Everything via Waves Central
Waves installation.
Waves products are installed and unlocked through Waves Central. Set aside about ten minutes. You will need the activation code from your licence email.
Official brand help
www.waves.com/support ↗How to install and activate
- 1
Sign in or create your Waves account
Registering a licence requires a Waves account. Sign in, or create one, using the email address from your order.
Open ↗ - 2
Register your licence
Once signed in you land on Register New Products. Paste the licence number from this email to add it to your account.
Open ↗Sign in to view itYour activation code
It is in your licence email, in the purple panel. Signed in? It is in your account too.
- 3
Download and install Waves Central
Waves Central installs and activates your registered products. Download it for your platform, sign in, then open Install Products → All Products to install what you just registered.
Open ↗TIPWaves Central is a separate download for Mac and Windows, so pick the one that matches your computer. - 4
Open your DAW and check
Restart your DAW so it rescans for new plug-ins, then load one of your Waves plug-ins on a track. No trial banner means the licence is live.
If something goes wrong
My code is not accepted
Codes are entered exactly as sent — paste rather than retype, and keep or drop dashes exactly as the steps say. Still stuck? Contact us with your order number and we will sort it, usually the same day.
The plug-in does not show up in my music program
Check you installed the format your program uses and rescan its plug-in folders. The Waves help pages cover each program's scan settings.
I bought this but have no email
Check spam first — licence emails arrive within minutes of payment. Nothing there? Contact us and we will resend it.
Do I need the Waves app?
Yes — Waves installs and licenses everything through its own app; the guide above starts there.