UPDATE FROM MARCH 29: See a statement from Waves Audio at the conclusion of this article.

Waves Audio has launched StudioVerse, an AI-powered system that will help producers and audio creators unlock the full power of all Waves plugins, bringing to their DAW the power of an entire musical community.

StudioVerse, an AI-powered community for plugin chains that opens from within the Waves StudioRack plugin chainer. StudioVerse helps users unlock the full power of all Waves plugins: it is suitable for producers, musicians, and audio creators at all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. For those who are not expert mix engineers, StudioVerse is designed to break the knowledge barrier in mixing, and make great-sounding results accessible to everyone.

StudioVerse is a vast online network of plugin chains, available directly in a user’s DAW. It includes thousands of presets for entire plugin chains, with Musical AI search. Each chain is like a shortcut to a professionally produced or mixed track. The chains are created by industry-leading GRAMMY-winning producers and mixers, such as Young Guru, Chris Lord-Alge, Manny Marroquin, and more. StudioVerse is also an open platform, where anyone can upload and share chains at any time, so the vast number of mixing chains available in StudioVerse is ever-growing.

According to the company, the most groundbreaking aspect of StudioVerse is its Musical AI search engine, which recommends the best chains for your specific tracks. All users need to do is click the “Scan” button: StudioVerse’s musical machine learning engine will learn a user’s track’s “Audio ID” and instantly recommend mixing chains matching their unique sonic fingerprint. In addition, users can search StudioVerse chains by free text search and using tags, classified by instrument, genre, or various sonic characteristics.

Watch the video below to learn more about StudioVerse.

Waves is also introducing its new subscription service, Waves Creative Access, which includes the entire Waves plugin catalog and is now the exclusive way to get Waves plugins. With Waves Creative Access, all its plugins are at the fingertips of all producers, musicians, engineers, and audio creators. All its plugins are available to everyone, in one easy, affordable subscription service; current owners of Waves plugins will continue to own the existing versions of their plugins.

Waves Creative Access subscriptions include all future updates for the included plugins, as well as new plugins added regularly. “No hassle, no extra cost—finally, everyone can produce and mix with the latest versions of all Waves plugins, always, with complete freedom,” said the company in a statement.

Waves Creative Access offers two subscription levels, each available as a monthly or annual subscription:

• The larger option, Waves Ultimate includes all Waves plugins (over 220 and growing), at $24.99 a month or $249.99 a year.
• For those seeking a more modest but still vast collection of plugins, the second option, Waves Essential, includes over 110 pro-quality plugins covering essential mixing and vocal production needs, at $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year.

“Since we started Waves, our goal has always been to give all music and audio creators easy, affordable access to the largest catalog of pro-quality plugins,” Mick Olesh, the company’s managing director. “Now, with Waves Creative Access and StudioVerse, you have everything you need in order to inspire your creativity—instantly, always at your fingertips, so you can create with total freedom.”

Waves Creative Access subscriptions are for plugins only. Waves application such as eMotion LV1, SuperRack, SoundGrid Rack for Venue and Dugan Speech are still sold individually.

A Statement from Waves Audio

Dear Waves Community:

My name is Meir Shashoua, and I’m the CTO and co-founder of Waves Audio. Over the past few days, many of you have expressed concerns about our decision to discontinue perpetual plugin licenses and our move to an exclusive plugin subscription model. I would like to start by apologizing for the frustration we have caused many of you, our loyal customers. We understand that our move was sudden and disruptive, and did not sufficiently take into consideration your needs, wishes, and preferences. We are genuinely sorry for the distress it has caused.

After respectfully listening to your concerns, I want to share with you that we are bringing back the perpetual plugin license model, side-by-side with the new subscriptions. You will again be able to get plugins as perpetual licenses, just as before.

In addition, those of you who already own perpetual licenses will once again be able to update your plugins and receive a second license via the Waves Update Plan—again, just as before. This option, too, will be available alongside and independently of the subscription program. We are currently putting all our efforts into making perpetual licenses available to you again, as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you can keep up-to-date on this news page, where we will post the latest updates on perpetual license availability.

I would like you to know that we are committed to you, our users. We listened to your feedback, and we will continue to listen to you. Waves is a company filled with users and creators, just like you, and we are all as passionate about the products as you are. With this in mind, we will strive to find the way to make things right by you, and hopefully regain your trust.

Thank you for your feedback and continued support—I wish you all the best,

Meir Shashoua
CTO and Co-Founder