ISO Portable Interface for 96kHz/64-bit Stems Mix/master

WaveLab
1

Fairly new to Cubase/Wavelab. Am just in the final stages of the first album I have made in a long time and am down to the mixing/mastering stage. I did the composition in Logic and started the mixing phase by exporting my stems from Logic as 32-bit AIFF. I was disappointed to learn that re-importing those stems into another Logic project resulted in a conversion to 24-bit. I have done some initial tests with mixing those stems in Cubase with a 64-bit workflow and I have to say the audio sounds so good I believe it is the first time I have heard a computer audio sounding as good as 2" tape → 1/2" master.

Because I am new to Wavelab/Cubase I am having some basic issues, first among them getting sound to come out of the audio interfaces I already own. It’s probably user error but the devices I have include the Zoom F6 which I bought for it’s HDR floating point inputs, a MOTU M2 and some Expert Sleepers devices for Eurorack modular.

I’m on Apple Silicon when I’m portable and would like a small (ideally USB-C powered) I/O interface that will allow me to do 64-bit/96kHz mixing in Cubase and then 64-bit/96kHz mastering (or pre-mastering) in Wavelab.

I tried using the Zoom which is quite portable but have found myself in some strange situations where changing from the internal Mac headphone interface causes the project to play at the wrong speed.

2

You can’t go wrong with the Grace m900. You may have to ask Grace for the beta version of the firmware update that allows it to work with WaveLab directly instead of as an aggregate device but other than that, the m900 is great for what you’re looking for.

I have two of them now.

3

Thanks! Once I get this figured out I will pick up your Audio Montage tutorial from where I left it.

4

I was able to complete the Audio Montage tutorial and I have found my solution in 64-bit AIFF, the stock Wavelab plug-ins and also Tokyo Dawn and Pulsar Mu (really like this one). I read on the Fabfilter site that they will not be supporting 64-bit but I did find gearspace mentions that Isotope Ozone 10 should be 64-bit. However, the only plug-ins that Wavelab shows as 64-bit native are the Steinberg plug-ins, Tokyo Dawn and Pulsar Mu and Massive. I thought it might be the VST versions so I deleted everything in that folder.

5

AIFF is an obsolter file format. Use Wav instead.
Also, for audio file, 32 bit is enough unless you have a very special workflow.

6

Thanks