Let me start off by saying what I’m trying to do and why the current approach doesn’t work.
What I want is to have duplicate tracks in the montage both routed to 2 different stereo outs. So basically let’s say the top waveform would route through the master section and would be the one I’m working on mastering. The second waveform would be the original mix going out a different set of stereo outs. That way I can push a button on my Monitor ST and switch back and forth between my master and the raw mix allowing for easy comparison between the 2.
The problem is, if I use a multi channel output in the Montage it hits the master section as multi-output. So stereo plugins freak out and such.
So the question is, is there a way to accomplish what I am trying to do in the current version of Wavelab? Maybe a way to downmix to stereo before hitting the master section? Is there something I’m missing?
Right +1. This is one reason I use Pro Tools for the initial part of my mastering workflow. Before getting started I make a copy of each song/track and route to another digital output going directly to my monitor controller so I can easily A/B the untouched audio and compare to the exact processing I’m doing.
Then I hide the duplicate track so I never see it again, but it’s there doing it’s thing so I can easily listen to it on the monitor controller.
Related, I’d like to see a special track in WaveLab montage that can skip the montage output effects for two reasons:
1.) Easy null testing of rendered files to live playback in your montage.
2.) For those unfortunate situations where one or two songs is already “mastered” at a loud level and you don’t want it to pass through the montage output effects like most of the other songs. You would simply apply the needed plugins for this unique song directly to the special track effects and then it passes through no more processing unless you want it to pass through the global master section as you can already choose whether or not to route to global master section.
Yeah, I was afraid of that. I do the same thing, only using Studio One to perform the initial mastering then use Wavelab to double check the work and compile the final deliverable. It really sucks that something so obvious has been overlooked for so long. Hopefully Wavelab 9 solves this.
Maybe this will be easier in the new Wavelab 9, but I don’t see why you can’t do this already in 8 if you’re setting the montage to multichannel as you say you are. Then you’ve got 2 separate hardware outs, one from montage track 1 and one from montage track 2. Just use plugins on the montage clips or track and NOT in the wavelab master section.
Level match by ear using clip or track gain.
Unless I’m missing something. It does require setting the montage to multichannel out instead of stereo though, but you say you’ve done that.
As I explained, your multi-channel outputs hit the master section as multi-channel instead of a stereo feed from just one stereo track in the montage.
Absolutely, doing this in software with smart bypass or a plugin is hokey and error prone, not to mention if you have a larger monitoring system you can damage your ears if you do something stupid Doing it in software with smart bypass or a plugin basically is constantly changing your gains based on a measurement. It can be off or have some other issues that require you to manually rebalance. Now I’m focused on fiddling with stuff when I’m just trying to quickly A/B something. It’s a pretty big distraction during the mastering process which I don’t want.
Aside from my earlier post about why this would be useful, it could also be used to feed more than one D/A in your actual mastering chain. I know some mastering engineers that have the luxury of several different D/A converters to choose from and like to experiment with more than one D/A path for a certain project, and this would be a good way to do that.
Though I think the best option is a way to send the audio to another output without any plugins including clip effects in the signal path so you can easily A/B the raw untouched audio with your processing.
What I mean is, unless you’re using the External Gear plugin (in which case I agree with you, it can’t be done, because the External Gear plugin can only be used in the Master Section), you can do what you’re talking about (two physical stereo AES or SPDIF outputs, one with processing, one without) by simply moving all of your Master Section plugins to one track of the multichannel montage, assuming you’re using a multichannel interface.
In the pics,
Track 1 is the flat file, processed by the track plugins, feeding stereo output 1&2, going out to Dig input 1 of a multi-input DAC or device, for switching.
Track 2 is the same file, no plugins, feeding stereo output 3&4, going out to Dig input 2 of a multi-input DAC or device, for switching.
If you’re all ITB, there’s no problem doing this.
This will probably all be history in a couple of months because requests for change have been made, but the capability goes back to at least Wavelab 6.
Doing it in software with smart bypass or a plugin basically is constantly changing your gains based on a measurement. It can be off or have some other issues that require you to manually rebalance. Now I’m focused on fiddling with stuff when I’m just trying to quickly A/B something. It’s a pretty big distraction during the mastering process which I don’t want.
