I often have clients come into the studio for attended mastering sessions. There are times when I’d prefer they NOT see some of the plugins that are active in the master section… or maybe some of them that are active as clip effects. I’d like to option to “hide” effects - with password protection… so I can leave the studio momentarily if I want, and nobody can see plugins or enable viewing them or anything without the password. It would be great if the plugins are active, but the slots look as if nothing is loaded… maybe hit CTRL+ALT+? to show/hide plugins… when “unhiding”, a password must be entered. When “hiding”, “add password” is an option. Maybe an asterisk could appear somewhere to indicate there are hidden plugins active.
Does no one else think this feature would be helpful? I’ve got another attended session coming up, and this would indeed be helpful. PG, please consider this.
Mastering techniques… Otherwise I’m just showing customers how to do the work without me… granted most don’t have great monitoring or a great room… still…
I guess would chime in to say I don’t see a need for this. I think even if a client decided to look at my plugin settings when I left the room, I don’t see how it could lead to them learning how to do the work without hiring me.
Every song is different and needs different treatment.
I would think there would be a way to enable a locked screen saver that requires a password in your OS if it’s that important.
Also, maybe you can try having your master section floating and toggle it hidden when you leave the computer so they can’t see the master section at all.
I can’t even imagine having a client touching anything in my studio without me being present. Totally inappropriate to operate a professionals’ tools when they’re not around.
But if your clients are like that, the easiest way is already in Windows. Simply before you leave, hit 'Windows key + L" to lock the PC.
I’m not paranoid about it either but I guess if I were, I could turn the power off on my bluetooth keyboard and mouse. That would probably trip anybody up long enough to catch them.
Also, check this page:
Looks like there is an app called KeyFreeze to help with these kinds of things.
My clients are not like that - that’s not what I’m saying.
My main concern is not with someone touching things or messing with my system. My main concern is that I have worked for many years to learn to do what I do - to determine my favorite plugins… my settings… the things I think work best. I offer that knowledge as part of my product… it’s part of the reason people come to me to master their albums - because I have something to offer them that they may not be able to do by themselves. I prefer to keep my methods private. That’s my main concern… it has nothing to do with trusting customers.
Your valur add is in decission making, not in the selection of tools. Having access to a 747 cockpit doesn’t make you fly it.
It’s a very skewed selfesteem.
If I’m attempting to make an extremely loud master that still sounds “good”, that’s where I find great mastering facilities can beat most home studios. I have some tricks I use to do this. Shall I tell everyone in the world how?
On Gearslutz.com, there are MANY MANY threads/posts with people trying to figure out what methods Ted Jensen at Sterling Mastering uses to get the volume he gets. You think Ted ought to just post the answer on Gearslutz.com? You think Ted teaches all of his customers how to do it? Search “Ted Jensen” on Gearslutz, and look at all of the threads - hundreds if not even thousands of posts - all people speculating - What’s his mastering chain??? How does he get so loud and still sound so good??? Does he clip his converters??? What converters does he have??? What’s his favorite limiter??? etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
Despite that though, nobody here seems to think it would be helpful to be able to hide plugins??? Everyone in the world wants to know Ted Jensen’s methods, but for the most part, they remain secret. I’d prefer to keep my methods secret as well. I find that difficult to do in attended sessions, and it sometimes causes me stress, so I figured I’d post a feature request - hence this thread.
You want to hide your plugins to customers, especially when you leave the room, but it has nothing to do with trusting them - strange logic. My clients are welcome to see anything I do and if they want I’ll even explain the main steps. If they wanna try and repeat the process themselves at home - good luck to them!
BTW, If you’re after loud masters, whatever the ‘secret’ is, it’s old news. Almost all streaming services use loudness normalizing as standard, so your loud master will be automatically turned down and sound flat and bleak between the other more dynamic ones.
In regard to loudness, I serve the customer, and I give them the master at the volume they would like. We have the discussion about streaming services automatically turning things down, but everyone has their own opinions. Some customers are just not ok with a quiet master.
Look, I am not here to fight with people – I just requested a feature that would save me a little bit of stress. Thank you all for sharing your opinions – I’m glad to know the way you see things.
PG, in regard to this feature request, I think I have been out voted. No worries, every idea I have is not always my greatest, but I will continue to offer my suggestions whenever I have an idea that may be helpful. Wavelab is a great product. It is a joy to use, and it has been awesome to see it grow and evolve over the years. Thank you for all of your efforts - they are greatly appreciated!
Concerning whether it is acceptable to keep secrets or not, I’ll think about it, and maybe one day I will change my mind, but for now, if I want to continue to hide my plug-ins, I will figure out another way.
