Referencing and a/b-ing in wavelab

WaveLab
1

Hello

Small question from a wavelab beginner who wants to start on a good basis in WaveLab :wink:
What personal technique do you use in WaveLab 11 to listen to your reference tracks in WaveLab ITB ?
And do you proceed in the same way or in another way, to compare the raw version and the processed version?
Reference track? Plugin? Anything else?

Thank you

2

WaveLab has actual ā€œReference Tracksā€ that allow you to A/B compare your work in progress with whatever you place on the Reference Track. Reference Tracks skip any Montage Output and Master Section processing which is handy.

Some people have asked for ā€œSmart Bypassā€ in the Audio Montage so the comparisons can be level matched.

Right now Smart Bypass is only in the Master Section and in my opinion isnā€™t very useful.

By default, soloing the Reference Track will send it out of your main output but if you have a monitor controller, you can route the Reference Track to another output so you toggle between the main output and Reference Track on your monitor controller.

1 Like
3

Thank you Justin.
Is reference track your way of comparing source/processed tracks ? And also to listen to some reference tracks ?

I agree about the Ā« smart bypass Ā». A very useful feature that deserves to be better implemented.

4

Yes. Sometimes Iā€™ll put the totally untouched raw mix files on this track. Sometimes Iā€™ll put the mix engineerā€™s loud reference version, sometimes Iā€™ll put a song that I previously mastered for that same band/artist so I can be sure their new single is in the ballpark of the previous one.

Sonnox ListenHub is a great tool for this too. I donā€™t use it for my main setup because I have a nice monitor controller and flexible interfaces/routing but with my mobile laptop setup, itā€™s great to send the main output of WaveLab to Sonnox ListenHub channels 3-4, send the Reference Track(s) of WaveLab to Sonnox ListenHub channels 5-6, and then Sonnox ListenHub channels 1-2 is used for the main computer audio which is a good way to compare the audio to a streaming service etc.

ListenHub also has some decent loudness matching to A/B compare the 3 input channels that it has and could be a good solution for your setup:

5

Very interesting indeed.
Thank you for your sharp answers.
Looks like a deluxe monitoring solution for laptop config.
:+1: