Waves plugins are aplenty. With so much choice, so many bundles, deals and offers it's difficult to cut through and find the ones that'll add value to your productions.
After years of real world testing in our own studios alongside research from our producer colleagues we've compiled a list of the most relevant Waves plugins for Trance, EDM and 4/4 Electronic styles.
Waves H-Delay
Simple, no nonsense, easy to use but flexible enough to tailor it to your productions. It sounds great and the Lo-Fi and Analogue modes add tone options you won't find in some other delay plugins. It can do Chorusy too at lower settings. A must have in your Trance kit.
Waves OneKnob Pumper
If you're not doing side-chaining or pumping effects of some type in your productions then it's definitely an area to explore. Whilst side-chaining to get the pumping effect can be set up fairly easily in most hosts now-a-days there's something pleasingly welcoming to Waves 1 Knob approach to it.
Drop it on an insert, adjust dial to desired effect from full blown to subtle and you're done. It really is fire and forget which is ideal when we're trying to keep the creative flow going.
Changeable time signature settings and offset altering means it has wide scope in its' intended use.
A quick video of it in action from Waves themselves.
A rapid fire hear it in action video here.
Waves OneKnob Filter
The ease of consistent results we get from Pumper we also get from Filter, as the name suggests it offers the same one dial functionality and good sounding results but this time in a filter. Switchable resonance features to the tonal quality of your taste and you're well on your way to big time Trance Supersaw buildup's in no-time.
Waves Smack Attack
The secret weapon for kicks, snares and even synth leads and plucks. Ever wondered how some artists kicks just seem to kicks hit so hard and cut straight through the mix? This is definitely one half of that secret solution.
Waves Vitamin Enhancer
Harmonic enhancers get a bad rap from the 'traditionalist' crowd so their importance is often overlooked in relevant genres with things Trance, EDM and other electronic genres such as Dubstep and Drum and Bass often relying heavily on big bold sounds.
Vitamin Enhancer offers harmonic enhancement, in parallel across the frequency spectrum. With other options including stereo width and punch it enables you to get big loud sounds with a lot of presence and cut through. Ideal for these genres. With such power there's a responsibility in use to avoid running the dynamics or washing out your sound through additional harmonic content but when used right it provides the producer a good edge in dialling in the ideal sound.
Waves L1 Ultramaximizer
Any of Waves' Ultramaximisers are applicable, differing mostly by their tonal quality. Our pick is the L1.
Like harmonic enhancement, Ultramaximizer is all about getting big sounds and it delivers. Some EDM tracks rely on only a few key parts but use compression and limiters to effectively fill the audible spectrum to appear full and consistent. Ultramaximizer thus is the secret weapon of many Electronic producers. Coming complete with a copy of Waves Limiter too which in itself has it's place in the producers toolbox is why Ultramaximizer makes our list.
Waves Soundshifter
Another secret weapon in the Trance producers toolkit. This one's great for those uplift and downlift type effects. Seamlessly pitch any sound upwards or downwards to easily create excellent FX.
Waves Renaissance Bass (RBass)
Sometimes you need your bass to hit harder, or you need to feel it more or the sample or sound your using just doesn't have the base levels you want. EQ only gets you so far and along with it creates its own sets of challenges with resonance and phase shifting.
Rbass creates additional harmonics which are then mixed with the original sound giving you bass you can feel, hear and all without muddying the bottom end.
Waves Maxxbass
Offers a very similar approach and results to Rbass but it's tonal quality extends higher up the frequency spectrum, which helps translation to smaller speaks and Maxxbass also allows much great flexibility of control and mixing options with your existing sound.
Waves Renaissance Comp (RComp)
An excellent utility type compressor for everyday duties that has stood the test of time. Another simple no-nonsense approach from Waves with good dynamic curves and a pleasantly neutral tonal quality when pushed hard.
Waves H-Comp Hybrid Compressor
More of a character compressor and has functions making it ideal for Electronic productions, these include a transient punch control, BPM sync, wet/dry for easy parallel compression and external side-chain modes. Beyond this you get output clipping and various analogue modelling modes. Lovely stuff.
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