That’s interesting. I guess a bit of cheapening was happening to Waves in the background, by association with the crack-ers, and a bit of the opposite happening to UAD.
There’s a bit of luck/unluck in all this, I guess. Or maybe it was all part of the UAD strategy… or at least some foresight on their part.
@MattiasNYC coming with the facts. I’m so glad everyone is starting to get the opportunity to use their plugins now.
Although personally I believe the best Vst’s in their arsenal are yet to be ported. Things like VOG or Tri-stereo
Used Waves long time and really liked, however due to the updateplan I stopped using waves, the UAD Spark is in my opinion of more high quality, however the quantity of Waves is mucg better (regarding tools).
I´m working on it, thanx!
If you can drive, the drive is smoother and safer in a Mercedes then a Honda (I dont hate Honda)
If you are an expert violinist, you prefere a Stradivarius for good reasons…
I agree that the ride is definitely smoother with the Mercedes, but as far as being safer, that always depends on the driver.
You know I have a Honda Civic 
and I have always been able to go where I wanted and at a lower cost.
Here are some mixes made purely for pleasure and with Cubase and its stock plugins with, no third party plugins, no Mastering, except Maximizer to raise the sound level on the Master Bus.
I don’t know if the Mercedes or the Stradivarius would have allowed me to obtain better results considering my skills which at that time could not allow me to do better.
What I find difficult when it comes to mixing is consistency from one mix to the next. Some mixes will sound better or worse than others, no matter how hard you try. Consistency, not easy…
https://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/showthread.php?tid=17230
https://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/showthread.php?tid=18094
https://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/showthread.php?tid=17266
Regarding the topic of this Thread “UA plugins, much better than Waves plugins?”; I believe the answer is both Yes and No, because it always depends on who is handling them and in what context they are being handled. If your mix is not well done, even if you have the best plugins or hardware for mastering, it will not help in any way to make the final result better. So everything is always relative…
Several persons agree with you, me to. The question is rather, if the same, skilled mixer works with UA or waves, is the same quality obtained with the same track? And, a Mercedes lasts much longer than a Honda so in the end, it might be cheaper per km to drive. And I dont have a car at all, not even a bicycle, I walk.
The mixes you posted sounds fantastic, do you mix other artists track? If so, how much is the cost for mixing/mastering one singel, 15tracks?
TBH, I heard more ruined mixes with Waves plugins than without.
Soundgrid is a very good tool for live mixes, but to advertise it as the best solution ever, was a… let’s say clever marketing. But it’s just marketing bullshit. Without knowledge, it’s just crap. And it ruins mixes in the wrong hands.
And remember, it only runs with Waves plugins.
That it’s still a necessity to learn how to use the tools isn’t usually the problem of the marketing machine.
It is better to invest in more knowledge as to invest in the next plugin hype.
I wish this would be true in full extent…
Thank you for this kind comment.
I don’t mix for anyone other than myself. I occasionally like to download pieces made available to all for free on this Cambridge-mt.com site from Mike Senior for the simple pleasure of having quality recordings and mixing them.
I am an amateur and not a professional, I do not have the consistency that professionals have. Additionally, I have no idea what the costs of mixing and mastering represent. Honestly, I leave that to others more competent in the matter.
User error obviously .
Who in this day and age doesn’t try to con people into buying the latest and greatest , unless you have pet Bats at home half the plugins now you wouldn’t hear the difference in quality , looks and design good a long way in playing the brain game , if you feel go the way the plugin looks ,you’ll more than likely gel with the sound , blind test up against one disguised as dog poo and you most probably would even notice the difference but " you need this plugin because it’s the most stringently crafted representation of the hardware " Que 700 vst Neve Channel strips in one folder and no time to make music because you can’t make your mind up which one to use
There is a TON of subjectivity that’s involved in these decisions. Part of it is even just the “fun” factor. It’s not fun to have 1 compressor. It’s WAY, WAY more fun to have 50, and to compare them and grade them… So you have to ask yourself, what degree of “fun” is influencing your decision about what is great. Or is it really just fun? How many times have I wondered, “what is so great about the winner of this contest?” And the truth is often only that, well, human beings just decided to have a contest, for fun, and the judges needed to make a decision, and, well, now there is a winner. And then we, humans, all go off and find something else to fill our time on this planet, for the sake of fun.
But as far as objectivity and true necessity goes, I mean, oof…
A Honda Civic is a really good car.
There’s that 80/20 rule, which is something like, uh, you get 80% of the benefit with 20% of the effort… and the last 20% of benefit comes with 80% of the effort… and I think this is relevant here. Excellent mix and mastering engineers can take your mixes and masters from that 80% to 100% because they have spent the time studying it, comparing comps and EQs, etc. And I believe they have learned things that I cannot hear. But we do have to ask ourselves how much it actually matters, and whether or not we’re even getting to 100 if it’s so subjective in the first place and things like the “fun factor” are involved.
It seems to me the key is making sure that the ART we are working with is great, not so much the tools. Get the ART from 80 to 100 and use some good tools to mix and master with. Find mix and mastering engineers who are great artists. That’s the key.
When I asked “Who is Waves?” I wasn’t joking. I have a setup that I like, I know, and is stable. I started using UA back in about 2016 and never had a reason to go anywhere else.
If you have ever listened to a Neil Young song or album, you can make a good case for how it doesn’t matter what plugins you are using or how they are calibrated. I try not to get wrapped around tech talk. I just listen to the signal chain and do the best to get the sound I am hearing in my head. Familiarity is my friend.
I really enjoy reading all of your thoughts and comments.
One thing does not exclude the other; Yes, good recordings, skilled mixers are the key, but plugins of good quality sure help, at least I get a kick from the UA plugins, I have never got any kick from Wave software. But I know you can do great stuff with them, they are not “bad”.
In my experience, on my music, Waves compressors ALWAYS suffer a peak overload when audio first hits them, producing a very audible click. They settle down, but once fully released, the next input overloads the plugin. The only way I’ve been able to avoid this (and I’ve tried, believe me, for 13 years on 4 machines, from Win 7 to Win 10, Cubase 5 to 13) is to lower the input to the plugin so low that there is next to no compression. I know other users don’t have this experience, just saying I do, and ONLY with Waves compressors.
The one Waves plugin I can find no replacement for is Waves TG12345 channel strip. It is pure black magic on drums, either singly or grouped. Overblown ringing snares, bombastic kicks and toms - gorgeous. And the audible click is merged with the drum attack.
I’ve wanted to switch to UAD plugins for a long tome - I just couldn’t justify the entry fee with the required hardware (I am an absolute amateur, and a pensioner, to boot). Then, last Black Friday sales, I discovered that UAD has released some native versions… And were cheap as chips. Now I’m happily integrating the 1176, Fairchild and the API plugins into my setup.
Just my tuppence worth.
Talk about making lemonade from lemons. Glad you got the UA interface. You will love the API strip… I do anyway. You will find it difficult to overload. They have so much headroom.