External FX plugin is definitely only available in Pro.
You may find it more efficient CPU-wise and visually to put all 12 songs on a single Audio Montage track or staggered on two lanes or two tracks and use Clip FX which are FX/plugins that only process that clip.
This way the waveforms can remain bigger and you don’t run the risk of track plugins running when there is no audio on that track.
These days, I do all projects using one track and two lanes except for a rare case here and there.
While you can use the External FX plugin, I personally prefer to use a Reference Track to feed the analog chain, and then I record back to a new montage track, as shown here:
Lastly, I have never tried or felt the need to use a hardware controller so I can’t help with connecting anything like that.
After hours on a project, 1 track does seem more efficient in WaveLab. No CPU issues but its more time consuming with the way WaveLab is setup.
Unfortunately, WL doesn’t seem to have an auto-save function and I just lost hours and hours of work. Most of the prep and all of my mastering (both individual track and master processing) work on a client’s 12 song LP.
This system has never crashed until now.
I got a pop-up saying WaveLab had some error with FabFilter DS (I think my 6th instance of it), made an ear piecing scream, and crashed; forcing the whole system to restart itself.
I figured I’d check the forum to give myself some time to calm down before I start.
I hope I can finish today without life nor ear fatigue getting in the way.
WaveLab does have an Auto-Save feature. See attachment 01 here. It will cause backup montage files to show up in a Backup folder, see attachment 02.
That being said, I can’t imagine working for hours and hours in any piece of software without pressing save every few minutes. CMD + S is built into my muscle memory.
Plus, I have an auto backup of my audio hard disk every 15 minutes, plus cloud backup with Backblaze…but I digress.
My workflow involves constantly saving as well but my muscle memory causes me to hit the save button on the console in front of me… which isn’t setup for WaveLab yet.
