I’m demoing the Sonible Smart:limit plugin, but keep having issues when doing quality control of the rendered file (nulling it to the original file with the plugin on it in the montage).
The rendered file (with Sonible Smart:limit on it) doesn’t fully null, and the the delta you’re left with is crackling when you see the plugin on the org track is doing limiting.
When I duplicate the track that has the Smart:limit on it (creating two indentical tracks with the same plugin on), and flip the phase on the duplicate track I get a null to infinity. This means playback with the plugin is working fine, but it’s not rendering properly in Wavelab. Is this an issue for the plugin developer to look into? I see on their website they haven’t tested their plugins in Wavelab.
I’m using a MacBook Pro M1, with Ventura 13.5 and Wavelab 11.2. I’m running Wavelab in Apple Silicone mode. The Sonible Smart:limit is Apple silicon native.
I find it fairly common or at least unsurprising for a new or un-tested plugin to seem OK on playback in WaveLab but not render correctly.
Because of this, I stick to my core group of plugins that I can trust in WaveLab, and any new plugin I’m considering using on real mastering sessions gets stressed tested in a few rendering scenarios in my render test montage.
It seems that the plugin developer has not tested WaveLab and doesn’t officially support it. If it’s a plugin you like and want to use, I would contact the plugin developer and see if they can look into the issue and fix it.
“It works fine in Cubase” isn’t really a solution. Many plugin companies just test in Cubase/Nuendo and call it good, but due to the unique way in which WaveLab works, WaveLab must be tested too.
I don’t introduce new plugins into my mastering workflow too often but this year I found myself adding 3 plugins that had rendering issues, and the issues were able to be solved easily. Two of them were solved with a beta plugin build within 24 hours and the other was fixed within a few weeks.
I suspected it would be something the developer would have to look into. I’ll send them a mail and see what happens. It it doesn’t get fixed its a big no no for using it in Wavelab for me.
PG can say more but one unique thing about WaveLab is that it makes a copy of the audio before rendering so you can do other things while it renders.
This seems to confuse certain plugins.
There is also a setting in the WaveLab Preferences to reset plugin before rendering (and also for playback if you want). Sometimes toggling that setting can help with rendering issues.
I actually tried enabling and disabling the “reset plugins before rendering” option. Made no difference in this case. The render was still not producing a null to the original. You hear a lot of crackling. I had to stop using the plugin because of this, because I can’t accept a render not nulling with the original file with the plugin on it.
