I am trying to decide whether or not to buy WaveLab, now that I have bought Cubase 13 Pro and Absolute 6. I googled about it, but I would like to hear from someone who actually uses it often and knows about its features, its strengths and weaknesses.
How does WaveLab complement Cubase?
Which of WaveLab 's features saves you a lot of time and energy as opposed to just using Cubase alone?
Would you recommend it to someone who is planning to work a lot of sounds, applying sound effects, stacking sounds together, cutting and mixing different sounds together, creating soundtracks, creating songs and editing recorded voices?
Although I may be biased, aside from “creating songs” (since WaveLab is not designed for composing music), WaveLab excels in the tasks mentioned above, using both the audio editor and the audio montage. Additionally, if you need to process many audio files, the WaveLab batch processor will speed up some workflows.
Thanks for your reply. If I buy Wavelab 12 Pro, will I get access to earlier versions of Wavelab, as well?
I just upgraded from Cubase Artist 8 to Cubase Pro 13, so now I have access to earlier versions of Cubase. I was wondering if it’s something similar with Wavelab?
I have Wavelab Elements 7 license in my account, and when I called Steinberg support they said it’s not worth upgrading from Elements to Pro, now that I can get Pro at 70% off. So I am wondering how this works in regards to older versions of Wavelab?
WaveLab 12 allows you to use WaveLab 11 and earlier versions. However, since the copy protection changed with WaveLab 11.2, I’m not sure how this can be achieved practically today—perhaps tech support can provide guidance. More importantly, with the new license scheme, you can install WaveLab 12 on two machines, so I don’t believe the old WaveLab Elements 7 will be relevant for you.
I’m not sure what you mean by that. I know this might sound silly to go back to earlier versions when I have the latest. But sometimes I like to work on my older Windows 7 machine. And I have never used Wavelab before. So maybe learning the basics of an earlier version might help me understand the program’s strengths better, before overwhelming myself too much with the newest features at the beginning.
I also wrote a mail to Steinberg, just in case. Maybe they can elaborate the specifics of this topic.
I don’t think I am phrasing my questions correctly. So, with Cubase, I can use older versions of Cubase now, because I had version 8 before I upgraded to 13. And I still have a USB dongle that will allow me to use Cubase 11 Pro and all the previous versions that require dongle, in the future (even after 2025). But I don’t know how Wavelab licensing works.
1). Do old versions of Wavelab also require a USB dongle?
2). If that’s the case and I don’t upgrade from 7 Elements to 12 Pro, will I lose access to old versions of Wavelab?
I purchased Cubase Artist 8 license from someone and Wavelab Elements 7 just happened to be a part of the package. I hope it makes sense in regard to why I never used Wavelab before and that I don’t know how Wavelab licenses are, compared to Cubase licenses.
Example: A new user buys Cubase 13 Pro and now they have access to version 13 and 12 but not 11, because it’s on the old licensing system. But if they already have Cubase 11 or earlier and upgrade to 13, then they have the access to 13, 12, 11 and earlier versions.
I don’t want Elements. I want Pro. I want to be able to use both the new and the old versions of Wavelab but as Pro versions.
Can I do that if I buy Wavelab 12 Pro using my 70% off voucher?
If you have the license of WL Elements 7 on the dongle and update to WL Pro 12 with the current 50% discount for updates, the license on the dongle will be updated to the latest release that used the dongle. If I remember correctly, it’s version 11. Additionally, you get the latest release using the new licensing system.
However, if you buy a new WL Pro license with the 70% voucher, the license on the dongle is not touched and you also don’t get additional licenses for the old eLicenser-based versions.