The best Waves plugins for vocals 2021 review

What are the best Waves plugins for vocals? There are so many to choose from. I’m in a pretty good position to cover this topic. I’ve worked with all Waves plugins throughout the years. I’ve also recently tested the latest V12 versions. In this guide you will find my recommendations.

Get free products, plugin presets and exclusive content. Check back often as we add more. Log in to your Waves account or create a new account to access these free downloads. Chris Lord-Alge on CLA Vocals: “The most important part of any song is the vocals. The CLA Vocals plugin makes this part of mixing an absolute joy. Exciter plugins add subtle harmonics to your vocal track for some extra sonic-excitement in the high range. The free La Petite Excite from Fine Cut Bodies (you just have to signup to get it) is a great plug to try out. Throw it on your vocal and enhance it to your liking with some subtle harmonic distortion. Download La Petite Excite for Free.

We’re going to tackle the plugins in alphabetical order. First, a short summary list for those who just want the info quick. Then, I’ll introduce what each plugin does, tell you why I like it and give you my tips on using it.

If you have any further questions, let me know in the comments section.

Disclosure for transparency: I’m affiliated with Waves and although I own many Waves plugins, they provided me with a limited 3-month license for testing and reviewing the latest versions. I only ever promote products I like.Please don’t buy anything unless you’re sure it’s what you need. Check out this post about how to make better buying decisions.

These are the best Waves plugins for vocals:

Waves Abbey Road Saturator

If you are looking for some attitude, vibe and strength for your vocal, the Waves Abbey Road Saturator is an excellent option. It features sections for pre and post EQ, compander and saturation. It works great in most situations and it’s quick and easy to get good results with it.

Why is it good?

The compander section is what makes this plugin special to me. The compander compresses the Pre EQ signal, passes it through low-pass and high-pass filters, and then expands it. This excites the signal and provides control over how different frequencies are distorted based on the compander ratio.

Sound complicated? Not to worry. Just play around with it until you like what you’re hearing. That’s what I do anyways. It usually doesn’t take long to get a nice solid vocal sound going.

I think this is one of the best Waves plugins for rap vocals as the compander allows you to get that super tight up front sound quite easily.

Waves Abbey Road Saturator tips

It’s quite easy to end up with an overly bright sound with this plugin. The Post EQ section is there for a reason. Use it to counter for imbalances.
Even though the plugin is called “Saturator”, less is more with that. The saturation can start to sound quite brittle if you push it too hard. A little bit goes a long way – especially when mixing vocals.

Link: Waves Abbey Road Saturator

Waves Butch Vig Vocals

If you’re not a technical person and are looking for a convenient one-stop-shop for mixing vocals, then the Butch Vig Vocals plugin might be the one for you. It has all your basic vocal processing needs covered in a very nice package.

Why is it good?

I prefer Butch Vig Vocals over the Waves CLA Vocals or the Maserati VX1 plugins for example.

Rather than focusing on adding a bunch of effects, this plugin is all about useful and finely calibrated controls. Things that you actually need to solve problems and get the basic sound right. If you’re new to working with vocals, playing around with this plugin will teach you what to listen for when mixing vocals. The controls feel very well focused and precise.

Waves Butch Vig Vocals tips

Adjust the input correctly. The plugin is designed to work optimally when the input sensitivity led at the top is blinking green or yellow (not red).
Besides your ears, you can use the In and Out meter switches (top left corner) to monitor the relationship between your input and output volume. Try to keep them the same. It will help you in evaluating the sound.

Link: Waves Butch Vig Vocals

Waves DeBreath

Waves DeBreath is a useful companion for mixing vocals. Breath sounds are often a problem as the microphone picks them up much louder than they actually are, and compression tends to make it worse. This results in breath sounds and gasps that poke through the mix in a nasty way.

DeBreath uses an algorithm to detect the breath sounds in a vocal take (with a little bit of help from you). You can then reduce the level of the breaths without affecting the rest of the material. Traditionally this is tedious work that is carried out in the edit manually.

Why is it good?

Because it works! The plugin gives you two thresholds to set – Breath and Energy. When Breath is above the threshold and Energy is below the threshold (as seen in the picture above), the plugin classifies the material as breathing and reduction can be applied.

I have used it with several different singers and it always worked beautifully. I still recommend demoing the plugin first in your specific use case before buying though.

Waves DeBreath tips

Instead of removing the breaths, with many types of music it often sounds better if you just reduce them a little bit in volume. Just enough so that they’re not jumping through the mix.
You can use the “Room Tone” function to add some subtle room tone to fill in the gaps.
Make sure you’re hitting your targets properly by monitoring the breath only also. Just hit the “Breath” button.

Link: Waves DeBreath

Waves Doubler

Waves Doubler is a classic plugin. It’s a sound enricher and a stereo widening effect, but can be used for all sorts of experimental stuff. It’s very useful for making vocals pop in the mix.

Why is it good?

Doubler is quite old school and that’s part of it’s appeal for me. Above all it sounds great. It is one of those plugins that just work and give you good results every time. It is very simple and straightforward to use. Doubler also has fantastic presets from many top mix engineers to explore.

Waves Doubler tips

Use the modulation feature to add small amounts of movement. This can liven up a vocal in a very nice way.
It might be tempting to go all out and use all 4 voices. But many times using only 2 can do the trick in a cleaner way by cluttering the mix less.

Link: Waves Doubler

Waves EMO-D5 Dynamics

If you’re looking for a complete dynamic toolkit for working with vocals – look no further. The Waves EMO-D5 Dynamics gives you gating, compression, levelling, de-essing and limiting. The EMO-D5 is a very clean sounding plugin. There’s no analog emulation or other funky stuff going on here as opposed to many other Waves compressors.

Why is it good?

The interface on the EMO-D5 is clear and very nice to use (it was actually designed to work well on touch screen interfaces, and that shows). It also gives you zero latency and low CPU consumption. The controls do what they’re supposed to. It’s a great package for mixing vocals.

Waves EMO-D5 Dynamics tips

When mixing vocals, start by switching on the different sections individually one by one. It is easier to figure out what each section is doing that way.
The plugin has very nice visual metering. If you’re unsure about what some of the visuals represent, it’s all very well explained in the product manual.

Link: Waves EMO-D5 Dynamics

Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay

The delay is an essential vocal effect and the Waves H-Delay “just does it”.

From slap-back echo, ping-pong delay, and tempo-sync with modulation, to filtering, flanging, phasing, and more, H-Delay delivers real old school effects, controlled by a super intuitive interface.

Why is it good?

In H-Delay I like that it’s easy to navigate, but most of all I like how it sounds. It has character and vibe. If I had to describe in one word how it sounds, I would say it sounds thick. But not in an obvious or obtrusive way.

H-Delay is one of those plugins that when you put it on, it almost always sounds good. Equally great for big dubby delay effects or short dimension delays.

Waves H-Delay tips

The LoFi button emulates the sample rate reduction that many classic analog delay units sported by design. It gives the delay some really nice edge.
Use the modulation parameters to bring slight movement to your delays. It can really bring the sound alive, especially when you are synced to a certain BPM.

Link: Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay

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