Waves MetaFlanger

Flanging has long been a heavily used technique in the rock world. In fact, it almost got to the point where it was overused, but it seems to be going out of style at the moment. That's good for those who want to be unique again, and this plugin should help you achieve everything from a very gentle chorus to some huge jet plane flanger sound. The plugin has adjustments for mix, mix phase wet, feedback, feedback phase, filter type (low or high pass), filter frequency, filter on/off, delay, modulation, tempo sync, link modulation rate and depth controls, sine or triangle waveform, modulation effect freezing, stereo and more. The plugin is very simple to use. Just open up your favorite DAW and put it on whatever buss you want to flange. I usually put this on some sort of aux buss, personally. I never read the manual, so I can't comment on that, but Waves' manuals are generally pretty good.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

First of all, this plugin is super rock solid. I've never experienced a single hiccup or crash while using this. Considering that Waves is one of the best companies in this aspect, it's really no surprise. The plugin itself is cross platform compatible, so both Windows and OS X users alike can use this without any issues. The plugin itself also doesn't take up too much RAM, and in a world where processing power/RAM mean everything, that's a huge plus. There is one issue that I have with this, however. The plugin itself is a 32 bit plugin, but my DAW is a 64 bit DAW. That means that my DAW has to launch a special bridge application to allow me to use these plugins without having to lower my RAM limit. It's a minor inconvenience, but I'd still like to see Waves update these plugins in the future. I've been using the Mercury bundle for the past half a year or so, and it's bee a great experience.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're looking for a very solid flanger that's very versatile, I recommend checking this out. There are some nice free plugins out there, but they're not exactly compatible with all the systems out there like this is. Really, even the standard Logic flanger is good enough for me, but I enjoy the tone that this flanger brings to the table for certain phrases and whatnot.

I didn't have any problems whatsoever installing the Waves Ltd. Meta Flanger and it was a pretty quick process overall.  Once it was installed figuring out the interface of the software didn't take all that long as it is a pretty easy plug-in to use.  The plug-in has parameters for mix, feedback, rarte, delay, depth, waveform, and modulation, as well as few other things here and there.  Everything is quite basic looking, which isn't a bad thing as everything is easy to find.  I don't think that a manual is necessary for this plug-in although I haven't seen one so I can't say if it is a good manual or not.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I have run the Waves Ltd. Meta Flanger on a few different system, all in Pro Tools.  At home, I am currently running the Waves Ltd. Meta Flanger on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM.  I run Pro Tools LE 7.4 that runs with a Digi 002R audio interface.  I have also ran the Waves Ltd. Meta Flanger on a Pro Tools HD system with an Apple G5 desktop computer and I have found that the plug-in runs great on both the HD and the LE systems.  The plug-in takes up little processing power and for this reason can be run on just about any system that will support Pro Tools.


OVERALL OPINION

I've been using the Waves Ltd. Meta Flanger for a few years and while it isn't the flashiest flanger out there, it definitely will get the job done in a lot of situations.  It is easy to use while at the same time maintaining the ability for the user to control the sound with an array of parameters.  It has a very nice sound quality and the plug-in has the ability to give you all sorts of flanger effects depending on the way that you set the parameters.  All in all, the Waves Ltd. Meta Flanger is a well made flanger that sounds quite good brought to you by one of the best known plug-in manufacturers.