No. That would be terrible and a non-starter for me. With the method I use, you only set up the montage once, only create markers and enter the titles once, only have to render one time with plugins active (which can take time) and then all future renders go super fast because the plugin processing is already baked in. Any eventual master files you render are correctly named and flush with metadata (or CD-Text) because again, you only enter the info and do the detail work one time and that carries over to downstream montages.
It’s a lot in writing but it’s super easy, fast, and foolproof.
There are often multiple ways to do the same thing in WaveLab so my way is not the best way or the only way, but it’s a method that has worked for me for many years without any headaches, stress, rendering errors, or other problems. It’s so automatic I don’t even think about it now:
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Create your master montage at the native sample rate of your choice.
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Dial in all audio processing, using Clip Gain, Clip Envelope Automation, Clip Effects, Track Effects (not often used for me), and Montage Output Effects. Create markers, name them, etc. All this stuff will carry over downstream.
There is no need to use the Master Section which can be tricky to save/load with your montage, requires too much babysitting, and in my opinion is not a good option. I keep the Master Section hidden and don’t use it other than for 1 Playback Processing plugin that always stays inserted. If you’re used to a “normal” DAW, the Master Section will infuriate you.
- Render the master montage using “Whole Montage” as the Render Source to a new floating point file (don’t use any dithering yet) at the same sample rate as the source montage and then Save it of course as a new montage. There are settings in the Render Ribbon Tab that will carry over all your markers, marker names, and other details. Essentially, you end up with a a 1:1 rendered version of what you have dialed in. This is where you can use the Null Test Track option in your source montage to compare the render to live playback to make sure what you get is what you expected. With 3rd party plugins combined with potential user error, there are no guarantees so checking the rendered result of your plugin processing is essential.
You don’t need to do any extra work to the newly rendered montage other than give it a name and save it.
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From here, you can do a number of things such as render WAV files of each song/track as a 24-bit native sample rate WAV, but remember to insert a dither plugin last in the Montage Output of the newly created montage.
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To get down to lower sample rates, I do this outside of the Audio Montage. You could use the WaveLab Batch Processor, RX, Weiss Saracon, or whatever you prefer the sound of. Convert the continuous long file you first rendered of the entire montage down to 44.1k and 32-bit (or 64-bit float).
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Going back to the montage with the processing baked in and the only plugin running live is the dither plugin, use “Customized Duplicate Montage” and point WaveLab to the floating point 44.1k file. It will crate a new montage at 44.1k with all your markers in tact and all you have to do now is change the live dither plugin from 24-bit to 16-bit and then save the montage.
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From here you can render 16-bit/44.1k WAV files of each song/track, reference mp3 files, a DDP etc.
This way, all your master formats from hi-res WAV, CD quality WAV, reference mp3s, DDP, vinyl master, cassette master, etc. are all totally cohesive and error free because you only have to enter the details once, and you bake in the plugin processing early on at the highest and best resolution possible, and despite have a few “children” montages of the parent montage, you always have one “Master” version to go back to for any revisions, or to create the vinyl master, etc.
Again, it’s a lot in writing but I find it to be the best way to get error free masters, with ability to check things along the way.
As Paul mentioned, I would absolutely never in my life render a DDP file from a master montage with plugins running and at a higher sample rate than 44.1k.
It can be done but it’s a short-sighted approach an an invitation for errors. I prefer to think bigger picture to avoid problems, and create a workflow that works for all scenarios, including albums with gapless transitions and live albums with continuous audio which I didn’t mention earlier, but that’s a big reason for rendering the full montage as one long file first. It helps mitigate rendering errors on projects with overlapping/gapless audio. Cold starts with immediate audio and hard stops are an invitation for non-sample accurate renders creating ticks, pops, and glitches at the transition point, so the full audio montage render solves this.
I haven’t done any of those livestreams in a few years now and while the main concept of it all still holds true, WaveLab 12 and now 13 have some nice smaller improvements that make the process even smoother and easier.
I tried Studio One and while it’s not terrible and can be simple, I found it to be too much of a toy and not a serous mastering tool but it gets the job done for those who need to do mastering tasks a few times per year.
