Waves Vocal Rider at $29?

[alexis1]

Howdy - my buddy saw that Waves price and asked me whether that's a good buy. I've got MAutoVolume which I like, but since it's a fair amount more expensive, I don't know whether it brings enough extra to the table that I can recommend it above Vocal Rider.

Thoughts - is it worth the extra $ to buy MAutoVolume?

Thanks!

[steve2KVR]

...wouldn't that depend on your buddy and his needs?...don't know him, so hard to say...both have trials, so maybe some experimentation is in order.../s~

[Chandlerhimself]

I'd say yes it is. MAutovolume has more features and can be used on many different sources. Vocal rider is tuned for vocals, but MAutovolume can be used on bass, guitar, vocals, etc. It can also be used for things like de-essing and reducing plosives.

On top of that if you catch it during an eternal madness sale I believe it's cheaper than Vocal Rider.

[alexis1]

He's a little bit less facile in DAW-land than I, meaning he's an intermediate user on most forums (plankton level, nay - unicellular, on this forum though ).

Good points on the increased versatility of MAutoVolume, Mr. Chandler Himself. Not having used Vocal Rider myself I wouldn't know if, limiting a comparison to vocals only, the actual quality of the results would be different between the two. Anyone here with experience on both?

Thanks again!

[DocSnyder]

The majority of people using plugins and daws all the time consider melda plugins as overwhelming, bloated and with very steep learning curve. Do you think it's a great idea to recommend such plugins to someone who's not even that firm with his daw?

[werzel]

If he's not firm with his DAW I'd recommend NO plugins, learn what is already there first.

[alexis1]

Thanks for all the thoughts!

Mr. Chandlerhimself is the only one to try both?

[DocSnyder]

Thanks for all the thoughts!

No one here has used/tried both?

I used Vocal Rider. It can write it's automation which comes very handy. And it works pretty quick just with some minor tweaks...

[steve2KVR]

...I own and have used 4/5 of the gain riders that are out there...and have settled on the MAV mostly for the reasons Chandler mentions...notwithstanding all that, my advice given above (and in several prior threads) stands as is...hth.../s~

[alexis1]

Ok, thanks. What I've taken away from all the helpful comments is:

1) Since it remains unmentioned, there is no difference in audio quality between the two,
2) Waves Vocal Rider is mentioned as having an advantage of write automation, also less expensive (I didn't think the Eternal Madness sales ever gets MAutoVolume less expensive than around $40-50, does it?).
3) MAutoVolume has the advantage of being applicable to other audio sources besides vocals.

Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of that ... thank you for your helpful comments!

[Chandlerhimself]

1). All they do is adjust the volume, so there should be any difference in audio quality.

2). MAV can’t write automation, so that’s an advantage for vocal rider. MAV is normally €50 so half off is 25. I think that should be about $30, but I might be off by a dollar or 2.

3). That’s correct.

[MeldaProduction]

I'll just note that the automation was degrading audio quality - hosts are just not designed to automate machine generated data. They simplify it, lower accuracy (Logic...), some of them even freeze after receiving all the data. It may be sort of ok with VocalRider, since it is very slow, but MAutoVolume can also be very fast, in which case the automation destroys the whole thing...
And it's pointless , you can just automate the output gain...

[Andy Gone]

Ok, thanks. What I've taken away from all the helpful comments is:

1) Since it remains unmentioned, there is no difference in audio quality between the two,
2) Waves Vocal Rider is mentioned as having an advantage of write automation, also less expensive (I didn't think the Eternal Madness sales ever gets MAutoVolume less expensive than around $40-50, does it?).
3) MAutoVolume has the advantage of being applicable to other audio sources besides vocals.

Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of that ... thank you for your helpful comments!

Actually you can apply Vocal Rider to other sources. I use it for clarinet and sax for example. The idea is that Vocal Rider is optimized for vocal performance.

Writing automation option is nice to have, not only because you can save CPU after, but you can then edit it 'on top' of what Vocal Rider has written.

I don't know if anybody mentioned that Vocal Rider can be side-chained (like you send music except vocals to a send and use it to side-chain the Vocal Rider), but I think MAutoVolume has similar thing.

[SGWork]

VocalRider is for lazy idiots and MAutoVolume for geniuses. I happen to fit the first category.

My 2cnts

[sirmonkey]

I myself have plugin-itis. There are so many cool plugins out there. And I, like many others, have way more plugins than I will ever get around to using.
I suggest watching the tutorial video on MAutoVolume (if you didn't already). It really not the most complex to use.
Also, you can of course use two instances of MAutovolume, one right after the other, to get what you want.

I think that with a bit of practice, you'll get as much, and more with MAutoVolume. Nothing against Waves though. $29.00 isn't a ton of money compared to many plugins, but if I could only have one, I would go with MAutoVolume.