If Soundwave is all about communication, recon and infiltration then i think him being a stealth jet makes sense.
Now, i havent forgotten that he was spy drone before, but my thinking is make his minions the drones which he can release or "eject", and i would limit the minions to three: Ravage, Laserbeak and Rumble.

For a while I was thinking a Mobile Command Vehicle, but the jet is closer to the Decepticon heritage of being the flying bots.

 

I think he should be an apache helicopter and have a g1 esque but slender build, and he should have 4 missile pods, Laserbeak, Ravage, Rumble and one last one, either Ratbat, Buzzsaw, or Overkill, that he deploys RID15 style. They're sentient Minicons with sparks and they all talk like the rest. Ravage has a Russian accent.

 

Military humvee adapted to launch aerial drones. Laserbeak is his only deployer turning into the drone. Prime Soundwave was cool, but I want him boxy and with a big chest window.

Though the helicopter could work.

 

I say go to the other extreme. He was a compact Walkman in G1. Make him an aircraft carrier now. The most modern and technologically advanced base that exists (or will exist) His minions could be different weapons. For example, Laserbeak could be a drone, whereas Rumble could be an electromagnetic rail gun.

 

I saw a custom a while back ago, but they had a design that looked like it was inspired by a Cable News Communication Vehicle. It’d be a perfect disguise for espionage and surveillance missions in populated areas.

 

This would be my line of thinking. A satellite truck or something. I would say a Comcast Xfinity truck, but then Megatron would kick his butt for constantly no-showing or waltzing in late to battle. (Ba dum dum!)

 

Personally, I'd like something that resembles his Cybertron/Galaxy Force design. I thought that was a great look for him. The closest real-world vehicle I could find was an F-117A Nighthawk.

 

Nah, he’d just team up with Swindle and try to sell everyone bullshit “premium” packages nobody wants or needs.

 

Soundwave turning into a vehicle doesn't really sit right with me. Having audio functions is most iconic trait, it's even in his name, but not many devices I know of outside of smartphones and laptops can both record and play back audio... So at the risk of making him seem too much like Blaster or Movie Frenzy, I think something like this would work:

Some kind of speaker/phone-dock system , with the cassettes now transforming into phones or other related accessories. (I just dicked around on google images until I found the most visually interesting one, probably a more compact and inconspicuous model would be better.)

 

As much as I like Soundwave being a vehicle, I wouldn't consider anything a true modern alternate mode unless you actually went with something similar to the original...

In other words your options are a CD Player or an I-Pod. While CD players have basically been outdated now it's much easier to translated the cassettes into CDs that way. I-Pods don't have any analog as everything has been made digital eliminating the need for such things. I suppose maybe they could transform into mini-SD cards, that's probably the closest thing to their original alternate modes you can get to with an I-Pod.

Those are the only truly modernized alternate modes they could have as they're literally the modern versions of a cassette player.

That said I still prefer he's a vehicle because it's far more useful than transforming into a music player. Even though it really makes no sense for a guy named Soundwave... though Jazz was always a vehicle and he was pretty much the Autobot version of Soundwave till Blaster came along and did a better job at being an Autobot Soundwave.

 

What about an amplifier with Frenzy as a tweeter, Rumble as a subwoofer, and Ravage as a midrange speaker?

 

I really like the idea of his cassettes now becoming cell phones and MP3 players. Well, more so cell phones today. Soundwave on the other hand, I think he works best as a truck/van like in IDW currently and Animated. I dunno, it helps him keep the silhouette, and I feel like it helps balance out the Cons. They shouldn't be so air based, and Shockwave and Megatron both flip flop between air and ground based vehicles, in addition to Soundwave, I feel like Soundwave just works best as a car.

 

the stationary and mass shifting alt-mode isn't really practical anymore, in my opinion. I think the best update to that was his satellite form in ROTF, although that does make his character removed from the rest of the action.

 

What do you mean not practical ANYMORE? It was NEVER practical to begin with. That's why I prefer him being a vehicle to a true modernized version of his original alternate mode, the tape deck was always a dumb alternate mode.

The most use that tape deck ever had was tricking Spike into taking him into the Ark... and even that was dumb considering the obvious Decepticon insignia on it and even though he was just getting to know the Transformers at the time he had still seen Decepticons before that point and how do you not notice the weird symbol never before seen on Earth till the Decepticons showed up?

 

But then again, Soundwave never really seems to get heavily involved. Consider Prime, where he rarely got involved, and if he did, it was quick. He was not a fighter and much better at sitting back. Sure if he was a satellite he'd be very far from the rest of the action, but he seems best at that in a way, only getting involved when necessary.

 

I like the Evergreen Armored Truck because;

1. Can keep the same color scheme and overall blocky shape
2. Can feasibly become a robot of similar size to Optimus/Ironhide
3. Fits in a military setting along with Starscream (jet) and Megatron (often a tank)
4. Can transport itself
5. Doesn't require mass-shifting
6. Can have a sound-themed weapon mounted on it without ruining the disguise aspect

 

I always liked the satellite concept; out of reach of his enemies, constantly surveying the Earth, floating in the dark recess, always listening. Not the most dynamic position, but well-suiting his role.

 

I like the stealth plane/ drone alt mode of TF Prime as well as the spy van/ truck of wfc/foc

 

I think a cool satellite design would suit him well.

 

Satellite truck