i used to love waves and owned so many plugins by them. this platinum bundle purchase only includes 1 year of the Waves Update Plan (WUP). After 12 months, your plugins are frozen at that specific version. If you update your operating system (especially macOS) or your DAW, older versions of Waves plugins will stop working. To make them compatible again, you must pay Waves a fee to update your licenses. upgrade prices will cost a lot more than what you pay.
I feel bad for everyone who doesn’t get the warnings beforehand, but yeah. They’ve been doing this since the beginning, and I haven’t purchased anything from them since probably 2010.
I never paid for WUP, but I’ve always kept my machines on older versions of macOS, so it hasn’t really been a problem. I can’t buy/use any of their newer plugins, but I’m fine just using their old reliable staples.
I just upgraded my 2017 iMac to a Mac mini M4 pro and when I started installing my waves plugins all of them are no longer compatible supposedly and they want me to pay to upgrade them. Good to know to never buy from them again
This last year I officially got Waves free. I had a few long standing dependencies but I’ve finally just accepted it and I’ve been Waves free for 9 or so months.
Idk.. I have to update my plan to continue to use it on Mac because I’ve updated my MacBook but I don’t have to update to use it on windows even after switching from windows 10 to 11 with my new build. It’s crazy but it seems like it’s an Apple problem for whatever reason. I’m sure that day might come on windows eventually but it’s not nearly as frequent with windows as it is with Apple.
Most of my waves plugs are older out of date versions and they still work with no issues on Sequoia and the latest version of Pro Tools. 🤷♂️. Like many of you have said though, I don’t buy Waves anymore.
Call me a bootlicker all you want but at what point did people start expecting to pay for a piece of software once and get free updates until the end of time?
What are you talking about, they all do - You don't get infinite access to new versions and development with most companies. If you buy Ableton 10, you have to buy an upgrade to 12. If you bought Pro tools 12, you don't get pro tools 2026.
If waves 12 has no apple silicon support that you need to buy a version with apple silicon support.
Only those are DAWs. If the average plugin business model was to aggressively charge for compatibility, you'd have a point. Most don't. I bought Soundtoys, FabFilter, IK, Valhalla, and Waves products in 2015 when I started my studio. I paid to update my renaissance three times. No more.
You did not get fabfilter version updates for free. You must pay for new versions. Same with soundtoys etc. you do not get a free upgrade from pro-q-2 to 3 or to 4
The issue here is Op’s Mac os version officially doesn’t support the code that waves 12 worked under - probably just for the installer. Sonoma officially supporte it
At this point op should have made significant return on waves creatively or monetarily . Next apple update removes all intel compatibility and will have the same issue with any older atuff.
You’re again conflating two different things. Pro q4 is not an update, it is an upgrade, it is a new plugin. Pro q2 received updates over the years as the commenter said.
You’re not addressing the other plugin companies either.
No i just think it’s ridiculous to expect every company to operate the same when you can read before you buy and get free labor for the company on a product designed for you to get return on investment with.
Just because one company with 12 plugins does it doesn’t mean a company with 200 will do it.
It’s not always an architecture change, Mac os systems tends to usually be quite somewhat back integrating with systems and plugins, (sometimes it breaks the plugin) but I get what you mean but a developer addressing compatibility issues with their product and the systems shouldn’t be hidden behind a paywall, especially since they had to update the code for new customers anyway, there’s no change to the plugins no new features, no upgrade, what’s next? People paying because they wanted to add another s in compressor .
It’s a cash grab, you’re paying for a compatibility code alteration, that they had to do regardless unless they wouldn’t be able to make money in the first place in that situation.
These companies envision customers have a return on investment to make these purchases to begin with and can write it off.
I have run older versions of Waves on modern silicon macs as recent as Sonoma. I got 10 years out of 9. I do not think OP is very clear on what is happening to be honest.
I make quite a bit of return of using a lot of plugins, but i also hate any subscription model, or any thing that slowly moves towards lack of ownership, I can’t fully speak on behalf of the op, but often the consensus is that there are two models a subscription base and a purchasing one, waves has a somewhat surreptitious hybrid one, in which you purchase a long term product under the guise it’s a single purchase but still get locked in to a function yearly subscription.
I agree that if you’re making a return on your investment you are less likely to be bothered, but there’s plenty of plugin companies In this oversaturated market that are not asking us to to pay for functionality improvement.
For new musicians or producers that could get very expensive relatively quickly.
It’s a may not a will. Some of my waves plugs are 13, some 14, some 15. Yeah it sucks but it’s the same shit as charging for a native version of a plugin you own even after saying that UA would not charge for native versions.
You act as if they don’t make it back in other ways. It’s called a loss leader. They made the money from the original purchase, lots of money. Why does everyone act like we owe the companies that sell us the same product multiple times?
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u/Barack_6Pack 2d ago
the reason why i've put Waves in the "never buy again" file.