Waves stole my plugins!

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Randy
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Waves stole my plugins!

Post by Randy » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:11 pm

Okay, so I had some system issues and I decided to do a complete wipe of my primary hard drive and reinstall all my software. I get to the point where I have to authorize my Waves Native Power Pack and the authorization I had no longer works. According to the user agreement and all the documentation files (so far as I can tell) as long as you have not changed hardware your authorization code should work.

I go to the Waves website and according to it, I have to pay a $95 upgrade fee and buy a $40 iLok to be able to use my software. After an email, they decide that they can give me an authorization for free as long as I spend $40 on an iLok.

I understand their issues with cracked software and I empathize. However, their authorization scheme was kludgy enough without having to now pay $40 and shipping to use software I already paid a lot of money for without any sort of guarantee that they won't hold it hostage again at a later date.

I'm thinking it's time to bail. Any thoughts?
not to worry, just keep tracking....

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JGriffin
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Post by JGriffin » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:14 pm

Waves is definitely one of the worst companies as far as authorizations and upgrades.
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Post by sonikbliss » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:42 pm

dwlb wrote:Waves is definitely one of the worst companies as far as authorizations and upgrades.
Definately. Waves has made a living screwing people over. They make some nice stuff but it's just not worth this headache for me. Even though they are sticking it to you again you'll probably get more for that $40 than you would if you spent it elsewhere. And they wonder why people steal from them......

Check out the Massey plugins if you're looking to get something new though, they're killer AND CHEAP!

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Post by Professor » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:48 pm

Joel and I had a post a while back where we were both expressing our contempt for the company and their sleazy business practices.
I had the same situation with a platinum bundle. Apparently my view of "permanent license" and theirs differ, but for me they wanted over $600 for like 3 months of their 'update plan' before they would move my license to the iLok (I already had one for PT). Even when I called and talked to one of their main guys, Barry Cohen, and reminded him that I'm a school. They still wouldn't move.
Neither did I, and I just abandoned the software.
It's a shame to have wasted that much money, but pouring more into it, especially for how infrequently I used the stuff, would have just been foolish.

As far as I'm concerned, they're a bunch of sleazy little thieves, and I hope their business suffers from their practices.

-Jeremy

*edited for grammatical errors because it's kind of a pet peeve
Last edited by Professor on Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Jeff White
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Post by Jeff White » Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:03 pm

Hello, and welcome to the WAVES iLok nightmare! :evil:

I f'ing hate WAVES as a company, but I love their plug-ins. I had the same thing happen to me (I was still in WUP) back in January when I upgraded my OS to Tiger. I had to go out and buy an iLok just to use plug-ins that worked fine before the upgrade, something that I said that I would never do. However, in doing so and having to go through the authorization etc, I discovered that under WUP I was entitled to a free IR-1/IR-L, and I paid them $10 and received two DVDs of IRs. I guess that I really shouldn't complain, right? I mean it must have been a goof, because I have both, and I was only supposed to get IR-L for free. Not sure how that happened.

I only have the Renn Max and Musicians Bundles, so I don't have that much invested in WAVES.

However, here's the deal. If my iLok dies, that's it. I have to repurchase. Why? WAVES does not cover your iLok or support iLok.com's insurance policy. As far as they are concerned, if your $40 iLok dies, well, you need to repurchase that Diamond Bundle (or Mercury bundle!!!) that you've been paying WUP for each year to keep current. That, my friends, is bullshit and worthy of a class action lawsuit in my book.

I will not put WAVES plugs on my PB, which I use for location recording, because I don't want my iLok to leave my house for fear of loss or damage. I use RenComp, RenVox, and IR-1 constantly on every mix that I do. Love those plugs. If I lose my iLok, by by mixes. Also, if I try to boot Digital Performer without an iLok attached to my computer, I have to click through WAVES error messages for an eternity before I can use DP. This is also worthy of a class action lawsuit in my book, because DP tends to be unstable without an iLok attached. Same with Live 5.2, error at startup, tons of click-throughs. Tons of bullshit. So no WAVES on the remote recording Powerbook.

The good thing is that the RenComp and RenVox can be had for $150 in the Musicians II Bundle, + $40 for iLok if a problem ever arises. Ir-1, though...

I plan on investing some money in some other company's plug-ins sometime in 2007. The Nomad Factory Blue Tubes Bundle has recently caught my eye. Ya know, a company that seems to care about the reason why they are still in business... their customers.

Jeff

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Post by jeddypoo » Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:49 pm

Edited as to not advocate anything unseemly, because you know, one doesn't speak of such things.

Waves' stuff is quite good, it's a shame they're such shysters, if you'll forgive the expression.
Last edited by jeddypoo on Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Randy
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Post by Randy » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:00 pm

ipressrecord wrote: I plan on investing some money in some other company's plug-ins sometime in 2007. The Nomad Factory Blue Tubes Bundle has recently caught my eye. Ya know, a company that seems to care about the reason why they are still in business... their customers.

Jeff
Yeah, I have a Powercore PCI card and I love the plugins on that, it's just a drag to deal with the latency issues. It's so easy to throw a Maximizer on a track to get it up to monitor level when tracking. I have been using the Waves stuff for quick and dirty tracking mixes, and the longer I have had the Powercore, the less I use the Waves. I guess this is the last straw, so to speak.
not to worry, just keep tracking....

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Aquaman
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waves ate my plugins

Post by Aquaman » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:21 pm

I just upgraded from the Digi001 Factory (squoze the most I could out of it, too). Digi happily added some permissions to my iLok so the old factory plugs (BF-LP, BF-2A etc) would still be honored - no problem.

Before I called Waves to see if they'd do the same, I talked with an experienced HD-using friend of mine about the process. Although he appreciates the quality of the Waves plug-ins, he has methodically researched and purchased replacements for everything Waves provided, and has subsequently excised their products from his system completely. All he would say to me was, "Prepare to be hosed".

So I called Waves, and sure enough, to continue my registration of the four 001 factory plugs, they wanted $350, and that would only be good for the next 18 months or so. To enable them forever would be something like $650!

Grrrrrrr.

I called my friend back afterwards, he asks: "Did you get hosed?" And I replied: "What do you think?" He only laughed.

Plus, I've heard that their proprietary iLok authorization system can f*&k up your other iLok permissions, and some folks recommend buying ANOTHER iLok exclusively for your Waves registration!

Great business model, guys. DIAF.

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Post by underthebigtree » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:05 pm

I had purchased the Waves TDM gold bundle for Pro Tools. A few years went by, I upgraded my PT system, asked them about the upgrade cost.

$2500.

I threw my now obsolete software in the garbage and have never looked back. I will never by a Waves product again.

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Post by Wilkesin » Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:39 pm

Wow...ethics....
Slider wrote:"we figured you'd want to use your drum samples and reamp through your amps anyway, so we didn't bother taking much time to get sounds".

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Post by lharless » Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:17 am

blue tubes, wavearts, the powercore stuff, massey plugins, what else is there? waves who?

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Post by Huntlabs » Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:25 am

I F-ing hate Wave and their bullcrap practices too. I bought the Platinum bundle and I'll use it with my 001 till it dies. (Had all sorts of problems getting it to work with my iLock, I paid for the phone calls, $45.00 worth) Of course I won't be able to use them with a 002 and PT 7 or higher, because you have to upgrade to the current Waves plugs.

Oh, and you cant sell them without rediculous transfer fees. Don't even think about it. To Waves you bought a license not the plugs.

Fuck I hate Waves. Can I say that on here or are we all PC and shit now?

John
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