Waves Creative Access?

Plugins
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Waves Creative Access??? Is this me or the new Waves politics really sucks?

Get answers to your questions

We know you must have many questions. Find all the answers in the link below—here are the ones that are probably first on your mind:

Can I still buy individual Waves plugins?

Waves Creative Access will be the exclusive way to get Waves plugins. We wish to provide you a seamless way to use our massive plugin catalog, with instant updates, new plugins added as they’re released, and new AI-powered tools to enhance your creative process. To enable this, Waves Creative Access will be the way to get Waves plugins going forward.

What about the plugins I already own?

You continue to own your plugins, at the latest version you bought or to which you updated.

What about new plugins released in the future?

New plugins will be available as part of Waves Creative Access. Once you have a Waves Creative Access subscription, new plugins included in your subscription will be added at no extra cost.

What about plugin updates?

Waves Creative Access keeps all your plugins updated, always. You will get all updates for the plugins in your subscription, at no extra cost. If you still have a valid Waves Update Plan, you will continue to enjoy all its benefits until it expires.

Does Waves Creative Access cover Waves live sound applications such as eMotion LV1 and SuperRack?

Waves Creative Access subscriptions are for plugins only. Waves live sound applications are still sold individually, as perpetual licenses. The Waves Update Plan still applies to these applications, no change.

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I think it sucks – in particular I think I read that online licensing checks have to happen once ever 7 days so good luck if you’re on tour and aren’t connecting to the internet with your touring laptop.

Given that Waves has told their customers that they do not support GP in the past even when we should show that the problems reported by customers were clearly bugs in Waves.

Right now it is my opinion that GP users who perform live should be very wary of using any plugins from Waves

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3

Many companies go this way.
All ERP software will go into cloud.
This has the advantage for the software developer to support only the recent version.

But for plugins I do not really like that model.
With slate plugins you can go the subscription way or you can buy.
The model of waves only to get as subscription is …. you know what I mean.
NI is thinking since years about subscription.
Hope they do not switch.

4

Even with the Update Plan, I was on my way to replacing the one Waves plugin I currently use (Morphoder)

With this latest move, I went and got yet another vocoder plugin (XILS) to try to replace Morphoder and get away from Waves for good. I get that some companies like to push their subscription option for VSTs, but I can’t give money to one that makes it mandatory

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5

I only own Waves Harmony, which is cool, but if I understand well they won’t offer any updates for the stupid customers like me who bought the product. This sucks too! :angry:

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for me it sucks as well - 14.99€ per month if you are just interested in 2 or 3 plugins is totally nuts.

As there are some really interesting smaller companies out there still offering perpetual licences I will head towards this direction.

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I’m furious about it being a Mercury + Studio Classics and Abbey Road Collection owner. I am royally stuffed as I can’t now even WUP to the latest version to future proof my investment for as long as possible. I certainly won’t be taking out a subscription. I wouldn’t use Waves on GP even if they were reliable as you only get one license and for a functioning system whereas I need 3 (studio, live and live backup) which just about every other plugin manufacturer offers in the one price.

Sorry for the negativity which is incongruous with this forum, but I am mighty peeved at Waves (marvel at my restraint with my moderated vexed language!)

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I feel most sorry for the PA rental and live sound companies that Waves actively courted who now have to multiply their costs as WUP (and only when necessary) gave them 2 licenses and now they will need a separate annual subscription for each set of licenses.

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News from Waves:

Dear Waves community,

My name is Meir Shashoua, and I’m the CTO and Co-Founder of Waves Audio.

Over the past few days, many of you have expressed concerns about our decision to discontinue perpetual plugin licenses and our move to an exclusive plugin subscription model. I would like to start by apologizing for the frustration we have caused many of you, our loyal customers. We understand that our move was sudden and disruptive, and did not sufficiently take into consideration your needs, wishes, and preferences. We are genuinely sorry for the distress it has caused.

After respectfully listening to your concerns, I want to share with you that we are bringing back the perpetual plugin license model, side-by-side with the new subscriptions. You will again be able to get plugins as perpetual licenses, just as before.

In addition, those of you who already own perpetual licenses will once again be able to update your plugins and receive a second license via the Waves Update Plan—again, just as before. This option, too, will be available alongside and independently of the subscription program.

We are currently putting all our efforts into making perpetual licenses available to you again, as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you can keep up-to-date on this news page, where we will post the latest updates on perpetual license availability.

I would like you to know that we are committed to you, our users. We listened to your feedback, and we will continue to listen to you. Waves is a company filled with users and creators, just like you, and we are all as passionate about the products as you are. With this in mind, we will strive to find the way to make things right by you, and hopefully regain your trust.

Thank you for your feedback and continued support—I wish you all the best,

Meir Shashoua
CTO and Co-Founder, Waves Audio

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With an usb drive you can use your Waves license on multiple systems, but of course only one at a time.

For me this works but is not so comfortable as having 3 licenses and don’t have to worry about forgetting the usb-stick (worst case scenario!)

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As @David-san reported above, there was huge “WAVE” of feedback and Waves has officially announced on their website that they are bringing back perpetual licenses and updates.

From personal experience, subscription models can not only be a value proposition but also the absolute best value depending on your individual circumstances - assuming the vendor gets it right. I really have liked many of the Waves products. In comparison, some other vendors are far worse and vastly more expensive in the nickel and dime you to death model, so I’m keeping an open mind and see what they do. Maintaining a maintenance plan with them was really expensive, this looks better at face value depending on how enmeshed you were with their products. Having a choice of permanent and subscription is even better.

Perpetual Licenses and Updates Will Be Back Alongside Subscriptions | News | Waves

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They make sense for things like online newspapers but I do not think it makes sense for anything where, by not continuing your subscription you lose what you had previous paid for.

For software applications, a maintenance or upgrade plan makes much more sense – buy the product at the appropriate price, use it for ever on your current platform, etc. Pay a maintenance and/or upgrade fee to get access to newer releases that not only include bug fixes but new features, ability to work with new versions of an OS if necessary, and so on.

Subscriptions where access to what you already got fails if you don’t keep paying are really just protection rackets or holding you for ransom.

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That has not been my across the board experience. One of the best values going, as an example, is a Microsoft 365 family subscription. I pay a fraction that I used to pay to “own the bits”. I have some MS programs where I want to own the bits, like Visio, and MS makes that possible too. My choice that results in the best value for me. On the other hand, I can’t justify Adobe subscriptions and they are squeezing out alternatives. I feel I get a lot of value from my Presonus One subscription, but can’t justify a Roland Cloud membership. On the other hand, Google Cloud memberships beat MS Drive memberships hands down.

At the end of the day the sweet spot is where both the vendor and consumer feel they get the best value and support, and both parties support each other. Not everything is perfect, some are better or worse than others, and often the biggest factors aren’t even owning the bits/a subscription. GP falls into this category for me. This forum and community are just an unbelievably huge benefit and no one else does it as well as GP does. This takes a significant part of your time (owners and developers), so the overall value proposition is huge and best of both worlds.

One thing for sure is that overall the number of choices that are available these days are better than the good old days where there was no, or limited, choice. I understand what you are getting at about loosing access to what you already had, but even with the hard stop examples of this it’s possible to plan for and around it. One way or another, even if you go to the limits with free or low cost products, the consumer usually pays in full for the priveledge whether it’s in the form of time, money, or both.

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but you´ll use Windows every day, i´d guess ?

in music software, i see two or three markets:
Pros, who sit down daily with their software tools. ( and generate income)
enganged hobbyists who use the tools regularily. Several jams a Week.
less engaged Hobbyists.

But all uf us might use a specific amount of soft-tools ,“specific tools”, just a few times per year, or even just 2-3 times in 3-4 years.
Going subscription, yo lose all the money, that would come in based on folks buying stuff, “just additionally”.

I think, we consumers have not changed the amount of money that flows into software buys.
But nowadays, this amount of money flows way way more wide spread, to way way more manufacturers.

its exactly this, imho.

make it $5 for 3 plugins of choice.
that would equal what i right now leave @ Waves.
Things i -really- nearly don´t use.

with subscription models, you lose just about the wole hobbyist market.
…until you make it $3 or $5, the month.
Thats where i would begin to think about it.
That´d be equal, like rebuying every two years, my 3-4 waves plugins => that i like to have on my HD, even if i´d not make use out of it.

…its money for free for them.
I just spend it, to have a higher amount of choices available.

I´d claim, there IS so and so much money flowing towards that market, => in that same vein.
Expensive subscription models will just dry out this sort of money flow.
…you are then exclusive to pros.

i would strongly guess, that right now, the hobbyist market brings more money into “this market” , overall.

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Thanks for that — we are very grateful to have such a great community that helps each other.

That might have been true once but the free LibreOffice is currently at a point where it can easily replace MS Office for most things — it’s not as pretty but it does get the job done.

Have you checked out the Affinity products? They’re inexpensive and as far as I can tell, they do most of what Photoshop, Illustrator and Publisher do.

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Like the Keymaker said in the Matrix, when one door closes another opens, and like the Architect said the problem is choice. Whether vendor or consumer, each wants to maximize the value of it’s purchases or offerings and because the market is only marginally controlled by national regulation it’s a dynamic system. All I can say is it’s actually wonderful that there are choices. However, change is always difficult even if it’s for the best. Maybe Waves will be successful in hitting a sweet spot for most of us - only time will tell. Nonetheless, it’s always great to have a plethora of choices.

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All true, but for various reasons I use the originals until the landscape changes enough to make me make the effort to change to something new. I’m sure that sounds familiar :slight_smile: It sure is nice to have options. WRT to plugins, Melda makes it possible to build or duplicate just about any type of effect or sound that you can imagine, and I generally try nowadays to do everything I can with Melda products first, but it requires time dedication and a steep learning curve. When I am particularly frustrated I’ll use one of my Waves or other plugins so don’t have to mess around under the hood, but it still goes back to what I have been saying throughout the thread - it’s nice to have choices - even if hard on the nerves.

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I took advantage of the slack period during covid to switch to LibreOffice, Affinity, and some other open source applications.
Apart from the functionality and usability that I like, I feel a sense of lightness and freedom when using these programs.
For Gig Performer, I have not yet found a replacement. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Yes because Gig Performer is the replacement for what you used before :wink:

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That’s totally true, I hadn’t thought of that :thinking:

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