Waves CLA Signature Plugin Released.

[matt thomas]

Its interesting to remember CLA is (somewhat of) a preset mixer too. Compressors hardwired to channels, particular samples for drum replacement, etc..

matt

[Absolute]

Originally Posted by everythinglouder

Ugh. These really are being marketed as Easy-Bake-Oven "My Very First Pro Pluginz," aren't they?

For instance:

"You get three color-coded presets..."

"...the very best settings which I use in my everyday mixes..."

"...best of all, they will want that sound every time!..."


This product is just screaming "Now YOU can mix too!!"

I guess it doesn't hurt anyone though. People who need this kind of overly simplified attitude from their tools will enjoy these plug-ins. And why learn fundamental techniques if these plug-ins will enable a hobbyist bedroom producer to never touch a traditional compressor again?

.

Oh dear Lord. The only thing that hurts is this type of pedantic post. This is not specifically about your post--but the barrage of thoughtless comments, now, and to come.

Its just complete one dimensional thinking; kneejerk reaction to something you havnt even tried. Dont people ever get tired of putting themselves on a pedestal. Its so freakin transparent. Its meant for only one thing--to elevate oneself. It helps no one and is utterly self aggrandizing masturbation.

What we have here is a failure of imagination. People just not understanding the daily ME's workflow. Not understanding TV and radio production. Not understanding anything in production that needs to come together quick. They only understand what THEY have to do. Wow, how broad.

Dude, noobies dont buy waves plugins. Noobies use PC almost exclusively and you can get everything you would ever need from free VSTs that are as good as any thousand dollar plugins. So this is just ignorance squared.

So, No....it doesnt scream, "anyone can mix".

Here's my point...why cant people just tame their tongues and deliberate before they spew out this crap everytime something is released that they dont understand.

I just think of this happening all through history. Like, picture the first fire........Hey look fire........and someone says

..............thats stupid. hahahahaha

So what Im saying is. Why cant people just try and broaden to scope of their imagination and try, really try, to see things from other perspectives instead of just their own(Im not talkin to the poster I quoted- he did that. Honestly Im not picking on everythinglouder). But these types of insults to the companies have littered the New product section and its to the point where no one learns anything

[lordnielson]

Originally Posted by Absolute

Like, picture the first fire........Hey look fire........and someone says

..............thats stupid. hahahahaha

I don't think that ever happened dude...

I'm with everythinglouder. Waves are making amusement money here.
It's like reverb in the 80s, some day people are gonna go 'wtf?'

[World Studios]

I think it is a nice addition to my Mercury bundle. As we say in Sweden, Free is good. I highly doubt I would buy it, though. The CPU load is significant, which means you could realistically only use a few of these in a big session, if you have other things going. However, it is truly a quick way to get a good sound and that is good for most of us. The Kramer and Maserati bundles have a sound of their own, as does this. Kramer is obvoiusly closer in style... This is the most versitile bundle of them yet with 3 options for each effect, which is quite enough for a quick fix. I like to think I will use these in audio suite mode for a quick but complex fix here and there. Loved the effect/distortion/telephone one a lot. The amp models sound weird on their own. Might sound better in context, but I doubt it.. :-)

[Hoth]

I jumped on these from Paul at Dutchmuzik. We are lucky as a community to have both Tony and Paul who care so much about great service.

I spend a lot of time reading about the "finer points" of mixing and mastering and always will. I love learning what the tool I am using is doing and why. But I have these and the Maserati plugs. I got them because I like the way these guys mix, their thinking and their hearing There are times when I have a very short time to get a quality product out. As much as I would love to, I don't have time to go through the trial and error. These bundles help get there faster.

Maybe they're too much of a shortcut, but I think at times they get the artist a better product faster and that means everything to me.

[Silver Sonya]

This kind of thing doesn't appeal to me at all.

- c

[AMIEL]

Everything cool, may sound great, great idea, good way to learn the "CLA Mixing Concept" and his sound....

The thing that is a little scary is that now I can see a huge amount of indie bands having the same type of mixes!

[Hoth]

Originally Posted by AMIEL

Everything cool, may sound great, great idea, good way to learn the "CLA Mixing Concept" and his sound....

The thing that is a little scary is that now I can see a huge amount of indie bands having the same type of mixes!

I agree that the last thing we need as an industry is even more homogenation. My hope is that since everyone who mixes on an SSL or who uses a Massive or a 1176 doesn't sound the same, hopefully that will be true here also. We may even find new brilliant ME's who will use these same old tools to push the envelope and give us something amazing and different. There always are those people out there.

[Studio Addict]

Please make this go away!!! It's bad enough that CLA (and the other "name" mixers) uses an assembly line approach. Now it's being inflicted on the masses!

Think about it -- let's all use Slate drum samples, and CLA/Waves pre-fab plugins, and Auto-Tune, and then let's bitch about how current music sucks and all sounds the same! Great idea!

[jval]

How about putting the whining about the state of music aside for a second and actually talk about the plugs...
Anyone tried them yet??

[work2do]

There seems to be alot of crying about a plugin you don't have to buy. If you are an engineer and worried about a plugin putting you out of work....

[AMIEL]

Originally Posted by Hoth

I agree that the last thing we need as an industry is even more homogenation. My hope is that since everyone who mixes on an SSL or who uses a Massive or a 1176 doesn't sound the same, hopefully that will be true here also. We may even find new brilliant ME's who will use these same old tools to push the envelope and give us something amazing and different. There always are those people out there.

I WOULD WORRY A BIT!

Because this are not only tools...actually most people are using it to get the sound and process of CLA.

Yeah I agree , many people my have the same tools as CLA....but they do not sound the same for many reasons.

So from what I see and understand, Waves made this plug ins to get a close representation of the process and sound of CLA .

Now, I am sure most of the buyers or the market was for the people that WANT to sound like CLA.

Also this does not mean that you can not get a different sounds and use those plug ins to create new sounds, but I am pretty sure the idea of many users is to sound as close as they can to CLA mixes.

Are they gonna sound like really CLA?? I do not think so, maybe they will be a blurry representation of his mixes and closer than before for sure(this is not the concept of this Bundle?) , but sure between the CLA Signature users they will get much closersnd similar in sound as they did before!

There is a HUGE desire to sound like CLA , more than Maserati and Kramer.

[ToneRexx]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

I wouldn't worry. It's not the gear that makes something sound a certain way, it's the approach and ears of the engineer. After all, everyone has had the same gear--LA-2A's, 1176's, SSL's, Pultecs, etc. for decades, yet an Andy Wallace mix sounds nothing like a CLA mix, which sounds nothing like a JJP mix, which sounds nothing like a Michael Brauer mix, etc...

Even with these plugins, it's still up to the engineer to hear whether they work on the source or not, how they need to be tweaked, and a thousand other little judgment calls that are unique to each engineer and how he or she hears the material in their head.

So long story short, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I would worry about it.

Check drums sounds today.
Sounds SO Slate, pretty plastic and stiff.

The point is that people believe that is the way drums should sound!
Check a Record of Live or Red Hot Chili Peppers, that sounds like real drums! huge difference.

So now with this new CLA Bundle waves is not selling the gear the tools, are selling mainly the sound and his process.

I will see all my buddies sounding pretty much the same pretty soon!
and let's see here the Mixing in Process.

[Andrew07]

OK, a lot of people will dislike the plug-in based solely on principle...

but how does it sound?

[clonewar]

Originally Posted by Absolute

Oh dear Lord. The only thing that hurts is this type of pedantic post. This is not specifically about your post--but the barrage of thoughtless comments, now, and to come.

Its just complete one dimensional thinking; kneejerk reaction to something you havnt even tried. Dont people ever get tired of putting themselves on a pedestal. Its so freakin transparent. Its meant for only one thing--to elevate oneself. It helps no one and is utterly self aggrandizing masturbation.

What we have here is a failure of imagination. People just not understanding the daily ME's workflow. Not understanding TV and radio production. Not understanding anything in production that needs to come together quick. They only understand what THEY have to do. Wow, how broad.

Dude, noobies dont buy waves plugins. Noobies use PC almost exclusively and you can get everything you would ever need from free VSTs that are as good as any thousand dollar plugins. So this is just ignorance squared.

So, No....it doesnt scream, "anyone can mix".

Here's my point...why cant people just tame their tongues and deliberate before they spew out this crap everytime something is released that they dont understand.

I just think of this happening all through history. Like, picture the first fire........Hey look fire........and someone says

..............thats stupid. hahahahaha

So what Im saying is. Why cant people just try and broaden to scope of their imagination and try, really try, to see things from other perspectives instead of just their own(Im not talkin to the poster I quoted- he did that. Honestly Im not picking on everythinglouder). But these types of insults to the companies have littered the New product section and its to the point where no one learns anything

You seem to like to express your opinions with long winded rambling posts.

Perhaps you should try Twitter..

[kozlikha]

Originally Posted by warbler

I just downloaded them and have barely checked them out.
My initial hit is that they would be cool for somebody who didn't want to figure anything out.
They offer one slider versions of pretty simple concepts.
How about Reverb with 3 size choices and a level control.
How about Compression with 3 types and an amount control.
You get what I'm saying, I guess in a way it is Waves for dummies.

That being said, somebody will probably produce a stellar production with these.

I reserve judgement.

I think it will be quite popular. It will be ideal for bands & composers that don't have mixing skills to match a qualified/experienced person, I will buy it so when I take rough mix to the studio a mixing engineer will have a clearer picture what I am after. Composers that write for TV will also benefit as it is very straighforward & quick in operation.

[kozlikha]

Same sound is mostly attributed to people copycatting arrangements & unwilling to create treir own identity by using library sounds that others use. If this bundle was used to mix Tom Jones & Bjork would they sound the same? Doubt it, as these artists have identities that are original, that is key factor which is missing from so many acts nowadays, not same coloration of reverb, etc. The trouble with shit material is that it will stay shit no matter what you throw at it, lipstick on a pig - still a pig.

Now, how do they sound? Lol

Originally Posted by zboy2854

What you mean just like how drum sounds all sounded the same in the '80s with the gated reverb, or big washed out and doubled vocals? Here's a news flash--lemmings following a sound established by someone else and becoming the predominant standard for a time is nothing new, it's been going on since the '60s. This time won't be any different. The "pretty plastic and stiff" sound as you call it will similarly be seen 20 years from now the way we think of the '80s big gated reverb sound.



And how is this any different than the Kramer or Maserati bundles? I don't know of anyone who has used the Maserati bundle who is cranking out mixes that sound like Tony Maserati's mixes on say, Jason Mraz' album.

As to your concern about everyone sounding the same as CLA, the way I see it, even if that's the case, that's great! Because it makes it that much easier to stand out by sounding different. So if these plugins could in fact make you sound just like CLA, fine, let all the lemmings have no sonic personalities of their own. Makes it that much easier for my sonic personality to stand out by sounding different.

[yarrick19]

Anyone else notice this?

"The Chris Lord-Alge Artist Signature Collection is Native only"

No TDM. Interesting...

[LokiProducer]

not really, same as masarati no?
i think they all are..

more messing around, i won't be purchasing still.
I understand the product and who it's for,
it's just not for me. it's alright tho.

Originally Posted by yarrick19

Anyone else notice this?

"The Chris Lord-Alge Artist Signature Collection is Native only"

No TDM. Interesting...

[OldTimey1]

big yawn! these plugins are a sham to get your money.

not that i've listened to them or demoed them. but 90% of the music CLA is credited in these advertisements blows in my opinion. so i wouldnt touch anything he had a hand in creating with a ten foot pole.

[IsRael Musiq]

Originally Posted by OldTimey1

big yawn! these plugins are a sham to get your money.

not that i've listened to them or demoed them. but 90% of the music CLA is credited in these advertisements blows in my opinion. so i wouldnt touch anything he had a hand in creating with a ten foot pole.

Is there a new law passed in America or any other country stated that you will be jailed for using these plug ins? It must be the way people are bashing them. I mean really, you think that's cheating? I'm pretty sure Mozart would say the same about some of the technologies your using in your own production... Case in point, If you dont like, dont use it, dont complain...How you gon complain about something you havent even bought or use? Spend more time enjoying the products you love and less complaining about the ones you hate. I

[markham]

Originally Posted by OldTimey1

big yawn! these plugins are a sham to get your money.

not that i've listened to them or demoed them. but 90% of the music CLA is credited in these advertisements blows in my opinion. so i wouldnt touch anything he had a hand in creating with a ten foot pole.

Well, then these plugs are obviously not for you.

Moving on...
How do they sound? What are people trying them on? I'd like to know what they're doing on vocals for those of you who have tried the plugs on vocals.

I won't be demoing them right now, but I want to hear people's impressions.

[warbler]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

OK, I've just finished doing a lot of experimenting with the vocal plugin, and I'm pretty stunned. All of the parameters involved are pretty high quality. I spent a couple hours today messing with just the vocal plugin and attempting to match what it was doing with my normal processing chains, and it took some serious tweaking and experimenting to get my normal setups to sound as good as what was going on under the hood of the CLA plug on vocals, from the smoothness of the EQ curves to the compression character, to the de-essing and other processing that must be taking place (particularly when using the "Spank" and "Wall" settings for compression), and in particular the reverb, delay and chorus sounds and settings. I've already learned a few tricks for my bag just from "reverse engineering" the sounds yielded by the plug.

I haven't tried the bass, guitar or effects plugs yet, but judging just by the drum and vocal plugs, I can say unequivocally that these signature plugs are far more useful on a regular basis than the Maserati or Kramer ones. Hell, I may end up using the vocal plug on a send/return setup just to have the verb/delay/chorus sounds that are available in a one stop shop and sound so great off the bat.

I agree. The vocal plug sounds really great.
So far, I have used it on a lead vocal and a bussed sub-mix of 8 background singers.
Much like you, I'm trying to figure out what the individual components are and what processing is taking place.
It seems really simple to get a very pleasing, smooth sound.
Thumbs up on this one.

[tekn0]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

OK, I've just finished doing a lot of experimenting with the vocal plugin, and I'm pretty stunned. All of the parameters involved are pretty high quality. I spent a couple hours today messing with just the vocal plugin and attempting to match what it was doing with my normal processing chains, and it took some serious tweaking and experimenting to get my normal setups to sound as good as what was going on under the hood of the CLA plug on vocals, from the smoothness of the EQ curves to the compression character, to the de-essing and other processing that must be taking place (particularly when using the "Spank" and "Wall" settings for compression), and in particular the reverb, delay and chorus sounds and settings. I've already learned a few tricks for my bag just from "reverse engineering" the sounds yielded by the plug.

I haven't tried the bass, guitar or effects plugs yet, but judging just by the drum and vocal plugs, I can say unequivocally that these signature plugs are far more useful on a regular basis than the Maserati or Kramer ones. Hell, I may end up using the vocal plug on a send/return setup just to have the verb/delay/chorus sounds that are available in a one stop shop and sound so great off the bat.

i agree i am also impressed with the FX so far

[olofd]

For every day that goes by, I see more and more fear on GS.
Especially from the old foxes who think their entire existence is challenged
when a new plug-in hits the market.

From us youngsters, please don't be afraid.
We all know that Michelangelo's brush wasn't the source
of his success.

[jacko]

Originally Posted by Empty Planet

Omg. Another step closer to one-button mixing.

As long as it sounds great, I don't mind it!

I like that you can pan the source in the input section. The source can be panned, but the reverb still comes out in stereo. This could be nice workflow improvement for people that use different reverb tails on different drums. The question is the quality of that reverb... Please express your opinions - I'm out of studio until the beginning of April.

[keithl]

When you use the CLA vocal plug, it seems I cannot insert the massey de-esser (massey only mono/multi-mono)

[stresstour]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

...I've already learned a few tricks for my bag just from "reverse engineering" the sounds yielded by the plug...

I have done the same thing. I have gotten close with Logic plugs and 3rd party plugs (Logic EQ, Comp, Schaak Transient Shaper, Space Designer with Bricasti impulses) but it's not exactly the same sound.

SO.... the question remains for me is, do I want that extra umph so much that I will spend the money for it? I'm getting weak

[ProducerBoy]

I have yet to demo these, but I love that they used "EDGE" as one of the delay settings for electric guitar. (Dotted quarter note, I assume.)

[tekn0]

i wonder why they didn't put a "direct" button on all of the plugins in the set as some of them can be used in 100% wet with that button, like for instance if i just wanted the reverb and the delays form the CLA Vocal, but not the eq and comp, i could turn all that unwated processing off and send my eq'ed and compressed vocal to the vocal plugin on a send return just to use the verbs and delays, i know the effects plugin can do this but it seems a lot of the verbs and delays are different from plug to plug.