Automating a control of a VST inside Wavelab Pro 9?

I’m working on a project that needs some low mid excitation during the beat and then no low mid excitation during the break. Currently using iZotope Ozone 7 to process the track, is there a way I can automate or modulate this one specific parameter of the plugin, inside the audio editor in Wavelab Pro 9 ? :confused:

If you use the plugin in a clip, you can automate the plugin send level with an envelope. Have a try.

And to be clear, you must be using an audio montage and not the audio editor (as mentioned in the first post) to automate the send/blend of a clip plugin.

I would love to see actual FX parameter automation sometime soon in WaveLab. While the current method may be technically more sample accurate, it’s not a solution for all situations such as automating the threshold/input level of a limiter plugin that is instead on the montage output effects.

The current method can be good for some EQ morphing tricks or maybe to control the wet/dry blend of a tape saturation plugin, but not for the more detailed art of fine tuning a limiter threshold for certain parts of a song or on per song basis in a montage.

If that would possible, that would be huge.

I really don’t see why I have to be in an Audio Montage to automate a parameter on my Master Section VST plugin. This needs to be fixed or the feature added. Envelope automation per parameter assignment from the VST controls. Without annoying montage or send effect workarounds. Can’t believe a program of such high caliber lacks a simple feature like this that every other DAW manages to do with ease.

That’s merely a matter of fact for the current version.

Can’t believe a program of such high caliber lacks a simple feature like this that every other DAW manages to do with ease.

WaveLab isn’t a DAW of that kind, and adding features which were not part of the original design is not necessarily “simple” or “easy” (are you a programmer to say that with confidence?). It may well be added sometime; after all, the partial automation which is already available is a recent addition.

Paul

WaveLab really should have full automation of the effects, to me this is basic. I have found a work around outside of WaveLab but it’s time consuming and not as accurate as automation within my mastering would be. I don’t know what the programming ramifications would be for PG but I can say I would pay a reasonable upgrade fee when it happens.

@kristinnavarro

For my stats: what do you need to automate that you can’t achieve with plugin send effect envelopes (for clips)?

Thank you for asking Philippe.

The main effect I wish to use automation for while mastering in WaveLab is the Waves L3-16 limiter. I would primarily automate the Threshold. A secondary effect I wish to use automation for is the EQ in Master Rig. I would like the ability to automate the gain of any frequency band I am using in the EQ. I use the individual, independent effects for each clip in the Audio Montage in WaveLab.

I would agree with @kristinnavarro. I think most users just want ability to automate the usual parameters of a plugin for clip, track, and montage output effects. For me, the main thing would be my limiter threshold or limiter input parameters.

I can see that maybe automating the global master section could be trickier because that is stored as a separate file and feels separate from the montage itself, which is why I don’t use it.

Agree this would be helpful, but it remains to be seen how such a thing would be implemented in WL. I’m guessing it would be an envelope curve for each parameter… might get crowded if you wanted these for clip, track and output.

Yes, it definitely could get crowded if you consider all plugins and all parameters but I think Pro Tools and REAPER handle it well. In Pro Tools, you go into the plugin window and tell Pro Tools which of the plugin parameters you’d like to automate, and then the ones you’ve selected are visible just like a volume automation line would be. REAPER is similar except you can have the automation line be over the waveform or as a dropdown lane, whatever you prefer.

One way I accomplish this is to split the clip after setting everything up, then tweaking the parameter that needs to change in the individual clip-plugin settings. From there I copy the tweaked plug to other segments of the song where needed.

The benefit of this approach is that you can tweak the crossfade to make the transition work however you want. It works/sounds better than the old automation “clothesline” approach in a multichannel DAW for me. It’s probably just a bad old habit, from soundBlade and SonicStudio (which relies entirely on clip-based plugs for automating changes). Doesn’t Sequoia works that way too? It may be a mastering thing – those who have always done this in mastering daws don’t miss the clotheslines and even prefer segment editing and crossfade control.

Not opposed to those lanes at all. Just trying to help you get what you need done with the tool you have. YMMV. :wink:

just curious as to why you guys are wanting to automate the threshold of the limiter? i’ve never felt the need to do this. and if i did, couldn’t you just adjust the clip volumes up or down and get the same result?

It all depends how your plugin chain is set up, but my limiter is nearly always in the montage effects section 2nd to last before a dither plugin. I sometimes have dynamics or saturation effects inserted before it that are sensitive to levels. So, adjusting the clip levels would also affect other things in the chain.

The ideal would be to simply automate the parameters within the plugin as needed.

fair enough. thanks!

Lately, I just load a limiter on every single clip, and the only thing that ends up in my master section is dither… I suppose if automation existed I might put the limiter in the montage master section and automate the threshold for each clip…

That being said, I do tend to tweak limiters a lot more these days - optimizing all of the settings for each song… so I’d probably end up wanting to automate more than just the threshold. It’s probably better for me to just keep loading a limiter on each clip…

I’m looking for such a feature too. I have a track that’s boomy sounding for 15 seconds, and I’d like to access the gain of a selected frequency band in MAAT EQ Orange assigned to a clip in the montage, for example. As someone mentioned, Pro Tools handles it in a good way where you select only the parameters you need to automate. If there’s any way to do this now, I’d love to find out, but if not, I personally think it’s an important feature to include for the future.

This is a very old thread and as of last year when WaveLab 11 came out, you can now do plugin parameter automation for Clip Effects in the Audio Montage.

Here is a video that demonstrates it:

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