Plugin Boutique offers a massive 95% off the Waves Platinum Bundle using the coupon code PBPLAT98.
The offer ends on September 19, 2024, so you’ll have to act fast to take advantage of the huge discount.
It’s worth noting that you can find the Platinum Bundle listed with significantly varied price tags from one source to another. The Plugin Boutique list price is £1,885, and the discount takes it down to just £78. Other sources list it at around £250, give or take a little.
Whatever you feel about the £1,885 price tag, £78 is a good price for a bundle that includes 60 plugins for mixing, mastering, and music production.
The Platinum Bundle includes every plugin from the Gold collection plus eighteen more.
The Platinum Bundle features instruments like the Electric Grand 80 Piano, and although it’s been around for years, it’s still a very fair representation of an iconic sound. From Genesis, That’s All to D’Angelo’s Sugah Daddy, the Yamaha CP-80 is the driving force behind so many hits.
Of course, the Platinum Bundle is more about processing tools than instruments, but it’s nice to have a bit of everything.
Some of the most popular Waves plugins are included in the bundle, which have become workhorses for many producers and engineers, like the C4 Multiband Compressor and H-Delay.
The collection covers most things, from transient control to maximizing loudness, compression, EQ, reverb, delay, and more. You also get vintage emulations, like PuigTec EQ (Pultec EQ).
Those into vintage emulations, check out Lotus Sound Audio’s LA2-FOX compressor.
I have some Waves plugins, but not a significant amount; it is a small collection of recommendations, and I’ve always had mixed feelings.
I have some of the Abbey Road stuff, a few core plugins, and Submarine, which multiple people recommended. I quite liked Submarine, and I want to be convinced to get more into Waves plugins because some of my favourite producers use many of them, making me think I’m missing a trick.
But, issues with version updates and strange pricing often prevent me from getting started. One of my absolute turn-offs is the seemingly perpetual limited-time offers running across the website banner that feels unapologetically disingenuous.
However, oxymoronic banners aside, a good deal is a good deal, and now I might finally be stepping into the world of Waves.
What are your thoughts on the Platinum Bundle and Waves plugins in general?
Check out the deal: Waves Platinum Bundle (95% off until September 19th using the coupon code PBPLAT98)
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18 Comments
Andy
onI’ve heard that Waves Audio was notorious for its limited license/updates on purchased plugins. I really like the quality of Waves plugins, and I’m seriously thinking about purchasing this bundle, but if someone could provide clarity on why many people do not like Waves before I make my decision, that would be great.
samers
onjust look up WUP, or waves update plan, read through the 1000’s of forum and reddit posts, and you’ll see why
Andy
onWow that is a pretty shtty policy. I don’t know any other plugin company that does that.
mx
onmy personal opinion to all that waves discussion is:
waves makes sense for live mixing engineers who earn money with their sound grid servers, or professional studios that use them really every day.
but i would not start buying waves for the hobby. i dont think their pricing and update policy is as bad as some people see it, but nevertheless doesnt feel right to me.
the thing is, when you buy a waves plugin, that version is supposed to work at least as long as you dont change your system and software environment. maybe you are one of the people who keep the same thing running for ten years, then you dont have to pay every year.
and also with other developers you always have the same risk when they decide to stop updating a plugin from their end. at least with waves you can update it for not too much money…
i dont have much personal experience with waves plugins, just use their freebies once a year or so for fun, so i cannot tell about reliability. but actually i would expect that their plugins are very stable from what i see in live shows, and to be honest i cannot imagine that many people have the same problem on a regular base like alex in his comment. i would rather expect big system or software changes or other compatibility problems or something like that as responsible causes for a plugin “to meticulously stop working” whenever he opens a project.
if i started again from scratch with my personal plugin experience now, i would first get a fabfilter bundle as technical basis, and then spend money on analog emulations or other fun stuff from softube, audiothing, plugin alliance, baby audio, wavesfactory, klevgrand and arturia. these are my favourites among some others that i just have one single plugin for one special purpose.
mx
on…forgot soundtoys, also nice plugins for playing around.
sz-g
onWhat you think about IK Multimedia’s plugins, Total Studio 4 MAX for example?
mx
oni never got too much into them because of their bundle thinking: single plugins are quite expensive compared to the big bundles, and the bundles are actually too big for me.
and i am also not a fan of installing a lot and then manually removing most of it when i just want to install one thing.
but the mixing plugins (freebies) i tried i quite liked from what i remember, they have nice plugin features like these m/s buttons and that stuff in the corner for example, good interface an controllability and sounded good to me.
Bani
onThis doesn’t mean you’ll have problems though. I haven’t had any. No extra money needed since I bought the plugins like… ten years ago now.
Crappy either way, but there are some plugs I’d buy again in a heartbeat, even if there is a small risk of WUP issues.
Alex
ontheir DRM is a nightmare- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened a project only to have my Waves plugins mysteriously stop working because some change has been made without my consent or knowledge and I have to spend several unpaid hours (or even days) trying to correct the issue and hope that Waves decides to answer my support questions in time before I have to completely redo the mix with plugins that I know won’t have the same issues
The last time this issue happened I even sent them a lengthy complaint explaining that it would be fiscally irresponsible of me to continue using their plugins in a professional capacity because of how unreliable they are and their Orwellian business practices have forced me to find a lot of free plugins to replace them because I know I can count on them to not have absurdly invasive DRM trying to protect plugins that are almost two decades old in a lot of cases
I love a lot of their plugins and have been using them forever, but I have never have had more issues and been more frustrated than I have been by Waves’s products and for this reason I’ve reluctantly begun to wean myself off of them
SCOTT GARLAND
onGreat plugins, rubbish update policy….
But the plugins are great, so it’s a tossup
Robin
onI bought Waves Platinum when they had a similar deal before. Maybe it’s just me, but I never ended up using any of their plugins besides for some playing around. The pack has a lot of content, but pretty much all of it has equal, or better alternatives you probably already have. Could be I just haven’t discovered the magic yet though.
Origin Makers
onThis is a good deal… But am more interested in Renaissance and Gold bundles… The extra plugins in this bundle wont be of much use to me… I remember Gold bundle sold as low as 50$ which is a great deal… Waiting for black friday..
Anonymus
onI‘ve been producing for over 20 years and my verdict is: if you don‘t absolutely need Waves Plugins, don‘t get them. Look for alternatives first. And in case you‘re just starting with music production, get Logic and a Mac and enjoy all the incredible tools that are included. Don‘t get seduced by nice gui‘s ;)
Mdav
onNot a nice company to deal with. They totally blew it with me with their WUP nonsense, like Alex said for some it can be a professional issue, and honestly a number of these plugins are just old now. There’s a great list of alternatives to their plugs here:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1–yRZdWro_d28LmYNvaWsVct7CR6Y_KAULFU8wZ4SEI/edit?gid=0#gid=0.
Also, get on the mailings lists of/just buy from the likes of TDR, Klanghelm, Melda, JS if you use Reaper, etc. and be done with Waves. And of course, there’s always the likes of Analog Obsession and the excellent Airwindows if it’s a cost thing.
Ian / Nihil Quest
onWhen I started about 20 years ago I used to lust after these plugins. And to have Platinium for 100$, wow. But now they can give it away for free and I won’t take take them. I was reminded how much of a pain in the ass Waves are by their free Berzerker plugin. It was cool buty not worth the trouble. Never again, unless somebody more reliable buys the company.
Isaak
onTo be honest, I am hesitating to buy from a company that is located in a country which seems to be engaged in warfare…
mx
onin my humble opinion there is a lot of thinking left open in this thought and then this is also not a suitable place here for starting a discussion about it, excuse me.
Arangutang Stepanovich
onSample Tank 4 for 1€ from Humble Bundle . 🤯