Waves Kaleidoscopes $39 WHAT!?

[Boombastix]

Just wow, classic modules, very smooth sounding, nice UI, and a ton of modern ways to modulate.

Love the trigger step function - you can get each trigger to make the FX move just a bit, then stop. Put that on drums, gtr, vocals etc - just wow.
Here is a great video, second half has really useful examples (he even does stutter FX with the Flanger, lol):
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Classic FX modeled:
Boss (Roland) CE-1 chorus (I prefer this one over Dim D actually, great for bass too as it doesn't loose the bottom end)
Phasers modeled after Eventide and MXR.
Flanger another Eventide, boy it sounds smoooooth.

This must give Arturia sleepless nights, their recent $149 bundle sounds fine but not the same playground as Waves Kaleidoscopes lets you do all kinds of new cool ways to modulate.
Really smart to also offer through mode, i.e. FX on one side dry on the other. Classic guitar trick, but maybe chorus on L and phaser on R?

Or set it to a smooth random to just add that analog vibe to stale VST patches - golden!
Or set it to trigger mode but turn up threshold so it doesn't trigger, then automate the movement - killer drop and sweeps right there.

Then trow this thing in the free Waves Rack for simple FX chaining and multiband, or make your own 8x FX parallel Kaleidoscopes setup. You can also run a wet reverb or delay with Kaleidoscopes after, then adjust the Wet/Dry of the Waves Rack (2-ch parallel split mode) - fast and simple.Or distort the Mid, and Kaleidoscopes modulation on the Reverb/Delay sides, OK gotta stop, this just got really crazy fun!

And for $39 bucks, I mean... Well done Waves

[hurricane]

These might be different enough from Arturia's recent bundle to at least warrant a look. When I saw the email early this morning, I was just like "nah, I'm good" considering I recently jumped on Arturia's $49 mod bundle, and even though I am Waves' #1 fan, I'm not tempted, even at the $34.97 price you can get this for at https://plugindiscounts.com/product/wav ... doscopes/ . It's a limited-time intro price, so we have some time to give it a look.

[Boombastix]

These might be different enough from Arturia's recent bundle to at least warrant a look. When I saw the email early this morning, I was just like "nah, I'm good" considering I recently jumped on Arturia's $49 mod bundle, and even though I am Waves' #1 fan, I'm not tempted, even at the $34.97 price you can get this for at https://plugindiscounts.com/product/wav ... doscopes/ . It's a limited-time intro price, so we have some time to give it a look.

I tested the Arturia bundle one as well, and did write my opinion on it (the Arturia thread). It did not offer me anything over what I already have (especially the NI Mod bundle), so they are a pass for me even at $49 (guess I can change my mind as this is an upgrade price, at least until the bundle disappears). Sound wise both setups are probably close enough to call it even, for basic modulation that is. But if you cannot grab the Arturia $49 upgrade it will be $149, vs Waves for $39, that is a bunch of extra money for most. Then add the innovative modulation on the Waves and it got me seriously interested. Especially as I also can throw it into the free Waves StudioRack and do mid/side and multiband real fast.

So atm, I make new FX patches in the StudioRack and I can use all the modulation in the MultiMod rack inside StudioRack as well. MultiMod also has built in delay/reverb/chorus (just basic types) and it has a step sequencer and LFOs, then add all the GTR3 pedals... It is starting to get real powerful, icing on the cake - - - Kaleidoscopes.

I think Waves have done a lot of cool stuff this past year. I used to think of them as "has been" guys who were just re-hashing old DSP in a new UI with a name of a famous mix guy. I guess someone just said, let do some new awesome stuff, and here we are, a bit of company transformation... I like what I'm seeing and I like what I'm hearing, prices (after the silly coupons) are very competitive. So, yeah, I like Waves now, which is not what I was thinking 2 yrs ago.

[hurricane]

I think Waves have done a lot of cool stuff this past year.

Yup - and Waves StudioRack is my plugin of the year.

[tallguy]

1. I don't need more plugins. This doesn't sound very interesting and it looks ugly. But I'll give it a try for the sake of fairness

2. Download trial version

3. It's...really nice. Dammit, Waves. That wasn't supposed to happen

[Billy+]

I've given up on Waves plugin, there minimum OS requirements are just to much of a pain and they seem to be the only one

[hurricane]

Been demoing this and looking at vids, and dammit I want it because I can build my (previously existing only in my brain) mega multi-band super ultra chorus with Studio Rack. You Reasonites might say "but you can already do that in Reason with the combinator and R11's chorus" - sure you can, but you'd be doing that with inferior sounding building blocks. And that's my view on Reason's internal effects and most REs - they're a bunch of inferior sounding building blocks, and it's precisely why using VSTs inside Reason is a game changer for Reason-only users.

The very cheapest price I've seen is $34.70 at JRRSHOP with code FORUM.

[tallguy]

As always, testing and comparing new plugins often gives me renewed appreciation for plugins I already own, in this case, Soundtoys PhaseMistress. I never paid much attention to its envelope follower before, but it's pretty crazy what you can do with it

[hurricane]

As always, testing and comparing new plugins often gives me renewed appreciation for plugins I already own, in this case, Soundtoys PhaseMistress. I never paid much attention to its envelope follower before, but it's pretty crazy what you can do with it

Yeah, and as I was testing Kaleidoscopes on a track, I realized I preferred Arturia's mod pack, in addition to Eventide's phaser and flanger, which Kaleidoscopes is emulating. I don't see them mentioned much, but Eventide's OG units are so sweet:

InstantPhaser-MkII.jpg (41.54 KiB) Viewed 626 times

InstantFlanger-MkII-Web.jpg (43.2 KiB) Viewed 626 times