Waves introduces new licensing system - beware

[David Polich]

Surprised to see no mention of it here - maybe I missed someone's post...anyway, Waves has
ditched their Waves License Center (WLC) in favor of a new system called Waves Central. If you are a Waves user you should have received the email about it.

Judging from various forums on the web, it is not a good idea to upgrade to Waves Central right now, unless you are going to buy new Waves plug-ins, in which case you will have to because the old WLC is no longer supported. If you have no plans for new Waves plug-ins, you don't have to do anything right now, your Waves plugs will continue to work.

Apparently, Apple's newest security implementations prevent the Waves Cetral app from opening. There is a workaround, here it is:

Goto System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Firewall and unlock it

Select Firewall Options, add Waves Central to "Allow Incoming Connections"

Close the System Preferences

You should be able to keep your security settings as normal and it will run. If you have issues getting this to work for you, try doing the following step first, because that's basically what I did to get it working.

Goto System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General and select the "Anywhere" option

Run the app, make sure it connects fine.

Quit, follow the steps mentioned earlier

Change your security settings back to their default and close the System Preferences.



Waves Central supposedly allows you to now download individual plug-ins instead of having to download the entire Waves installer, and it allows you to create offline backups of installers. This is a plus. On the minus side, The WC app doesn't at the moment remember login details, and Waves plugs now run sluggishly in Logic 9, which Waves no longer supports at all.

Personally I'm going to wait until I have to renew my WUP to move to Waves Central.

[labman]

Thank you David. I appreciate the heads up. Just minutes ago, I was discussing the email with our engineer. We also will wait till we WUP.

[Gravity Jim]

Apparently supposedly judging from various forums.....

It opened and ran fine here under 10.10.5, and I haven't changed security settings in any way.

[billf]

Waves has
ditched their Waves License Center (WLC) in favor of a new system called Waves Central. If you are a Waves user you should have received the email about it.

According to the Release Notes, there are some feature updates too:

October 25th, 2015

• The new Waves Central: one-stop plugin installation and activation systemAcross the board release of all Waves plugins V9.6
  Sidechain support for VST 2.4
  New Copy/Paste preset feature – between plugins and/or StudioRack
  Fixes to various activation related bugs

[Shooshie]

I'm not in need of renewing my WUP yet, but I probably won't hesitate when it comes time. There have been similar moves by iLok (Pace), Vienna, and others, and while I balked at first just because of the change in familiarity, I ended up liking it a lot better once I figured out how to use them. The key is keeping track of everything, upgrading the apps regularly (or at least before you use them again), and making sure you remember your password. Write it down or put it in a password vault, but that's really no different than the online versions; everything has a password, anyway.

As long as it doesn't try to force us into a subscription based thing, I'll be fine. I have two problems with subscription-based anything. One is price, of course, but the other is sheerly the administrative time it requires. I've bought Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator outright several times, plus a couple for my kids, which is incredibly expensive, and now Adobe wants me to go on a subscription plan so that I can just continue to send them money as long as I live, I suppose. Anyway, I'd just rather pay for it and forget about it. I use Waves plugins a lot, but also a lot less than I did 10 years ago. I'm down to about 3 mainstay Waves plugins, though I've got about 60 of them, not counting different versions of the same plugins. If Waves ever starts up with the subscription stuff, I'll probably go to my other options and finally drop the Waves investment.

But the manager app is fine with me. f

Shoosh

[HCMarkus]

Not having to download the whole friggin' library to add one new plug is welcome news.

[Shooshie]

Not having to download the whole friggin' library to add one new plug is welcome news.

It sure is.

[musicman691]

Surprised to see no mention of it here - maybe I missed someone's post...anyway, Waves has
ditched their Waves License Center (WLC) in favor of a new system called Waves Central. If you are a Waves user you should have received the email about it.

Judging from various forums on the web, it is not a good idea to upgrade to Waves Central right now, unless you are going to buy new Waves plug-ins, in which case you will have to because the old WLC is no longer supported. If you have no plans for new Waves plug-ins, you don't have to do anything right now, your Waves plugs will continue to work.

Apparently, Apple's newest security implementations prevent the Waves Cetral app from opening. There is a workaround, here it is:

Goto System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Firewall and unlock it

Select Firewall Options, add Waves Central to "Allow Incoming Connections"

Close the System Preferences

You should be able to keep your security settings as normal and it will run. If you have issues getting this to work for you, try doing the following step first, because that's basically what I did to get it working.

Goto System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General and select the "Anywhere" option

Run the app, make sure it connects fine.

Quit, follow the steps mentioned earlier

Change your security settings back to their default and close the System Preferences.



Waves Central supposedly allows you to now download individual plug-ins instead of having to download the entire Waves installer, and it allows you to create offline backups of installers. This is a plus. On the minus side, The WC app doesn't at the moment remember login details, and Waves plugs now run sluggishly in Logic 9, which Waves no longer supports at all.

Personally I'm going to wait until I have to renew my WUP to move to Waves Central.

Is this for just the latest version of Yosemite or does this pertain to Mavericks and Mountain Lion as well? I turn off sandboxing and firewalls as a rule anyways in OSX and depend on my router's capabilities.

[billf]

Is this for just the latest version of Yosemite or does this pertain to Mavericks and Mountain Lion as well? I turn off sandboxing and firewalls as a rule anyways in OSX and depend on my router's capabilities.

Here are the system requirements http://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs ... quirements

Mac
CPU
Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7

RAM
4 GB

Operating System
10.10.5 - 10.11
10.8.5 for Pro Tools 10 TDM Only

Screen Resolution
Minimum: 1024x768
Recommended: 1280x1024 / 1600x1024
USB displays are not supported as the primary display.

[musicman691]

Is this for just the latest version of Yosemite or does this pertain to Mavericks and Mountain Lion as well? I turn off sandboxing and firewalls as a rule anyways in OSX and depend on my router's capabilities.

Here are the system requirements http://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs ... quirements

Mac
CPU
Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7

RAM
4 GB

Operating System
10.10.5 - 10.11
10.8.5 for Pro Tools 10 TDM Only

Screen Resolution
Minimum: 1024x768
Recommended: 1280x1024 / 1600x1024
USB displays are not supported as the primary display.

Ouch - that hurts. Wonder why they skipped OSX 10.9.5? PT11.3.1 isn't supported in OSX 10.10.4 or above. And I can't afford to lose PT11 right now so I guess it's no more Waves for me.

[mikehalloran]

Is this for just the latest version of Yosemite or does this pertain to Mavericks and Mountain Lion as well? I turn off sandboxing and firewalls as a rule anyways in OSX and depend on my router's capabilities.

Here are the system requirements http://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs ... quirements

Mac
CPU
Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7

RAM
4 GB

Operating System
10.10.5 - 10.11
10.8.5 for Pro Tools 10 TDM Only

Screen Resolution
Minimum: 1024x768
Recommended: 1280x1024 / 1600x1024
USB displays are not supported as the primary display.

Ouch - that hurts. Wonder why they skipped OSX 10.9.5? PT11.3.1 isn't supported in OSX 10.10.4 or above. And I can't afford to lose PT11 right now so I guess it's no more Waves for me.

If the reason is security, that's your answer and it makes perfect sense.

If you have no plans for new Waves plug-ins, you don't have to do anything right now, your Waves plugs will continue to work.

[musicman691]

Thank you David. I appreciate the heads up. Just minutes ago, I was discussing the email with our engineer. We also will wait till we WUP.

That brings up something - what happens when one's WUP is up for renewal? If we pay the WUP fee do we have to go to the new Waves s/w?

This just when I had enough liquid funds to get the SSL collection.

[billf]

That brings up something - what happens when one's WUP is up for renewal? If we pay the WUP fee do we have to go to the new Waves s/w?

WUP does not automatically update your installed software, rather it extends your access to the latest versions. IOW, if you don't pay WUP, you're locked in to whatever installed version you have. Once you pay your WUP fee, then you can update if you so desire.

[musicman691]

That brings up something - what happens when one's WUP is up for renewal? If we pay the WUP fee do we have to go to the new Waves s/w?

WUP does not automatically update your installed software, rather it extends your access to the latest versions. IOW, if you don't pay WUP, you're locked in to whatever installed version you have. Once you pay your WUP fee, then you can update if you so desire.

I understand that but what's to stop Waves from forcing one to go to the new license s/w when an update is available and downloaded? IOW - you want the new version you have to get the new license s/w?

[nk_e]

Installed Waves Central here. No issues.