Reviewed: Waves Renaissance Equalizer Plug-In

January 26, 1999

Several decades ago the Bee Gees sang "There's a light, a certain kind of light, that never shone on me". After all this time I think I've finally sussed what they were on about - that light that goes "AHA!" above your head when a true revelation occurs to you. And it took the use of this complex set of algorithms and code called the Waves Renaissance EQ (REQ) to do it for me for the first time in many Cheshire Moons. Perhaps I just need to get out more?

Hot on the heels of discovering Cubase VST 4.0 and its associated plug-in technology (the Renaissance Equalizer is also available in DirectX, TDM, and Premiere formats) comes this package that defies two of my most important software guidelines; it's relatively expensive and it requires a copy protection dongle to dangle off my otherwise unhindered ADB port. Bad juju.

I've been a working musician (read: severely under-employed) all of my adult life (all too long by some accounts) and its gotta be a dark day in La Jolla before I spend several hundred bucks on something that by my way of thinking I already have. VST 4.0 as well as the other major digital audio/MIDI software packages all come with very usable additions that emulate bandpass and/or shelving type EQ's and they seem to work just fine. So why should anyone spend $300 MSRP for the EQ plug-in (plus $100 for the required Waveshell application and programmable WaveKey dongle) to add a function to a program that already has this function built in? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Because IT SOUNDS TERRIFIC! That "AHA!" light I mentioned before went off big time when I engaged this plug-in over a recording of a song off my latest CD which I thought sounded just fine before. I really wish I had this software when I mixed these tracks. The built-in EQ's pale in comparison to the sheer sonic splendor of something this fine. Now I realize even more why the big boys spend so much money on their gear. First, because they can but most of all, it really is better - and this package is a perfect case in point.

I used to believe that an EQ was an EQ - how different can a set of tone controls sound? Well now I know. Let me take it a step at a time and use Cubase VST 4.0 as my primary playing field. First there is the basic channel EQ. It's semi-parametric, tunable, has a variable Q (resonance) and uses very little CPU power. It sounds ok, if a little cutting, but it serves a purpose. Now VST offers a high quality version of the same EQ that uses more CPU cycles but is smoother and easier on the ears. You can edit all the parameters to a fine point and it works in real time. I had thought that this EQ was pretty good and I was glad that it came with the application.

Then I set the Waves Renaissance EQ to the same parameters (turnover point, Q, etc.), disabled the original EQ and enabled the new one. Wow, there was really a difference and all for the better. Kinda like playing a vintage Strat after strumming an inexpensive import or singing into a large diaphragm condenser microphone after using your familiar on-stage dynamic workhorse. You know the mechanics are similar and yet the sound difference is very apparent. I was both impressed and distressed at the real difference in sheer musicality this higher quality EQ made on my tracks (distressed at my previous ignorance). It's very hard to put the difference into words but there was a smoothness and a real musical, dare I say analog, tonality to the Waves EQ that was simply not there in the built-in EQ's that VST offered. A little bit of the REQ went much further and had more of a positive effect on the entire track than I could achieve with the garden variety stuff. But there is a price to be paid for this sonority.