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Not for the first time and I hate myself for it. I had to format my pc due to some issues that are now sorted. And I'm sure many people will know what's coming next. Waves (not so good) licence. Apparently my license is gone and I have tried everything to get them back and when I emailed them about it they gave me some advice that sadly didn't work and then reminded me about the 1 year only licence. I love H-delay and H-reverb and its seems that my only option is to buy the upgrade thing that would cost just short of £100. Surely a company shouldn't be working like this? Maybe I shouldn't have got so into their delay and reverb. Its doesn't help when thr next best thing that I've tried is the very expensive soundtoys. The joys of recording.

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jamie Lofts Fri, 03/13/2020 - 09:28

Kurt Foster, post: 463609, member: 7836 wrote: that doesn't seem to be a very good business move on Waves part.

Are you going t upgrade? you said, " Not for the first time and I hate myself for it". has this happened before?

"Dear Jamie,

Thank you for contacting Waves Tech Support.

Looking in your Waves account, I see you recovered your licenses on 02/04/2020. Since the recovery option is only available once a year per license, they note that they're not recoverable.

If you haven't changed any hardware on your computer (specifically the network adapter and motherboard), your licenses should still be available on your computer. Please follow the steps in the Computer Appears as Disconnected Device in Waves Central article on our Support page to retrieve them".

When I bought my new gpu I had to format and it was a massive headache trying to figure out how to fix the issue.

I then received this email......

"We’d like to let you know that your Waves Update Plan for the following product/s will expire in 14 days, on 3/26/2020:".

I know for a fact that you don't lose your purchase and you only lose any new updates. But if I renew I might be able to get a new licence for my products. 2020 and they still use the same licence procedure.

kmetal Fri, 03/13/2020 - 15:21

When your plan expires, you don't lose anything you have currently. You just don't get any new updates. So if you bought version 10, and version 11 came out during your update plan, you still keep 11 when the update plan expires.

You've got to ask waves if you can recover your licenses immediately when you renew your plan.

jamie Lofts Fri, 03/13/2020 - 15:46

Messaged them twice over it and one of them is already on its current version. Tbh I shouldn't need to update anything if I already purchased them. Updates are not mandatory and I don't want to be forced into it just to get my licence back. As mentioned, it's not the first time this has happened and I'm sure it wouldn't be the last if upgraded something else in my pc. It wouldn't suprise me if Waves was the culprit for my Cubase randomly closing but, that is a pure guess. I think I would rather move on and not deal with a ridiculous licence model. I only really needed the delay and reverb. Abbey roads mastering was a bonus but I'm sure I can manage without that.

kmetal Fri, 03/13/2020 - 17:01

Yeah i don't like upgrade fees either, but its just a part of software. I just spent 325$ to update about 60 of my waves pluggins, so now they are all on v11, and the expiration date is all right around the same time for the 100+ i have from waves.

The good thing is you don't have to keep the update plan going all the time, just for major updates. The only reason i did was so all my titles were available in the waves portal for easy installation and activation.

When your doing any updates to your system you can just de-activate the waves stuff till its running stable again. You might find a high quality usb stick to be better than the computer hardware authorization, but im not sure which is worse.

What pains me about waves is 1- they only allow one activation per pluggin, so i have to buy several of the same plug for all my various machines, and 2- the 240$ upgrade fee limit doesn't apply to duplicate titles, meaning i have to pay more than the limit to upgrade stuff since i have multiple titles. The workaround is to buy a bundle, that includes the pluggin, and the single pluggin, since waves doesnt count this as a duplicate.

Its probably cheaper to get the 3 plugs on sale than pay the upgrade fee if all you have is those 3 plugs.

Usually Audiodeluxe.com is the cheapest place and the plugs you mentioned frequently go on sale for 17-22$ depending on the sale.

fabfilter, isotope, and think d16 allow unlimited installs of their plugs, so while occasionally they do have a paid upgrade version, if your computer dies at least you can just re-install with no fuss.

Digital audio entails planned obsolescence, so its up to us to account for that when setting up the budget for a system, since total cost of ownership can double over the lifespan of an average computer, if you keep up do date with software. Updates are not often necessary so thats a plus.

Upgrade fees suck bro, but its just part of the show. The companies like waves that are leaches/not fair, will be the first ones i drop if i ever reach those budget constraints.

jamie Lofts Fri, 03/13/2020 - 17:26

kmetal, post: 463614, member: 37533 wrote: Yeah i don't like upgrade fees either, but its just a part of software. I just spent 325$ to update about 60 of my waves pluggins, so now they are all on v11, and the expiration date is all right around the same time for the 100+ i have from waves.

The good thing is you don't have to keep the update plan going all the time, just for major updates. The only reason i did was so all my titles were available in the waves portal for easy installation and activation.

When your doing any updates to your system you can just de-activate the waves stuff till its running stable again. You might find a high quality usb stick to be better than the computer hardware authorization, but im not sure which is worse.

What pains me about waves is 1- they only allow one activation per pluggin, so i have to buy several of the same plug for all my various machines, and 2- the 240$ upgrade fee limit doesn't apply to duplicate titles, meaning i have to pay more than the limit to upgrade stuff since i have multiple titles. The workaround is to buy a bundle, that includes the pluggin, and the single pluggin, since waves doesnt count this as a duplicate.

Its probably cheaper to get the 3 plugs on sale than pay the upgrade fee if all you have is those 3 plugs.

Usually Audiodeluxe.com is the cheapest place and the plugs you mentioned frequently go on sale for 17-22$ depending on the sale.

fabfilter, isotope, and think d16 allow unlimited installs of their plugs, so while occasionally they do have a paid upgrade version, if your computer dies at least you can just re-install with no fuss.

Digital audio entails planned obsolescence, so its up to us to account for that when setting up the budget for a system, since total cost of ownership can double over the lifespan of an average computer, if you keep up do date with software. Updates are not often necessary so thats a plus.

Upgrade fees suck bro, but its just part of the show. The companies like waves that are leaches/not fair, will be the first ones i drop if i ever reach those budget constraints.

Sadly I've already reached that point and it's probably lucky that I only use certain effects which may I add are very good. Sure you have the hiss to get rid of which is a easy fix but I did hear that it uses a lot of cpu. I'm rocking a Intel i7 8600 so I'm unsure how true that is. I've already shopped for a Reverb which I will install tomorrow. Fractal Fas-Fx Reverb is on offer atm so I snapped it up. I just need to get a nice delay. I've downloaded some TAL plugins that are going free and seem highly recommended. EchoBoy and EchoBoy jr seem to be top rated delay if I want to pay out that bit extra. I still need to purchase Omnisphere and with how work is going...... Its going to be tough and Its probably why I'm a bit peeved lately. But once I'm sorted with those 3, I should be happy.

kmetal Fri, 03/13/2020 - 19:35

jamie Lofts, post: 463616, member: 51509 wrote: Sadly I've already reached that point and it's probably lucky that I only use certain effects which may I add are very good. Sure you have the hiss to get rid of which is a easy fix but I did hear that it uses a lot of cpu. I'm rocking a Intel i7 8600 so I'm unsure how true that is. I've already shopped for a Reverb which I will install tomorrow. Fractal Fas-Fx Reverb is on offer atm so I snapped it up. I just need to get a nice delay. I've downloaded some TAL plugins that are going free and seem highly recommended. EchoBoy and EchoBoy jr seem to be top rated delay if I want to pay out that bit extra. I still need to purchase Omnisphere and with how work is going...... Its going to be tough and Its probably why I'm a bit peeved lately. But once I'm sorted with those 3, I should be happy.

Cubase doesn't have a decent stock delay? Oddly the only delay i find special is the H Delay, simply because it seems to have a good tonal quality. Other than that i feel like one delay is as good as the other, provided it doesn't degrade the sound.

I personally don't like sound toys pluggins, i feel they have a grainy sound.

kmetal Fri, 03/13/2020 - 19:45

Pluggin boutique is giving a free bundle away with any purchase.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/81-Bundle/84-Mix-Master/6178-SoundSpot-Creative-Mixing-Collection

Its got delay, chorus, and more, plus a cool pluggin that can turn up some drums individually even if there in a stereo loop.

The izotope (exponential audio) pheonix verb is good sounding and on sale for $10. It was made by someone who formerly worked for lexicon developing their hardware and pluggin verbs.

For 10$ you can cover your needs. I got both a couple weeks ago at pluggin boutique.

jamie Lofts Sat, 03/14/2020 - 15:50

I tried everything I could. Nothing more I can try and Waves customer service isn't giving me much hope. I've already moved forward tbh and bought a very nice reverb. I'm just looking for a new delay now. Been trying some free ones but I'm not feeling it yet. I'll keep posted if I find something interesting. But the fas fx reverb.......very nice with lots of options to tweak.