Waves Renaissance Vox

I'll be up front about this in that I don't use this plugin too often given that I'm a death metal guitarist. When I do vocals, it's mostly guttural stuff with tons of compression and gain boosts. However, I do some 80s metal and even rock in my spare time. Doing clean vocals takes quite a bit of effort, and for them to sound "alive" takes a good amount of processing. Too many times have I had someone record a great take only for it to not sit in the mix nicely. I've used this plugin very successfully on those vocals to help add some dynamics and give them that sparkle they needed to sit nicely. The plugin is basically a compressor, gate, limiter, maximizer, etc. in one. It's very simple to use and has only a few sliders -- gate, comp and gain. By adjusting these three sliders, you can get some great vocal mixes without having to spend hours and hours processing them.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Waves is the king when it comes to things like stability and performance. They're almost unbeatable in this category. I've never experienced a single crash or hiccup while using this plugin inside of my favorite DAW -- Logic Pro. The plugin is cross compatible, and that means that almost every user out there should be able to utilize this plugin on their favorite machine. It also doesn't take up too much RAM or processing power, which is a huge plus. There is one issue I have experienced, however. The plugin itself is a 32 bit plugin. I run a 64 bit DAW, and it can be a real pain because Logic Pro has to run a special bridge application to utilize this inside the 64 bit workspace. I'm hoping they'll update this plugin later down the road to work in 64 bit environments natively. I've been using the Mercury bundle for about half a year now, and I'm loving every minute of it.

OVERALL OPINION

Don't get me wrong, this one plugin won't magically make your vocals all of the sudden sound amazing. However, despite it being a very basic setup, it's pretty powerful. I was able to get some great results when combining this plugin with a few others to really help make a vocal mix stand out. I highly recommend it to anybody who records cleaner vocals.

The Waves Ltd. Renaissance Vox is a vocal compression plug-in that comes with a variety of different Waves bundles, but not as an individual plug-in as far as I know. I've got the full bundle of Waves plug-ins at home and have also used this plug-in at the studio where I work since I do a lot of going back and forth between home and the studio. I installed the plug-in along with the rest of the Renaissance plug-ins and the full set of Waves plugs. It should be a quick and easy process, as virtually every DAW will be compatible here. Learning the plug-in is also pretty easy if you understand the basics behind using a compressor/limiter/gate. The parameters that it gives you to work with here are for gate threshold, compression amount, and gain make up. Each also has it's own corresponding meter. It's super simple to use, so it would even be a good place to start for those who are just getting into using compression. It's included in some of the cheapest bundles that Waves has to offer as well. A manual shouldn't be necessary with Renaissance Vox.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I've currently got the Waves Ltd. Renaissance Vox plug-in running in Pro Tools 9 on my system at home. I just upgraded to Pro Tools 9, which I can run as a standalone piece of software or with my Digi 002R audio interface. The computer I'm running everything on is a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. This has definitely been an adequate system for me to run this plug-in on, as I've yet to have any issues with performance with it.

OVERALL OPINION

The Waves Ltd. Renaissance Vox is a nice little compressor/limiter/gate to have in your plug-in suite. It's not anything revolutionary, but gets the job done for simple compression on vocals. I haven't used it for anything beyond vocals as it seems silly to even try since Waves has a Renaissance plug-in for virtually every application. I will say that while it's not my go to plug-in for vocal compression, it has a full sound that's realistic and shares the same sort of quality as most of the other Renaissance plug-ins. Since you can't buy this plug-in on it's own, it's really only worth checking out at all if you're going to buy a Waves bundle. Most of the Waves bundles will have this plug-in it in, but I wouldn't say that it's worth it for this one alone. Check out the full line of Waves plug-ins if you're interested in this one, as they have bundles for users on all levels, most of them including Renaissance Vox...

- The installation is done it without problems?
Via Serial Number and Ilok. Somewhat complex as all waste material Waves plugins
- Have you experienced any incompatibilities?
not
- The general configuration is easy?
yes
- The manual is clear and sufficient? ...
no need for manual

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

- What is the configuration of your computer? (Motherboard / CPU / Ram / Disk / sound card ..)
Intel Q6600 with 4GB of Ram Protools
- The software works he correctly on this configuration?
No pb

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you use it?
2 months
- What is so special that you like most and least?
Great on vocals, it reduces background noise and compressed before the result is impressive. There is no simpler to use, it's a must to save time / quality.
- Have you tried many other models before buying it?
Yes
- How would you rate the quality / price?
It is not cheap, but I use it on almost all the lead vocals.
- With experience, you do again this choice? ...
Yes

The installation is done it without problems?
Yes (requires an account and a USB i-lok for license bundles, plugins and only demo)

The general configuration is easy?
Yes

Have you experienced any incompatibilities?
No

The manual is clear and sufficient?
Yes but no French version (small flat)


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

What is the configuration of your computer?
PC Intel Celeron 2.50 GHz 4 GB RAM Windows 7 64-bit sequencer Ableton Live

The software works he correctly on this configuration?
Yes

This software + hardware is stable?
Yes

OVERALL OPINION

For how long have you been using it?
4 months

Did you try many other models before getting this one?
No

What thing do you like most/least about it?
The ease of use (3 parameters): the gate is effective, the compressor is running well and gain.Il seems more effective voice on spoken than sung.

What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Expensive because it is found only in bundles.IL is part of the renaissance that range is not excellent but is very good and not resource-hungry processor.

Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?
Yes I love