User Interface

If your plug-ins menu is as long as mine, you'll appreciate finding all the Waves processors under one roof. Each of the Gold Bundle tools is accessed through the WaveShell plug-in -- appearing in the host program's plug-in menu, where you'll be prompted for which plug-in to pop open each time. Each plug-in can be loaded in a variety of configurations in order to save or splurge on CPU demands, such as choosing just a single band of mono equalization, or say, all ten bands of the full version of Q10 Paragraphic EQ. This is a great way to manage resources when using CPU-strapped systems running native applications.

(All these details and more are explained in Gold Bundle's three printed manuals, which total more than 600 pages and do a great job explaining features and applications.)

Mousing around with onscreen cross-hairs, markers, and curves is intuitive, and, on a relatively speedy CPU, latency-free. I was particularly impressed with the button, metering and other interface design consistencies for the entire Waves plug-in family -- which definitely helps the learning curve and ease of use. Each plug-in also offers A/B comparisons, and the ability to copy settings or save them in your own libraries. Even more impressively, you can select multiple parameters and change them simultaneously. For instance, you can manipulate multiple EQ band frequencies or change the reverb room size and reflections at the same time, with one mouse move or numerical input.

One notable limitation: Some host applications, such as Cubase, don't support a bypass switch. In its place, the Waves manual suggests a doable workaround of opening a flat "B" setting and using the A/B switch as an ersatz bypass -- although this can cut into your available CPU horsepower.

Performance

Legions of professional engineers have come to count on Waves plug-ins for their sublime audio quality. The Gold Bundle will give them plenty to appreciate.

I took the Gold Bundle out for a spin by feeding a variety of audio source material from Cubase into each plug-in, and was pleasantly to extremely satisfied with the results. Reverb tails, EQ frequencies and dynamically-processed signals all sound very clean and virtually uncolored, and pitch-shifting, tap-delaying and panning couldn't be more accurate or precise. I particularly liked SuperTap's slick interface and visual soundfield display, and I may never do another mix without MaxxBass.

A couple of gripes: For some reason, the peak/hold meter value readouts would flicker every few seconds -- not the bargraph meters themselves, but the numeric values positioned underneath each meter. It was annoying, but not hampering in any way. I also encountered an audibly disconcerting "pop" when switching between the L1-Ultramaximizer's IDR requantizing values -- although fortunately, it was nothing that would affect a recording or mix.

Beyond the Basics

Waves Gold Bundle includes a host of plug-ins that go beyond simple compression, limiting, EQ and reverb. While you can think of the Q10-Paragraphic EQ, L1-Ultramaximizer and TrueVerb as covering the essentials, the S1, De-Esser, MaxxBass and PAZ (all described immediately below) are better cast as high-end sweetening tools. And the Pro-FX Bundle (also described below) provides some great "mess-it-up creative tools," to use Waves' description. Sounds good to me.

Indeed, the S1-Stereo Imager is very handy for remastering stereo mixes. The S1 sports an intuitive display that shows the effects of its articulate and uncolored stereo spatial effects. Renaissance EQ (see our review) and Renaissance Compressor warmly emulate vintage gear. The De-Esser plug-in does a great job of attenuating high frequency sibilant ("ess" and "shh") sounds, using a library of custom factory presets for male and female voices.

MaxxBass's proprietary harmonic bass-enhancement technology is guaranteed to wake up your neighbors -- adding serious (apparent) bottom to even the tiniest monitors. Amazingly, it works by adding harmonics above the analyzed pitches, not below them. Since we hear the harmonics -- so goes the line of psychoacoustic reasoning -- our minds deduce that something is missing. That "something" is the non-existent ultra-low fundamental, which we imagine to hear, thanks to the harmonics. Whatever. All I can assure you is that you will hear amazing, mud-free, kick-ass bass, even from small speaker systems.

The Mac version of Gold Bundle includes PAZ Psychoacoustic Analyzer, a tool for visualizing stereo imaging in a mix; the Windows version comes with WaveConvert Pro, a decent utility for converting WAV, ASF, AIFF, MP3 and RealAudio audio file formats.

As an extra bonus, the Gold lineup also includes the Pro-FX Bundle (a value of US$400 for the native version, or $700 for the TDM version). This is a cool collection of pitch, multi-tap delay, flanger and modulation plug-ins. UltraPitch is a six-voice, formant-corrected pitch-shifter that convincingly gender-bends vocals and creates lush harmonies, thick stereo chorusing, voice doubling and more. Vintage-style tape flanging, phase shifting and chorusing are the norm for MetaFlanger, and its extensive factory preset library includes emulations of Mutron, MXR and other classic units from the hardware past. MondoMod's cool user interface allows complex graphic control over a very unique combination of linked AM, FM and panning modulators. And SuperTap offers up to six seconds of mono or true stereo multi-tap delay with independent filtering, rotation, gain and extensive control over each tap.

Next Page: A Closer Look: Q10 & TrueVerb....