Best Waves plugins: Top effects to improve all areas of your music making and mixing

If you are in need of a more professional sound in your mixes, or a specific effect, from a vintage compressor to a contemporary vocal tuning sound, Waves probably has the solution for you in one or more of its extensive range of plugins. The company produces everything from classic gear emulations to cutting edge special effects, and has become one of the most popular plugin developers as used by professional producers and engineers the world over. In this guide we're looking at the best Waves plugins for music production to find out which of its plugins can give your mixes that elusive professional edge.

Whether you are new to music making or an experienced producer, having a great selection of plugin effects in your armoury can make a big difference to your sound, creativity and workflow. Those that come with your DAW will cover many of the basics, but third party developers often specialise in different areas than those covered by your stock DAW plugins. Companies like Waves have vast numbers of plugins available for you to help you achieve pro results, but sometimes so many that they can be confusing. So with this guide we're revealing the best Waves plugins and which could best suit your effects rack and give your mixes and music productions a professional lift.

For each plugin in our buyer's guide we have also conducted an in-depth test, which is linked at the end of each review summary, so you can read these more comprehensive reviews before you buy.

Waves also has a two-tier subscription model called Waves Creative Access which grants you access to some/all Waves plugins for a monthly fee - including the plugins featured in this guide. We go into the ins and outs of this set-up at the bottom of this guide, where we also have more advice on buying plugins. Skip to that if you need to know more about plugin effects, or read on for our top Waves plugin picks and those which could transform your virtual effects rack.

The quick list

While we love everything on this list, if you want to get straight to the cream of the crop, these are the very best Waves plugins right now. 

The best Waves plugins available today

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Below you'll find full and detailed write-ups for each of the best Waves plugins in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

Best mixing plugin

Best Waves plugins: Waves CLA MixHub

(Image credit: Waves)

1. Waves CLA MixHub

A super-sounding emulation of a full channel strip on a famous SSL desk

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
'Buckets' system is great, genuinely emulating a full SSL console
+
Excellent SSL-style EQ, dynamics and analogue distortion

Reasons to avoid

-
Can't move between channel views

MixHub is an emulation of a full channel strip from Grammy-winning engineer Chris Lord-Alge's SSL 4000 series mixer. Incredibly, it lets you access up to 64 instances of the plugin via any single one of them, so a full SSL console is effectively recreated in a single window within the host DAW, conveniently grouped into banks of eight channels at a time, called ‘Buckets’.

The multitrack functionality is nothing short of revelatory, feeling like a natural replacement for the standard DAW mixer. Jumping between Buckets and modules is fast and intuitive, and there’s a real sense of empowerment that comes from being able to apply such high-end processing to the individual elements of a whole drum kit or vocal group.

CLA MixHub also sounds superb, exuding analogue warmth, depth and focus. Just like a real SSL, the EQ is easy to work with, while the extended Dynamics section gives plenty of enveloping options. CLA MixHub’s channel-aggregating approach works very well indeed, bringing your entire mix together in a single interface, and sounding fantastic along the way.

Read the full Waves CLA MixHub review

Best vocal plugin

Best Waves plugins: Waves Vocal Bender

(Image credit: Waves)

2. Waves Vocal Bender

Best plugin for producing contemporary modulated vocal effects

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Incredible levels of manipulation
+
Simple and accessible UI

Reasons to avoid

-
More complexity available elsewhere

Vocals that – to varying degrees – modify in pitch and intensity, distort, stutter and loop can be found almost anywhere and in many genres. Vocal Bender offers up speedy, real-time pitch-shifting and instant access to some of the modern vocal producer’s tricks, all controlled via an intuitive UI. The basic simplicity of this UI invites immediate experimentation but there is a significant amount of complex and utterly unique programming potential here. 

Once you reveal the modulation and automation options, vast creative scope presents itself. But the aim of the game with Vocal Bender is really getting that professional-sounding vocal manipulation at speed. We’re happy to report then, that not only does Vocal Bender provide that within minutes, but that there is absolutely no processing lag. We can dramatically scale the pitch of our backing vocals on the fly during track playback, and experiment with modulating our vocal in order to get the right tonal qualities without any CPU slack.

Vocal Bender is certainly one of the slickest plugins we’ve experimented with and delivers all you need to shape your vocals with no stress.

Read the full Waves Vocal Bender review

Best legendary reverb plugin

Best Waves plugins: Waves Abbey Road Chambers

(Image credit: Waves)

3. Waves Abbey Road Chambers

Perfectly captures the sound of the world-famous Abbey Road echo chamber

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Perfectly captures that Abbey Road magic
+
Wide sweet spot

Reasons to avoid

-
Very specific sound
-
High CPU load

Back in the day, the only way to apply reverberation to a recording was by playing said signal through a speaker in a reflective, reverberant room (an ‘echo chamber’), then recording the results with a microphone placed in that room.

One of the most famous echo chambers of all time is the one found at the iconic Abbey Road Studios’ Studio Two – an environment recreated by Waves in their Abbey Road Chambers plugin.

Abbey Road pioneered the STEED (Send, Tape, Echo, Echo, Delay) signal path, all meticulously modelled in Abbey Road Chambers. Impulse responses handle the reverb side of things, while speaker/mic models and a tape delay emulation complete the classic chain. For versatility, other rooms, speakers and mics can be swapped out, too.

For those seeking authentically vintage ambience unachievable with other plugins, this specialised spatialiser delivers on all fronts.

Read the full Waves Abbey Road Chambers review

Best delay plugin

Best Waves plugins: Waves H-Delay

(Image credit: Waves)

4. Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay

A great, easy-to-use delay with an analogue feel

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Great-sounding ‘analogue’ delay plugin
+
Broad range of echo and modulation effects

Reasons to avoid

-
Pitch changing can’t be disengaged
-
BPM rounded up to whole values

A fully-featured delay plugin is an essential tool in any DAW-based musician’s toolbox, giving you the ability to create everything from straight-up repeats and wild dub echoes to modulation effects such as flanging and phasing.

H-Delay may be a decade old, but it's still one of the best Waves plugins around and still admirably holds its own compared to more modern peers. Delay time can be set in milliseconds, BPM or synced to your DAW’s tempo. There’s no ‘stereo’ effect as such, but you can flip the polarity of the left or right channels, or engage Ping-Pong mode for left-to-right action. 

As part of their Hybrid Line of analogue-inspired tools, H-Delay has a hardware flavour in both its sound and simplicity of operation. Sweep or automate delay time, and the delay line’s pitch changes in real time, facilitating wobbling, dub effects. Dial in Modulation Depth and Rate to modulate time (and therefore the pitch ‘wobble’) with the onboard LFO, hands-free.

Need more analogue vibes? Engage the LoFi button for a downsampling-style tone, and ramp up the Analog knob to dial in outboard-esque noise and flavour. 

H-Delay has an extremely broad sweet spot, and especially excels at high-feedback ‘dub’ and lo-fi echo effects. It’s not the cleanest-sounding plugin around, but stands out when you need a simple-to-use delay with analogue mojo. 

Read the full Waves H-Delay review

Best compressor plugin

Best Waves plugins: Waves API 2500 Compressor Plugin

(Image credit: Waves)

5. API 2500

A versatile vintage dynamics processor that adds legendary punch, glue and colour

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Warm, analogue tone
+
Versatile controls to suit many types of source material

Reasons to avoid

-
Idiosyncratic controls take some getting used to

API’s 2500 is known to be one of the most versatile bus compressors around, and Waves’ official software recreation does a stellar job of emulating the original hardware’s revered design, behaviour and tone.

Like the original, this is a VCA design. The Tone section is where you choose between feed-forward or feed-back modes, and also like the hardware 2500, there’s plenty of scope for customising the input sidechain signal, with three Knee settings and a trio of Thrust options for unique ‘tilt’ filtering. 

In use, the API 2500 often excels where other compressors can’t, imparting individual sounds, sub-mixes and masters with sculptable punch and ‘glue’, ably assisted by its array of customisation options.

Best EQ plugin

Best Waves plugins: Waves F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ

(Image credit: Waves)

6. Waves F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ

Great, precision EQ that boasts dynamic features to turn it into a compressor or expander

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Plenty of option for surgical shaping
+
Great bang for buck

Reasons to avoid

-
May not replace your favourite parametric EQ
-
More than six bands would be nice

Every producer needs a fully-featured parametric EQ on hand for surgical frequency-sculpting tasks, and they don’t come much more powerful than F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ.

Not only can its six “floating” bands be used for static boosts or cuts, but each is also dynamic, meaning that each can be turned into a frequency-specific compressor or expander, triggered by the level of the input signal (or via an external source).

You also get wet/dry options for parallel processing; a customisable FFT-based spectral analyser; and solo monitoring per band.

More options...

So those are our top picks, but there are so many more fantastic Waves plugins to explore. We've got more recommendations below, including full reviews. 

Best Waves plugins: Waves OVox

(Image credit: Waves)

7. Waves OVox

Powerful toolbox to vocode, double, synthesize and re-wire any vocal into new musical forms

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Synth, vocoder, and vocal processor in one
+
Create entirely new forms of vocals
+
Use as an instrument or effect

Reasons to avoid

-
Can get complex

Not just an effects plugin, OVox is a synth, vocoder, and vocal processor bundled into one massively capable package. It's equipped with an eight-voice synth that tracks the pitch of an incoming audio signal and uses this to control the oscillators. 

OVox can be used as a MIDI-controlled instrument, a MIDI-controlled audio plugin or an insert effect. Simply select which signal is to be used as OVox’s modulator - choose Track or a Sidechain input. Then adjust Tune, Formant and Gain rotaries to taste and mix Voice Correction and Sibilance. 

You can also go a lot deeper with the plugin, adjusting settings such as Note Harmonics, Noise and Formant Speed for each oscillator. And once you’ve crafted a new sonic flavour for your vocal sound, the central Note Mapper can force your vocal’s pitch to notes, and the harmoniser can expand your single notes into chords - if you want to get ultra-robotic. 

Waves OVox is one of the most comprehensive vocal FX suites out there. It's a powerful toolbox, able to vocode, double, synthesize and re-wire any vocal into a tantalising new musical form. 

Learn how to use Waves OVox

Best Waves plugins: Waves Harmony

(Image credit: Waves)

8. Waves Harmony

Make your vocals a stereo-spanning harmonised powerhouse with this stellar voice enhancement suite

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Efficient and speedy vocal harmony generation
+
Modulation and effects to concoct any type of lush vocal
+
Can be used in a live context

Reasons to avoid

-
CPU heavy

A harmoniser plugin can be a quick and easy godsend for those of us lacking the nouse to track stem after stem of differently pitched vocals. Harmony is laser-focused on the creation of quick and easy harmonisation, with up to eight voices capable of being generated from just one vocal input. 

The UI is refreshingly basic, with its central radar graph delivering instant feedback as to where the additional voices are distributed in the stereo field (as well as their respective volume). 

There are three main methods of harmony generation: via a MIDI keyboard, manually inputting your harmony on the graph, or letting the plugins smartly determine the best harmony for your vocal. It does this exceptionally well. It’s easy to get instant results - simply pressing the Generate Notes button allows the smart algorithms behind the scenes to calculate how best to bolster the incoming vocal audio.

Waves Harmony delivers sparkling, tailored harmonies. We love using it to create dense vocal beds and Bon Iver-esque auto-tuned, harmonised counter-melodies. Yet Harmony can be put to use across numerous genres and fields. Once again, Waves demonstrates its expertise in making the human voice go further.

Read the full Waves Harmony review

Best Waves plugins: Waves Submarine

(Image credit: Waves)

9. Waves Submarine

Best for bolstering instruments such as kicks and basslines, giving you a clean and defined low end

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Clean, powerful sub-bass generation
+
Intuitive controls
+

Reasons to avoid

-
No envelope or EQ
-
Easy to go overboard

While regular equalisers or bass-boosting plugins simply enhance a signal’s existing low frequencies, a subharmonic generator – as the name implies – synthesises entirely new bass content based on the input signal’s pitch.

Waves are no strangers in this department, having released various bass enhancement tools in the past, but Submarine could be their best yet. Using their proprietary Organic ReSynthesis tech, Submarine analyses the incoming audio’s carrier, pitch, formants and dynamics, then uses this information to generate two independent sub-bass signals, one and two octaves below the original pitch.

While there aren’t loads of tweakable parameters on Submarine’s front panel, there are enough to tailor things to taste: use the Min and Max sliders to restrict the span of triggering frequencies at the input; sum the new sub-content to Mono for stereo compatibility; customise Dynamics with a one-knob compressor; and dial in harmonic distortion with the Drive knob. An onboard EQ and envelope follower would be nice additions for extra tone- and dynamics-shaping but aren’t sorely missed.

As you’d imagine, Submarine particularly excels at bolstering low-end instruments such as kicks and basslines, adding clean and defined low end where needed – but the plugin also comes in useful for fattening breakbeats and beefing up special FX. A must-own for sound designers and sub-bass junkies.

Read the full Waves Submarine review

Best Waves plugins: Waves InPhase

(Image credit: Waves)

10. Waves InPhase

Your go-to problem-solver for fixing out-of-phase audio

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Supremely surgical phase-alignment tool
+
Razor-sharp phase metering and manipulation

Reasons to avoid

-
A steep learning curve

Phase alignment isn’t the sexiest mixing subject, but get it wrong and your mix will suffer. When two recordings of the same signal (from, say, a multi-miked drum kit) don’t line up perfectly, the waveforms may partially cancel each other out, resulting in phase cancellation and nasty comb-filtering artefacts.

Phase problems are generally avoided at the initial tracking stage, but if you do have to fix alignment issues come mixdown time, Waves’ clever InPhase plugin can correct them in ways other plugins can’t.

The plugin comes as eight ‘components’, each used for slightly different phase-correcting scenarios: mono and stereo instances of the ‘main’ version; ‘LT’ light mono and stereo versions; and four ‘Live’ latency-free versions of the aforementioned components.   

InPhase is predominantly designed for three scenarios: nudge the phase of two mono tracks (say, a DIed and amped guitar signal), shift the left and right channels of a single stereo track (useful when mastering, for example) and align a stereo track to a sidechain source (eg, for locking stereo drum overheads to a snare top recording).

Phase is visualised via the dual waveform displays and correlation meter. Using these as a guide, you shift either track’s phase manually earlier or later in time. If more complex, frequency-specific alignment is required, you can also reach for the onboard all-pass filters.

As you’d expect from the most comprehensive phase-alignment plugin out there, InPhase comes with a bit of a learning curve. Once mastered, however, it’ll become your go-to problem-solver for fixing out-of-phase audio.

Read the full Waves InPhase review

Best Waves plugins: Waves Torque

(Image credit: Waves)

11. Waves Torque

A simple and unique plugin that allows you to get your drums in tune

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Impressive real-time drum shifting
+
Zero-latency for live use

Reasons to avoid

-
Noticeable artefacts at extreme settings

Drums are the backbone of any track, and although they don’t always have an obvious pitch, correct tuning is vital nonetheless. Fail to tune your drum kit properly before hitting record, and you’ll have a nightmare repitching them to fit the rest of your music.  

Enter Torque. Adopting the same Organic ReSynthesis technology found in Submarine, this unique “drum tone shifter” plugin tracks the input signal’s amplitude, carrier and formant content, allowing you to shift the drum hit’s pitch in real time, with a degree of artefact-free cleanliness and precision unachievable through other means.  

Operation is simple. Set the Focus slider around the drum hit’s fundamental or second harmonic on the display, then sweep the main Torque knob to retune. Threshold lets you home in on only louder sounds in a recording, while the Speed slider is used to adjust the onset of the shifting – if you want to keep the transient intact, for example.

Though extreme shifting will introduce noticeable artefacts, Torque generally preserves transient detail and tone at low to medium settings. And with zero-latency operation, the plugin is just as useful in live scenarios as in the studio. 

Read the full Waves Torque review

12. Waves Tune

Delivers detailed automatic and manual human tuning plus 'that' synthetic sound

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
In-depth pitch and micro editing
+
Lovely graphical note display
+
More human tuning sound 

Reasons to avoid

-
Perhaps starting to show its age

Waves Tune is about vocal (and other audio processing), and seeing the notes on screen and making major or minor adjustments to them. You can get the software to do this for you according to various settings, or you can go in and make the edits yourself, note by note. This not only allows you to make pitch changes on individual phrases, for example, but to keep the human feel of the original recording. 

Tune is perhaps starting to show its age as it first appeared in 2006. Editing is easy, though, and you can zoom in on notes for microtuning and note shifting. A number of other dials allow easy editing of the Note Transition and Speed, and these determine the 'robotic-ness' of the effect which can be increased if they are at a minimum. 

In use, you simply set Tune up with the key of your song and the central display will show (in red) notes not allowed. Playing your recorded audio through the plugin will show you in orange the notes sung, while a green line is the suggested tuning position. Next time you play it, the pitch correction will take effect according to this green line. 

Waves Tune certainly has the ability to dehumanize your vocal - in the popular and pleasing way - but it also has fine tuning and detailed, zoomed-in note editing with which you can retain all of the original humanity too. 

Best Waves plugins: Waves Smack Attack

(Image credit: Waves)

13. Waves Smack Attack

A brilliant and deep transient shaper, ideal for adding punch and impact to a range of instruments

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Adjustable triggering thresholds
+
Control envelope shaping
+
Sounds fantastic

Reasons to avoid

-
Rather more involved than other shapers

Like any transient shaper, Smack Attack enables independent boosting and/or attenuation of the attack and release portions of the transients in the incoming signal - the hit of a drum, pluck of a string, etc - in order to give it more or less impact and punch. However, it’s in the detection of those transients and shaping of the gain control envelope where Smack Attack really sets itself apart. 

The Sensitivity and Shape controls are fantastic for detailed defining of transients, the display is genuinely assistive, the Mix control is joyous, and coming from Waves, it almost goes without saying that the sound quality and precision are exceptional. Drums are by no means the only valid target for it, either - it does a sterling job of fronting up (or down) basses, pianos, guitars, synth plucks, and anything else with a transient component. 

Probably the deepest transient shaping effect ever committed to code, Smack Attack requires a bit more engagement than other equivalent plugins, but the results it delivers are well worth the effort.

Read the full Waves Smack Attack review

Best Waves plugins: Waves Brauer Motion

(Image credit: Waves)

14. Waves Brauer Motion

An ambitious plugin that manages to pull off pseudo 3D movement in the stereo field

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Uber-flexible ‘3D’ panning tool
+
Excels at stereo sound design

Reasons to avoid

-
Overkill for many auto-panning tasks
-
Steep learning curve

Another Grammy-winning engineer collab, this time created alongside Andrew Brauer (Coldplay, Florence & The Machine), Waves Brauer Motion is a “circular stereo auto-panner” that not only automatically moves your source signal back and forth in the left-to-right ‘2D’ field, but also employs psychoacoustic trickery to manipulate front-to-back motion.

In a nutshell, two independent, identical panners can be LFO-modulated around the colour-coded spherical display in unusual ways. Triggers (including an external sidechain signal) define the motion’s start, stop and change in relation to the input signal.  

Unusually for an auto-pan plugin, there’s also a basic Dynamics section, with input boost (via the Drive knob) inducing distortion. A tone-shaping Filter is onboard, too.

While Brauer Motion could be considered overkill for bread-and-butter left-to-right effects, it’s probably the most fully-featured and ambitious plugin available for stereo sound design. A real head-spinner.

Read the full Waves Brauer Motion review

Best Waves plugins: Waves Kramer Master Tape

(Image credit: Waves)

15. Waves Kramer Master Tape

Best plugin to add analogue tape warmth to your digital productions

Specifications

Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AAX

Reasons to buy

+
Warm, versatile tape sound
+
Tape delay sounds fantastic

Reasons to avoid

-
Not as tweakable as other tape emulation plugins

The sound of analogue tape can impart digital signals with much-needed warmth and character, which explains why tape emulation plugins are so… ahem, hot right now.

Waves’ offering, created in collaboration with pro engineer Eddie Kramer, models his custom Ampex 350 ¼-inch machine, complete with linkable Record and Playback levels for setting input and output gain. Wow, Flutter and Noise controls, meanwhile, let you dial in tape ‘instability’ and response. 

Classic tape delay effects can be dialled in, too: set Delay Time, switch between Slap and Feedback settings, and engage a low-pass filter – perfect for dubbed-out echoes and time-based effects.

Capable of everything from subtle tape smoothening through to crunchy saturation, this much-loved tape plugin is a go-to tool for imparting DAW-based signals with analogue warmth and ‘push’. 

Read the full Waves Kramer Master Tape review

Best Waves plugins: Buying advice

waves

(Image credit: Waves)

Which Waves plugins should you choose?

Whatever DAW you use will undoubtedly come with several great mixing plugins which should enable you to create good mixes, so you might be wondering why on earth you need to invest in more software for your mixing. Third-party companies like Waves specialise in creating tools that focus on either reimagining vintage hardware to exacting component detail, or creating bespoke tools that are designed for very specific studio tasks. In that way third-party plugins offer more precise solutions over broad-stroke, bundled DAW plugins; they are highly focussed and very good at doing what they do!

What's more, Waves plugins are an almost permanent sale, delivering massive discounts which often increase the more plugins you purchase. It’s rare, then, to have to pay full price for Waves plugins, so use our prices as a guide only - expect to pay a lot less!

In terms of which to buy, this is very much down to any issues you are currently having when mixing and what you are lacking when it comes to your bundled DAW plugins. Most mix engineers have a go-to compressor and EQ that they like to turn to, over and above those supplied in their DAW. These might have their own character, adding a certain colour to the sound, or they might be based on a favourite piece of outboard vintage hardware that has simply become too expensive or too impractical to use in their current studio setup. Using a third-party plugin can therefore give you the sound of a classic piece of gear at a fraction of the price and with the convenience to slot it into a modern DAW-based studio.

Overall, while buying certain plugins is very much a personal choice, having a good range of plugins - a vintage channel strip or compressor and a workhorse ‘clean’ set of tools - is a good idea, just to give you flexibility when it comes to mix down. With that in mind, then, perhaps use your DAW plugins as the workhorse tools, and use your third-party choices to give you that extra character and finesse, a perhaps elusive pro sound or a character that can be yours alone, taking your music above and beyond that produced in DAWs with stock plugins. And remember, this pro sound or edge need not cost as much as you might think - all of the plugins above are currently on sale (or soon will be!).

What is Waves Creative Access?

Waves Creative Access is the name given to Waves’ new subscription set up. There are two subscription tiers, Waves Ultimate or Waves Essential. The right one for you depends on your needs as a producer:

Waves Ultimate gives you unlimited access to more than 230 of Waves’ plugins including all the ones recommended in this guide. For the length of your subscription you will receive the latest updates to your plugins and any newly-launched plugins will be yours. Waves Ultimate costs $20.83 per month. 

Waves Essential is cheaper at $12.50 per month, but you’ll only have access to 110 plugins and you’ll get select new plugins launched in the future, but not all of them.

Subscribers to both membership tiers also get 2 months access to the Splice Sounds+ sample library, plus StudioVerse, a new collection of artist-designed, mix-ready plugin chains. AI recommends chains based on your sound, and there are easy-to-use macros for fast adjustments. This is an open platform, too, so everyone who uses it can add more chains.

You can cancel your subscription at any time, but if you do, you’ll lose access to your plugins. Currently, if you sign up for a year, you'll get 12 months for the price of 10.

Can I try Waves Creative Access before I commit?

Yes, currently Waves is offering a 7 day free trial to anyone interested in checking out the service.

How we choose the best Waves plugins

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides. 

When choosing what we believe to be the best Waves plugins available right now, we combine our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engage in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.

First and foremost, we are musicians, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best Waves plugins on the market right now.

Find out more about how we test music gear and services at MusicRadar.

Andy Jones

Andy has been writing about music production and technology for 30 years having started out on Music Technology magazine back in 1992. He has edited the magazines Future Music, Keyboard Review, MusicTech and Computer Music, which he helped launch back in 1998. He owns way too many synthesizers.

With contributions from