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Waves is a popular plugin company, so all their plugins are great, but you may be wondering what the best Waves plugins are. There are over 200 Waves plugins and a lot of them are essential in creating a solid mix. Keep reading to find out what the top 25 must-have Waves plugins are that are available in 2020.

Here are the best Waves plugins:

1. Scheps Omni Channel

A one-stop channel strip

The Scheps Omni Channel, designed by the award-winning mix engineer Andrew Scheps, is a top-rated, extremely flexible channel strip unlike ones you have used before. It was made to work with Andrew’s combinations of EQ, compression, saturation, and more to create a great sounding signal chain without having to pull up a bunch of different plugins.

Oftentimes channel strips are based on vintage mixers, but that can mean that you are limited to having all your songs being connected to a certain sonic color. Modular channel strips do not limit you to a certain coloration, but they oftentimes do not mesh together in a cohesive way. This is not the case with Scheps Omni Channel. Andrew Scheps took the best of vintage channel strips and the best of modular strips, certain combinations, and turned them into one channel strip, the Scheps Omni Channel.

Scheps Omni Channel has six modules: Pre, Compression, EQ, DS2, Gate, and a slot for a Waves plugin of your choice. With the Pre module, you can add in analog saturation to color your signal as well as filters. The Compression module allows you to compress and expand your signal, and the EQ module has a 4 band EQ to sculpt your sound. DS2 is a de-esser that takes care of plosives as well as harsh frequencies, and the Gate module allows you to expand and gate the signal but also adjust the amount of noise reduction happening. Waves also provides some presets for the plugin if you need to focus on one module more than the others.

The Scheps Omni Channel really is a great channel strip plugin. Compared to other channel strips, this one makes audio sound extremely cohesive and it does not seem like anything sticks out in a way that’s sonically unpleasant.

I have used it on vocals, guitar, and even some drums, and it sounds amazing. The coloration options are very handy for adding some different character to audio depending on the genre you are making. Everything is easy to use and the interface is very straightforward. You are missing out if you have not used this VST before; it is a definite must-have Waves plugin.

2. Vocal Rider

Best Channel Strip Vst Plugin

Taking automation out of the production process

If you are like me and you absolutely hate automating vocal levels, you need Vocal Rider. It is one of the most popular plugins from Waves, and understandably so. Vocal Rider does exactly like the name sounds: it rides the volume level of the vocals to keep it even. And it does all this without coloring the signal.

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If you were to try to even it out with compression, for example, you’d get some coloration and quite possibly a heavily squashed signal. That’s not something you want, but automation isn’t exactly fun either. Vocal Rider takes out the guesswork and does it all for you.

Image credit: WavesCheck & Download

The layout of Vocal Rider is simple. There are three sliders. One is the actual vocal rider slider, one is the output level, and the other is the range slider. The range slider is what you use to set the average level that your vocals need to be at in relation to the rest of the mix. Once you have set that, if you need to boost the output volume, you do that with the output slider. In the meantime, the rider slider detects the levels of your incoming audio and instantly changes the volume to match the volume that’s within your selected range.

Vocal Rider also works extremely well for live vocals, so if you do live mixing you can easily add it to your workflow. If I were to pinpoint a certain genre that this plugin would be best for, I’d say it is the best Waves plugin for rap vocals due to the frequent need of automation on rap vocals.

Vocal Rider saves so much time and keeps you from getting frustrated with changing automation and sitting in front of the computer for hours trying to get it right. Forget about manually automating your vocals and just get Vocal Rider from Waves.

3. Scheps 73

A classic preamp and EQ combo

Another great plugin designed by the world-renowned Andrew Scheps, the Waves Scheps 73 is a 3-band EQ and mic preamp module modeled on the classic 1073 console. The Scheps 73’s EQ is so closely modeled after the 1073 that it emulates its behavior with lots of precision.

The specs of the EQ include a fixed 12 kHz high frequency band, switchable low and midrange bands with cut and boost controls for each, and a high-pass filter with a ratio of 18 dB per octave. A 10 kHz midrange band is also made to be operable in the plugin, although it was made to be operated on the 1078 channel strip. Saturation (controlled by the drive knob) is modeled after the 1073’s saturation and captures all of the harmonic details and sonic characteristics of the 1073. It sounds extremely authentic and warm.

Other features include the ability to monitor the stereo channel, mono channel, and left and right channels separately. You can also EQ the mid and side channels with this plugin. If you do like coloration and want a very warm, rich, full sounding vocal or instrument, use the Scheps 73 and you will be beyond satisfied.

4. Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain

Achieve the Abbey Road sound with ease

Abbey Road TG is a modular mastering chain plugin modeled after the EMI TG12410 transfer console used in all of Abbey Road’s mastering suites. The TG Mastering Chain is made out of modules (or cassettes) just like the original console. Included is: an input module, tone (EQ) module, compressor and limiter module, filter module, and a VAL module incorporated into the output module.

Except for the input and output modules, they can be swapped around to create custom mastering chains and switched on and off. They can also be used individually or mixed and matched if you do not want to use all of them together.

Image credit: WavesCheck & Download

The compressor and limiter module offers two colorations, original and modern. Original is an aggressive and ‘dirty’ type of compression and modern is one that was designed by Waves to help you retain the highest quality of audio while keeping the loudness.

The TG Mastering Chain has proven to be a flexible plugin while retaining the classic Abbey Road sound found on many popular albums or giving it a bit of a new flavor with the more modern sounding compressor option. The flexibility continues even more, as you can process signals in stereo, duo, or mid/side, and monitor the signal in stereo, mono, left, right, and mid/side if you need to. There is also a live performance mode, so if you want to do live mastering as everything is coming through the system, you can do that with ease and not have to worry about latency.

If you have found that mastering with plugins from companies like iZotope or UAD just do not match the final sound you are trying to achieve, take the best Waves plugin for master

The Best Ssl Channel Strip Vst Plugins