Hello All, I am about to purchase Wavelab and am currently designing a mastering transfer console to use in conjunction with Wavelab. I am trying to figure out what I can do in Wavelab instead of implementing in hardware. I have browsed the manual, but I am having trouble finding answers to the following questions:
In Wavelab (for 2 channel work) can I MUTE both channels of the stereo signal with one key? ( for example “m”)
In Wavelab can I assign keys for independent muting of the L and R channels?
In Wavelab can I assign keys for toggling polarity on individual (L, R) channels?
Can I combine both of the above tactics to achieve L minus R summed to MONO? (In other words L plus polarity reversed R sent to both channels? For this to work the polarity toggle has to occur before mono-ing)
I want to set up more than one reference track, each with different source material sent to different interface output pairs. I will switch between them using switches on my console. In order to have Wavelab also switch the metering software (probably Insight 2) to the correct source I will connect the source select buttons to an Arduino Leonardo programmed to pass the button presses as QWERTY key presses assigned in Wavelab to solo the corresponding reference track. Can I assign key commands to solo the different reference tracks? Does this scenario sound right/optimal to you?
I am thinking that 3 reference inputs should be enough. Do you think I should have more or less than that? (I see that many consoles have 4, do you need/use 4?)
My insert switching, M/S selection, etc. will done in hardware on the console. Can you think of any other Wavelab features that you would like to have triggered or toggled by a button on your console?
Thanks for any input and ideas!
Dim could probably be handy … although I have that as a keyboard shortcut in WL
Hey Paul! Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Yeah, I’m looking to implement in hardware only things that can’t be done in Wavelab. I have DIM on my other consoles (AVID Dock/S1 and Apollo DUO, and truthfully I rarely use it. In fact, I think that I actually have never used it! I just mute the monitors. Do you find yourself often dimming the monitors?
No … it’s for those ‘oops’ moments and when you are talking with someone and want the track to continue to play.
Agree it’s far from essential in 2023.
Since there hasn’t been a lot of response to my admittedly niche question, I went ahead and purchased Wavelab yesterday so that I could answer them myself.
Through tinkering I found that I can toggle to attention the individual channels of a stereo group (L>R>LR) by selecting all audio (COMMAND-A), tabbing through the channels (TAB), and toggling polarity of this channel with SHIFT-COMMAND-I. However this method isn’t ideal, because the original state is not remembered. There must be a better way to toggle polarity of individual channels.
Also, the default key commands for “MUTE” are combinations of 2 keys, and there are different combinations for the same function on every window! This is crazy! Are you guys using these? Or do you modify them extensively?
Finally, I have discovered that I can solo the L or R channels by positioning the cursor over the lower half of the L channel, or the upper half of the R channel, and command-clicking. Can I also toggle this channel solo while the system is already playing back?
Sorry for all the noob questions, I just got this yesterday.
I was trying to think of a good way to respond to this…I’m under the impression that you’re talking about creating a transfer console with some wavelab-specific buttons.
There’s honestly not much that I’d want from that…at least, not much that I can’t already do.
But, yes, all of the key commands can be configured or (I think) assigned to midi messages. You can get the full list in the settings, though they’re not all named in the most intuitive way.
I use a cheap programmable keyboard (I think it’s by keychron or somebody) that has a lot of very hard to manually type commands that I use pretty extensively, along with some scripts or macros that it triggers via AutoHotkey. I know there are other people using a StreamDeck to do the same kinds of things. It gives me basically all of the buttons I need for things that I actually use.
As for what they do…create montages based on templates, type repetitive parts of project names for me, open a handful of different tool and metering windows, load “default” plugin chains, seek the playback head between markers, transport controls, open a selection in an external editor, load specific plugin presets, change which part of the inspector I’m looking at…and a save button.
Most of the other things I can think of doing with something like that are things that I prefer doing with a mouse. But, there’s probably something I haven’t thought of yet.
A more interesting idea to me would be hardware control of specific plugins without having their UIs visible…but that opens up a whole can of worms unless you happen to be the plugin developer…and even some if you are (e.g., if there’s more than one, which instance are you controlling?).
hanks for your reply JS. From your reply I have inferred that you use Wavelab for mastering, but you don’t use a hardware transfer console. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I am designing a hardware transfer console, but instead of including Wavelab specific buttons, I rather seek to omit buttons on the hardware that can be achieved with key commands (shortcuts in Wavelab speak). I would like to focus the hardware transfer console on switching inserts on the hardware processing chain.
With this in mind, can you tell me how you mute the L and R channels separately, because I cannot find a shortcut for this. Also, how do you reverse polarity (flip phase) of one channel?
Thank you for the rest of your response, it is useful. As far as hardware plugin control, I was a big Automap user 20 years ago, but lack of session portability made that platform problematic. Of course there is this cool looking thing, but it also suffers from other issues:
www.mpmidi.com
For plugin control I use an AVID Dock with 3 S1’s that is absolutely totally brilliant. Since I am a long time Pro Tools and Logic user this makes sense for me. But unfortunately no Steinberg support for Eucon because
they have their own NUAGE solution.
No, I do not use a transfer console. Your project makes more sense now, though.
I don’t find much value in muting or flipping channels separately, but I use a plugin in a playback processing slot to do it if I need to.
Thanks for your response JS.
I have been poking around the UI and I just found most of what I am looking for in a pulldown in the Master Section. There I can solo individual channels, audition M or S, etc., and it’s all shortcut assignable. Thus I can already eliminate many functions from my hardware design, which is a relief.
Already the MUTE L and MUTE R switches can be eliminated:
Since I am so new to Wavelab, and it’s environment is so deeply different than what I am used to, I think I will have to learn it myself before finalizing my hardware design. When I started this thread I had the idea that I could just read the manual and ask others for advice, but I think that because Wavelab is so customizable, everyone’s experience is totally individual. But I may have questions along the way, so I hope no-one minds if I pop back in occasionally for advice, or to show progress, if anyone is interested. 
