yes, surround mastering for movie and game audio are big. Isn’t that why PG put a video player in WL ? Detailed sample libraries are also another source of multichannel audio. You have mutiple mics setup > multiple channel audio files, think Superior Drummer or BFD. Lots of 3D audio formats store their files as multichannel and it would be great to have a quick way of editing/chopping these … etc…etc
Basically as @rat points out, there are an increasing number of formats and platforms for these. And we really need a way of dealing with these at the mastering stage.
Obviously you need a calibrated surround setup to get proper results, although bear in mind that the calibration between music/movie audio is not necessarily the same BUT if you are a musician/mixer, get started I WOULD try to hook it up to your domestic “dvd” playback system. Try doing a remix in cubase/nuendo using surround…you might get hooked
If I may… mostly as reaction to @Thomas’s response, a post or two above; but general observations…
I think there’s a need to stop conflating ‘multitrack’ and ‘multichannel’ terms in this thread - they are two different things.
I don’t read anyone here asking/wishing that WL become a multitrack ‘DAW’ type tool. The topic is multichannel; the tool is an audio editor. WL direct competitors in this market (dedicated audio editor/mastering software) are Audition, SoundForge, Acon Digital Acoustica, even Audacity; all offer multichannel file editing/handling as far as I’ve seen. Adobe’s Audition particularly looks very modern and intelligent.
And thanks for the encouragement - I think there’s a nice little job for me over the ‘blank’ festive period coming up…!! You’re right, it really could be fun to properly try it out in Cubase and see how things go…
And my father told me to ignore stupid, arrogant people, but I think quotes of fathers are sometimes misleading and simplifying. “junque”, “bloating” etc. all shows just the regular and well known Dunning-Kruger effect once again, combined with this paternalistic view we all ‘love’ so much.
Simple editors, the opposite of bloated, like Twistedwave have multi-channel support and it is a handy tool for channel shuffling, conversion etc. In fact WL could have the same dialogs, edit possibilities and menu entries like with mono or stereo files for multi-channel files. The same goes for the mastering section, batch converter etc. when using multi-channel plug ins. There are always things included over time in WL that are further away from simple stereo mastering than multi-channel formats, like picture or video tracks. But these are welcomed here for tasks or artistic ideas that may show up. WL is IMO all about work flows not limitations of formats.
It should be not about anxious mastering engineers being afraid of other channel counts in files to mess up their lives, but it is about standard file formats and up-to-date tools.
I often work with short films and branding music for launching programs of various companies. Now, in both cases, clients often ask for at least 5.1 surround Masters.
I use Nuendo 10 and I can do all the mastering there if I want. However, I bought Wavelab Pro under the impression that unlike Nuendo, Wavelab is much more dedicated as a ‘Mastering’ platform. Rightfully so because Wavelab does have many things that Nuendo does not.
Anyway, when I export something surround from Nuendo and choose the ‘open in Wavelab’, Wavelab can not open it.
Well, I knew it when I was using a trial version of Wavelab before buying it. So, I asked in Steinberg forum if that relatively simple feature would be added soon. Guess what? I was assured that it will, in the next big version, supposedly Wavelab 10. But now, I am knowing otherwise.
If Sound Forge and Nuendo had the integration like ‘Edit in sound forge’ and vice versa like Wavelab has with Nuendo, I probably would have jumped ship.
I am trying Sound Forge Pro 13 Suite for 30 days and believe it or not, it has the following features to say the least,
32(!) channel editing. It can directly open my surround files.
Steinberg (!) Spectralayers Pro 6 included and integrated with ARA2. Even Steinberg (!) Wavelab Pro 10 doesn’t have it unless I buy it!
iZotope RX 7 elements
Melodyne 4 Essential
Video Import and Export
And more… Just for 599$
I honestly don’t know where Steinberg is going with Wavelab. I really wish there was a crossgrade to Sound Forge from Wavelab. But I can settle with ‘Audacity’ having the desired “Multichannel” feature.
Multichannel support (at least import…) would be more than welcome. It is for me the most important missing feature which would help streamline my workflow.
Most of the classical live broadcasts here in Germany are multi-channel. And all of them need water the recording an edit.
On a MAC it’s pretty complicated to save them as two channel files without loosing too much quality (frequency range normally is up to 20kHz and changes to 15kHz after the conversation). The only possibility that worked for me is to save the file as mpeg elementary stream and to concert it with VideoProc as a wave file. Then the frequency range remains intact.
But it would be great to have the possibility to edit multi-channel files directly in WaveLab and play the edited file as multichannel tracks via JRiver MediaCenter to my home equipment.
Frank
Sorry you feel this way. I would like to see WL implement midi controls and plugin automation and have been asking for these for quite a while but I understand that PG has his priorities and since it is his “baby” I have to wait until he has the time and inclination to do what I and others have asked for. Suggest you do the same . FWIW
I think Steinberg offered ac3 in Nuendo2/3 and stopped it in Nuendo4, where the DD-Encoder was stopped.
I don’t want another dead end in Wavelab.
Just do it and keep on doing multichannelsupport. If I have a 5.1/7.1/9.2 Audio in Nuendo and WL is the editing tool WL should also Import/Export and edit it natively.
Agree. Wavelab has been doing 5.1 mulichannel forever like the other mastering apps Sequoia, Pyramix, Sadie, Sonic/Soundblade have been doing it forever. But the fact you can’t put a single 5.1 multichannel file on a single track in the montage, or open the multichannel file in the editor, in addition to other multichannel feature requests for 7.1 and other configs, are problems unique to Wavelab regarding multichannel use afaik.
Another aspect of WaveLab’s current multichannel montage usage is that you need to learn extra commands (mainly use of Alt key to affect multiple clips at once), and (just as important) which facilities can be used in this way and which can’t (e.g., can adjust fade length on all clips, but cannot adjust fade shape on all clips). Having multichannel files would actually simplify the the programming and operation.
Oh, and the last major program other than WL to handle files with more than 2 channels was RX, which only got it in the current version 7 (and still limited to 10 channels, with built-in presumptions about how they are used).
You’re right, it really could be fun to properly try it out in Cubase and see how things go… 
