Whatever DAW you use will undoubtedly come with several great mixing plugins which should enable you to create good mixes, so you might be wondering why on earth you need to invest in more software for your mixing. Third-party companies like Waves specialise in creating tools that focus on either reimagining vintage hardware to exacting component detail, or creating bespoke tools that are designed for very specific studio tasks. In that way third-party plugins offer more precise solutions over broad-stroke, bundled DAW plugins; they are highly focussed and very good at doing what they do!
What's more, Waves plugins are an almost permanent sale, delivering massive discounts which often increase the more plugins you purchase. It’s rare, then, to have to pay full price for Waves plugins, so use our prices as a guide only - expect to pay a lot less!
In terms of which to buy, this is very much down to any issues you are currently having when mixing and what you are lacking when it comes to your bundled DAW plugins. Most mix engineers have a go-to compressor and EQ that they like to turn to, over and above those supplied in their DAW. These might have their own character, adding a certain colour to the sound, or they might be based on a favourite piece of outboard vintage hardware that has simply become too expensive or too impractical to use in their current studio setup. Using a third-party plugin can therefore give you the sound of a classic piece of gear at a fraction of the price and with the convenience to slot it into a modern DAW-based studio.
Overall, while buying certain plugins is very much a personal choice, having a good range of plugins - a vintage channel strip or compressor and a workhorse ‘clean’ set of tools - is a good idea, just to give you flexibility when it comes to mix down. With that in mind, then, perhaps use your DAW plugins as the workhorse tools, and use your third-party choices to give you that extra character and finesse, a perhaps elusive pro sound or a character that can be yours alone, taking your music above and beyond that produced in DAWs with stock plugins. And remember, this pro sound or edge need not cost as much as you might think - all of the plugins above are currently on sale (or soon will be!).