, my w11 don't want to install.

This will accelerate my "replace all Waves plugin" procedure!
The only one I really liked was Bass Slapper...

I am a bit upset as there is no way you can really resell them, there is a fee, and the procedure is just...

I'm out!

[mikeonb4c]

I feel your pain brother. I've been spun around, put down, had my feet pulled off the ground, taken to town, ground down, etc etc and somehow the Waves plugins are now sort of working with the odd crash. But how poor, really, and no useful help from tech support.

[Tom Davids]

Never had any issues with Waves... ever. I've been using them since 2003. Makes me wonder what some people are doing?