More whining about waves

[Elektronisch]

Sure, all my licenses are on a USB drive, but it really is terrifying to start moving that sucker around, especially when it's dangling precariously out of the side of my MacBook.

https://www.mymemory.ie/integral-128gb- ... gKDBPD_BwE

or anything similar.

Hmm if you can move licences to any usb, that means that after moving you can just clone usb (like clone disk) as a backup maybe?

[The Noodlist]

Hmm if you can move licences to any usb, that means that after moving you can just clone usb (like clone disk) as a backup maybe?

If it can happen, the system is flawed.
I might be possible restoring to the device that was originally backed up.

[chk071]

Yeah. Surely not as secure as eLicenser or iLok though.

[The Noodlist]

The USB serial number and volume ID would most probably play a part. And if a device is cloned and attempted to be used, curl.exe would most probably phone home to Waves.

[tovokas]

Thanks for pointing out smaller (or armored) USB drives that are safer alternatives: that should have been obvious. But I think it illustrates out how many of us who didn’t come from an ‘iLok drive’ background have simply never had to worry about protecting against a single point of failure for our licenses.

[chk071]

I just copied my licenses to a USB stick. Super easy stuff, and takes up a mere 3 KB on the stick, which doesn't even need a re-format, or something similar. They just can reside aside of existing files on the stick.

Only thing i wonder is what happens to the licenses in case the stick breaks, or you accidentally format it with the licenses on it. But... as those licenses are in your Waves account anyway, i figure it'd be easy enough to restore them?

[robotmonkey]

I just copied my licenses to a USB stick. Super easy stuff, and takes up a mere 3 KB on the stick, which doesn't even need a re-format, or something similar. They just can reside aside of existing files on the stick.

Only thing i wonder is what happens to the licenses in case the stick breaks, or you accidentally format it with the licenses on it. But... as those licenses are in your Waves account anyway, i figure it'd be easy enough to restore them?

Yes, you can initiate a license recovery from the Waves Central. The only caveat is that you can do this once a year.

[chk071]

Thanks. Unlikely that i break more than one USB drive per year.

[heyheycnv]

I'd really prefer waves activation on more than one machine at a time. No question about that.

[The Noodlist]

I just copied my licenses to a USB stick. Super easy stuff, and takes up a mere 3 KB on the stick, which doesn't even need a re-format, or something similar. They just can reside aside of existing files on the stick.

Only thing i wonder is what happens to the licenses in case the stick breaks, or you accidentally format it with the licenses on it. But... as those licenses are in your Waves account anyway, i figure it'd be easy enough to restore them?

Accidental format, I always back mine up when adding a new product license.
This is done using Ubuntu disk utility. I also put the V9 offline installers on the USB stick.
Not had to restore yet, I would imagine it would work.

[The Noodlist]

I've got a whine, Waves Doubler, 12 instances found by Plugindoctor.
It would be nice if all instances could be consolidated into one, with the choice to install VST3 only, and vice versa.
I suppose they could get hidden in the DAW.

[Ploki]

I've got a whine, Waves Doubler, 12 instances found by Plugindoctor.
It would be nice if all instances could be consolidated into one, with the choice to install VST3 only, and vice versa.
I suppose they could get hidden in the DAW.

oh, AU, AAX, VST2, VST3, and every version is also m-m, m-s, s-s right?
I don't get how waves handles channels, it's literally the only plugin that does this.

[scipherneo]

Waves just can't keep up with the times. On busy days I will swap between my laptop and desktop several times; I might even end up on 3 or 4 different computers total over the day depending on who I'm working with and I might make 10-12 switches between systems total. This means I am required to keep my licenses on a USB as transferring them back and forth that many times isn't reasonable. Ok, no big deal.

Then, I also have to keep the installers for all of my plugins backed up on a USB as well, because they are v9 and completely unsupported by the Waves Central client. Now I'm picking through individual installers when I work on someone else's system to install my plugs, and watching that I don't accidentally install something they have a newer or older version of because that's liable to break them both.

Oh yeah, then I have to be sure I completely and totally uninstall them from any system that isn't mine because if I don't they'll end up getting pop ups every time they start their DAW. Then they'll go install Waves Central to try and get rid of them, only to find it doesn't even recognize the plugins as existing. They'll start digging through their AAX folder until they realize Waves likes to hide their shells in every possible spot for plugins that your system has, in addition to one that 90% of plugins never make use of.

And then to top it off, you're provided with only a single activation during a time where 2 is standard, and a lot of companies even will throw you a 3rd if you ask especially nice.

Some of these points are obviously extremes and don't happen to someone after they encounter the issue once; however, the market is absurdly competitive right now and there are maybe 2 or 3 plugins left that I haven't been able to find an equal or greater replacement for.

Yeah, I've learned how to minimize these issues and deal with Waves in my workflow. But these days, why should I?