Waves Ultimate 17

About Waves Ultimate 17

This is the complete plugin collection rather than one of the smaller bundles, which means the compressors, equalisers, reverbs, restoration tools and modelled hardware emulations are all installed together. For a mix engineer that removes the constant problem of a session calling for a plugin that is not on the machine, because effectively everything in the catalogue is present.

The dynamics and equalisation set covers both the surgical and the character ends. There are clean digital equalisers with tight filters and analysers for corrective work, alongside modelled console and outboard emulations that colour the signal on the way through. The compressors run the same range, from transparent bus glue to the aggressive vintage designs people reach for on drums and vocals.

Reverb, delay and spatial processing are unusually deep here. Convolution and algorithmic reverbs sit alongside plate, chamber and hall emulations, with early reflection control and damping that behave predictably at long tails. The spatial and imaging tools handle width, mono compatibility and immersive formats without smearing the centre.

The restoration and mastering end closes the chain. Broadband and spectral noise reduction, click and hum removal, de-essing, loudness metering against broadcast targets and a limiter set that holds a master without pumping are all included, which makes it possible to take a session from raw tracks to a delivered master without leaving the collection.

What is included in this build

• Complete plugin collection rather than a partial bundle
• Clean and modelled equalisers with analysers for corrective work
• Compressor set spanning transparent bus processing and vintage character designs
• Convolution and algorithmic reverbs with plate, chamber and hall emulations
• Spatial and imaging tools with mono compatibility checking
• Restoration set covering noise, clicks, hum and de-essing
• Loudness metering against broadcast delivery targets
• Plugin formats covering the common host standards on the desktop

Changed in version 17.0.2

• Lower processing latency across the dynamics set
• Improved graphics performance on high density displays
• Additional presets contributed for the mastering chain
• Faster plugin scanning on first host launch
• Reduced install footprint after shared component cleanup

Installation walkthrough

These steps assume a clean machine. If a previous release of the same application is present, deal with that first, since an overlapping install is the most common cause of a setup that stops halfway.

1. Close every audio host before starting, including anything running in the background.
2. Disable real-time protection for the length of the install.
3. Extract the archive to a short path on a drive with 20 GB free.
4. Run setup as administrator and select the plugin formats the host actually uses.
5. Rescan plugins in the host on first launch, which takes a while on a collection this size.

System requirements and file details

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