Batch write Montages to DDP?

Hi,
Does anyone know if it’s possible to batch process Montages to write to DDP images in WL 8.5?

Not possible. This has to be done one by one.

I have always wondered why you can do many renders at at time and other tasks while files are rendering, but when you write a DDP or CD-R, Wavelab blocks you from doing anything else.

CD Burning requires some human intervention, hence batch does not make sense.
DDP is different, but to be honest, “internally” it is much like CD burning and would require a big effort to make it “batchable”

Thanks. I don’t have the need for batch DDP creation, but sometimes writing a DDP and doing other tasks in Wavelab would be nice. Probably not worth a lot of work to make it happen though.

Given that this is a hassle and unlikely to appear in the V8 series, this request is something I’d strongly urge you to consider for V9. While I don’t see the market for CDs growing, the need for this singular definitive target to document an album will remain indefinitely. In the meantime, DDP files are increasingly ideal for digital delivery to clients. Specifically, bouncing MP3s cut from a DDP for early review is faster than mailing around CDs and capture gross defects as well as physical media, minus the variable of media errors.

These days I have multiple resolution deliveries:

  • source resolution song-length WAVs for Mastered for iTunes
  • source resolution side-length WAVs for vinyl
  • DDP or PMCD masters at 44.1/16 for CD and iTunes Plus
  • MP3/AAC refs cut from the master-parts above for emailing/initial approvals

On any given day I’ll bounce 2-4 projects in each of those contexts. I can batch the first two somewhat by “regionalizing” the side-legnth versions, and re-rendering the track-regions, and WL8 can even do other things while working. It would be very awesome and nice to be able to add a DDP delivery to the batch list, along with MP3/AAC refs from the resulting file.

To be clear it would be just fine if it was a single-task situation, where I couldn’t work as I do with WAVs (in other words, as it is today). I’d simply like to be able to bounce a days worth of DDPs unattended, overnight. I’d like my machine to take it’s time and focus on serial DDP deliveries while I’m eating lunch, listening to tunes or watching TV. That’s truly “good enough”.

I just go for the DDP right away when sending to clients. I don’t find that it takes long to render a 45 minute DDP, but I do most of my processing with analog gear and just use Wavelab for sequencing, final limiting, and a few plugins on clips here and there for subtle final changes as needed.

Anyway, I usually provide mp3s and native resolution files after the DDP is approved. I agree that while CD production is declining greatly, DDP is still a great method for sending a master for a client to listen to with the proper spacing between songs, and less ability for user error to alter the sound quality or other elements. HOFA DDP Player Maker is a big help for this. It allows clients the ability to export 16-bit WAV from the DDP Player, as well as simply listen on their computer and burn their own CD-Rs.

I also create the vinyl pre-master (native sample rate/24-bit WAV for each side of the vinyl) after the digital master is approved with a few adjustments made to optimize for vinyl.

2 things I would like to see for V9 would be:

-An easy way to change a 44.1k montage to a higher sample rate, and keep all the markers tied to the absolute time (not samples), volume automation, clip effects, and clip edits (if any). Basically, a way to mirror a montage to a higher sample rate and have Wavelab use higher sample rate files that I have stored in another folder. The user would have to tell Wavelab where the higher sample rate files are.

The way I work, if a project comes to me at a higher sample rate, I do analog processing at the higher rate, capture and trim all the songs to their desired length (in Pro Tools), export at native sample rate to a folder. Then I use Sample Manager with iZotope SRC to convert the high sample rate files to 44.1k saved to another folder dedicated for 44.1k captures. This is when I bring the files into Wavelab to sequence into and album and apply final limiting etc.

So basically, I have two folders of the same files, trimmed and named the same, one at native sample rate and one at 44.1k. I start with the 44.1k versions to make a DDP for client approval. Once approved, I have to manually recreate the montage at a higher sample rate to produce native sample rate masters for the projects that request or require higher sample rate masters. For some projects it’s easy, some are more complex to recreate the high sample rate version.

I think this is planned for V9, but I’d really like to have a way to quickly and easy change the montage sample rate and grab the high sample rate files would be very helpful for today’s delivery needs.

-My other request is related to the vinyl pre-master specifically, and probably not enough demand to make it happen, but when making a vinyl pre-master, I usually make one continuous WAV file per side. I often start with the digital master montage, and do “save as” and call it VINYL PRE-MASTER. Now I make my adjustments for the vinyl sound optimization (24-bit, less limiting/more headroom etc.), but to get one continuous WAV for each side AND a PQ/CD Report for both sides that show the absolute time of the side, I have to make additional montages for each side of the record and delete the clips that don’t belong on the side. So I end up with 3 vinyl related montages when 1 would be ideal.

For side it’s not too hard, I just delete the side B songs and make sure I have an end marker after the last song on side A to allow a CD-Report to be made.

For side B, I have to make another montage, clear the songs from side A, then carefully slide all the clips, regions, and track markers over to the start of the montage so that the PQ/CD Report track IDs match the same as the WAV file itself. The lacquer cutter needs a report of where the songs start and end so I don’t think I can do the vinyl pre-master in one montage for both sides because the times on the report for side B will not match the WAV file. For example, song #1 on side B would start at 0.0 of the WAV, but could be 15 minutes into the montage if I try to do side A and B in one montage.

If there is a way to add a vinyl render feature that allows just one montage for the vinyl pre-master and ability to render one WAV per album side, and a PQ report with the absolute times of the resulting WAV, it would be a big time saver. Vinyl is very popular again.

I could see the solution being a special “Vinyl Side Transition” marker that allows just one montage for the entire vinyl master, but placing the special marker tells Wavelab to render just one WAV for each side (based on where the special vinyl marker is), and also can make a special PQ Report that shows the actual times of the track IDs which would really only need recalculation for side B.

I have exactly the same request as jperkinski; I, too, work a lot with vinyl releases and have to resort to the same solution, which is less than optimal. I hope to see a smoother way of doing this.

I know my vinyl rant was long. Here’s a summary:

-Only one montage for entire vinyl pre-master (rather than needing 2 or 3 montages with the current method)

-Output one file for each side of record (a simple vinyl side marker could tell WL where sides are split)

-Render one continuos WAV for each side of the record

-Have PQ/CD report reflect track ID times of actual rendered file of each record side rather than where it sits in montage (side B is the tricky part since it would start halfway into a full montage but the times of the PQ need restart for 0:00)

-Consider that sometimes a montage is broken into 4 sides for double vinyl albums but 2 sides and 1 album is still the norm\

The current way of doing it requires a separate montage for sides A and B which makes doing any global master settings more difficult (among other things) after splitting into side A and B montages from the main montage.

I often end up with too many montages. Original digital master, the vinyl “save as” montage version which once I dial it the settings, I need to save as again to make Side A and Side B montage so side B can also start at 0:00 on the timeline so the PQ report times make sense with the rendered audio.