Waves CLA Compressors quick review

[mrtomcat]

So I had the great privelige to visit Chirs Lord Alge's studio last night as part of the Waves promotion for the CLA Classic Compressors Plug Ins.

In a nutshell Waves took 4 of his favorite compressors (LA2A, 1176 black, 1176 blue and a LA3A) and did their emulation thing. He demonstrated the plug ins on a new Daughtry and a new Greenday song he just finished (that was pretty damn cool).

First impression was very good, the texture was nice and I was pretty impressed. Since there was a promotional sale attached to the attendance for today I went home and downloaded the demo's to compare them to my UAD2 versions.

Unfortunately (or fortunately because I saved some money...) there really was no difference sonically. I had to drive the uad's a bit more to get the same sound but other than the Blue, which the UAD2 does not have, they sounded pretty much identical. Which is great news for waves fans that don't have the UAD2 plug ins but for UAD2 peeps there is absolutey no need to get the waves plug ins.

On top of that in order to install the demo which is waves version 6, I had to uninstall my Rennaisonce MAxx version 5's...which sucked.
So if I were to go the route of getting the CLA's I would have also had to spend the $149 to upgrade my Renn...plug ins to 6 which from what I read is not giving me any new features, nor 64 bit support and therefore 0 reason to upgrade...so I uninstalled the demo and reinstalled my version 5 renn's


In summary: CLA is a cool guy and what a beautyful studio it is....Protools is ugly...seeing it on the projector and the amount of fussing around they had to do for something I can do with one click in Nuendo with a nice looking mixer made me feel good...
WAVES CLA is very good if you do NOT have the UAD plugs, save your money if you DO...

hope this helps some that were interested in these

[Animus]

thanks tomcat. Pretty much what I suspected.

[fishtank]

Unfortunately (or fortunately because I saved some money...) there really was no difference sonically. I had to drive the uad's a bit more to get the same sound but other than the Blue, which the UAD2 does not have, they sounded pretty much identical. Which is great news for waves fans that don't have the UAD2 plug ins but for UAD2 peeps there is absolutey no need to get the waves plug ins. .



Sorry....but I gotta disagree with you on this one. I've had the UAD 1176, LA2A/LA3A plugs for years now and the new Waves stuff is much better. I recently replaced a UA LA3A on a vocal track with the Waves version and the difference was quite impressive. The Waves version sounded a fair amount better and much closer to what the real hardware sounds like. Plus, the Waves CLA plugs add zero....that's ZERO (0!) samples of latency to the track and the CPU load is not bad either. The UA plugs add considerable latency and the UAD-1/UAD-2 hardware are more than a bit fussy with many systems and impede low latency operation of the host.

UA needs to get the UAD-2 hardware issues completely sorted out (which is starting to seem like an impossible task) or release native versions of the plug-ins.

[Animus]

The Waves version sounded a fair amount better and much closer to what the real hardware sounds like.

Seems to me like each real vintage hardware unit are different from each other too. :icon_razz:

[fishtank]

Whatever.....

The Waves CLA comps sound much better - period. Why not just try them out and judge for yourself? Kind of silly to take one single biased review and write them off without even hearing them.

FWIW - I think the Waves versions of the Neve EQ's are no better than the UA stuff...just a bit different sounding, but both are good. The same cannot be said for the CLA versions as they are some of the best plug-in compressor emulations to date and a big improvement over the UA versions.

[Animus]

I never said I was writing them off. I've seen other reviews and listened to all the shootouts. They are just different not necessarily better. But you are right, everyone should judge for themselves. It's just Waves are a suckass company and if you don't mind paying the wup extortion then more power to you. People make great mixes with the UAD and it isn't like having the latest greatest plugin innovations that sound a wee bit closer to the those 30+ year old past innovations are going to make your mixes sound any better.

[fishtank]

It's just Waves are a suckass company and if you don't mind paying the wup extortion then more power to you.

It's about time someone started trashing Waves for the WUP in this thread as I was beginning to lose faith!

Obviously, you're a Waves hater. I would guess that you have no intention of ever using a Waves product. That's all fine and cool, but you were real quick to dismiss the fact that these may be killer plug-ins. And FYI - these are not just "a wee bit closer" as you have stated without even trying them - they are substantially better. But, you will probably never try them as you are heavily biased against them for who knows what reason (is it just all the stupid crap that is spread around the internet?).

I own 4 UAD-1's with a Magma and the majority of the UA plug-ins. UA makes same fantastic stuff, but the UAD-2 has been a real disappointment for those of us who would like to run low latencies (32 sample buffer) with UA plugs in the project. I'm not talking about using them on tracks that I'm recording on - just having any in the project on previously recorded tracks. I track full bands in the studio all the time and need PT TDM type performance for monitoring. Even my old Q6700 Core2 Quad will run 32 sample buffer settings with a fair amount plug-ins running. The $1500 UAD Quad will cripple this system at low latencies - that pretty much just sucks ass. Also, the cost of the UA plug-ins are really not any better than the Waves stuff these days.

I started with the Waves Native Power Pack back in about 1997-98. Over the years I upgraded the bundle and now have the Mercury + SSL (pretty much everything they make). I probably have a little over $5K in it total. I've paid for WUP a total of 2 to maybe 3 times in the 11-12 years I've had Waves, and the most recent WUP payment I made in August was about $225. You are in no way required or obligated to pay the WUP, yet you call it "extortion" which is pure BS. As the owner of the Mercury bundle I've gotten the following plug-ins at no extra charge in the last year: CLA Comps, Eddie Kramer Series, Maserati Series, Waves Center, Dorrough Meters, and API Collection among others. All these for a mere $225 WUP fee - that really does suck ;-)

UA requires that you run their plug-ins on their hardware. The new UAD-2 Quad is $1500 and can be highly problematic in certain systems and @ low latencies. The plug-in's from UA are often $150-$200 or more each and it doesn't take long to invest thousands of dollars in their products. With the performance of native processing these days the writing is on the wall. UA has obviously been highly successful due to the fact that people cannot pirate the software so they choose to stay with the DSP platform - but at what cost? I would love it if they just released native versions and would even pay them a bit extra to get the plug-in's I already own in that format.

This unconditional love for UA just amazes me....just as the unconditional hatred for Waves. I have both and like both companies, though I do admit that I am more than a bit frustrated with UA lately.

I expect these kind of biased reviews and Waves bashing over at the UA Fourms - I had just hoped that here things could be a little more objective........silly me!

[Animus]

WUP is extortion in a lot cases I have seen. I am speaking of the many instances I have seen of people being forced to upgrade just to reauthorize their existing version. If you were still on Nuendo 3 for example, and your dongle broke and Steinberg told you that you'd have to upgrade to Nuendo 4 for them to fix it would you be okay with that?

And a lot of those freebies are just re-badged code they slap some name brand mixer on it. I have tried the Waves SSL, NEve and API plugs. They were "alright". I sort of liked the api2500. However, the plugin sounded nothing like the real hardware unit it models which I had in the studio at the time.

[OpenMind]

I have no experience with UAD... Thought about it, but concluded that plug-ins don't need sub-processors anymore on todays computers.

I hate the Waves company, because they only care about bussiness... but I love their daughters... eeeh... plugins :icon_cool:

Very happy with Platinum bundle, Studio Classics Collection (Great emulations!!), JJP collection (very nice too!) and L3-16 bundle.
I'm considering an upgrade to Mercury about every month... but I don't need the restoration and surround plugins, so at this moment I like to keep the 5000+ euros update fee in my bank account for a while...
Maybe I'll buy the seperate CLA bundle first and exchange it for a Mercury deal on a later date :icon_cool:

[Sam]

Call me wooden ears but I have a rack full of the stuff that UA emulate sitting right there in my mix room, and damn they have done a very very good job. I have compared 1176's, their SSL buscomp, the FATSO, the Neve EQ's, RE-201, and the Plate. All were slightly different but only in as much as I have seen many HW units vary between themselves!

Sure there are Waves bashers, but there are equal amounts of UAD bashers too!

The thing that really stood out for me - I work with a rock producer of quite some note most of my days. He was the biggest plugin hater I ever met. In 5 years of working together we have come from only mixing through a Neve board with a huge room full of outboard, to mixing semi ITB in Nuendo with a fully loaded UAD2 Quad and my rack of HW. He loves the fatso and EMT250, the Neve EQ's too. And the RE-201 finds itself on every track I mix with him. He has never pulled a 'bad taste in my mouth' face when I have used the UAD1176LN

I still go through the hardware stuff for most of the heavy lifting, and most definately haven't found a plugin replacement for my C2 on the mixbuss, but for all the other bits and corrections, and FX I have to say I have been extremely pleased with the UA emu's - and yes that is with much of the stuff they emu sitting in a rack next to me. The convenience of opening another instance of the plug often outweighs sonic benifit of me patching up and recording a print. Especially since much of the time now I have to try to mix two songs a day.....so that is saying something....

UA support for me has been second to none, you just dont hear the horror stories like you do with Waves.....they have always responded immediately and I have never been refused a request for info, demo resets, whatever......why do so many people have such horrific Waves support stories? Probably the same reason people have horror Steini support stories....the customer is wrong!

phew! rant over! Back to mixing! (with lowly UAD emus no less :icon_eek3:)

have a good day gents!

[fishtank]

phew! rant over! Back to mixing! (with lowly UAD emus no less :icon_eek3:)


Hey Sam - I'm glad you are happy with the your UAD-2 and it's nice of you stop by and share your positive experiences, but will all due respect, did you even read my post carefully? I am a UAD user and actually love their plug-ins - my main frustration is the issues with the hardware and its effects on low latency operation of the host. You're making it sound as if I'm completely trashing the UA plug-ins and that is simply not true.

Now, back to the original subject of this post - have you personally tried out the new Waves CLA emus against the UA versions? I have both and was amazed to see someone claim that there is no difference between them. I strongly disagree with the original posters opinion on this and thought I'd share my experience as I own both versions. I've been quite happy with the UA 1176/LA2A/LA3A emu's in the past and while I can't say they sound as good as the *real* hardware I've used, they have been very useful and sound great. Waves recently released the CLA versions and while I was curious as to how they would sound, I was not expecting them to be much better than the UA stuff - just a bit different. When I started using these I was absolutely stunned by how great they sounded as I did not expect them to be that damn good. Is it a crime to actually prefer these over the UA counterparts??? Sure does seem like it....

As far as support goes, I know Waves has had a checkered past and they are in no way anywhere near perfect, but I do believe that they have improved quite a bit over the last few years and also reduced their WUP fees by a fair amount. I, personally have not had any real issues with Waves support, but as good as UA is I've not been totally satisfied with them either. I emailed UA support many, many months ago about the UAD-2 host loading issues at low latencies and they NEVER even bothered to respond (with the exception of the canned response acknowledging the receipt of my email). Not to mention the fact that I have to upgrade to the UAD-2 to use many of the latest plug-ins UA is releasing - this is an expensive requirement and not all that much different than Waves asking for a WUP fee for the latest version of their software (as it is software only). I have a good deal of money invested in my 4 UAD-1's and Magma chassis and I'm not too thrilled about spending more money on new hardware just to be able to run plug-ins I still have to purchase as well - plus the fact that this new hardware will adversely affect the low latency performance of my DAW!

Again now, back to the original subject - does anyone who has actually used both the Waves CLA and UA counterparts have any honest, unbiased and informative comments on how they compare? This has nothing to do with whether WUP sucks, Waves is a suckass company or how great the UA plug-ins are in general...

[Animus]

Cool. I will get the trial version of CLA on my ilok and check it out. I am sure they will sound good.

Have you tried the new UA Fatso emulation? wow! Now that thing does what nothing else does in the plugin world. You got to realize stuff like the UAD 1176 and LA2a are almost 10 years old. They still hold up pretty well. But it is rumored that UA are working on mkII version of all the older plugins, incorporating the new advances they have made.

[mrtomcat]

This cracks me up...

my post was not intended to create a bitter battle between UA and WAVES lovers and haters, it was my first impression after using BOTH side by side on a project.

Let me reiterate: the waves CLA stuff was great but it did not justify spending $600 on it on top of the UA plugins that I am very happy with.

Now I do want to stress again that it took me over 3 hours to get my system back to it's original state because the CLA FORCES you to uninstall your version 5 and you need to upgrade...when my iLok did not let me get my version 5 running again, I tried to contact waves customer support but was told they would not support me unless I paid the $148 to upgrade to version 6 first, which defeated the purpose.

So even if the CLA would be superior, which they are NOT, I would think 20 times before ever purchasing a waves product again.