This is possibly a pretty large undertaking, but it would boost WaveLab’s productivity to a new level.
I don’t know how much explanation is needed (let me know if anything is unclear). Basically I’m hoping for some sort of equivalent to Cubase’s macros, where you can chain a series of often repeated command patterns in order to save time. (Maybe some of the codebase can even be reused from Cubase?)
For sure. I have been doing this on a very basic level with a Stream Deck, but that presents some limitations that a native solution could probably do better.
Right. I’ve also fiddled with third-party solutions (AutoHotkey), but it’s not optimal. The advantage a native solution will always have over third-party, is deeper knowledge and awareness of modal contexts within the application. If I made a macro that’s bound to the “B” key, that performs actions in the waveform Edit mode, that macro would never be performed while you’re naming a new file in the File window/mode.
That’s the idea behind the Script engine. Though it is currently limited.
Go to File → New → Create Script and click the Help button for documentation about internal scripting. For external control of WaveLab, see WaveLab scripting questions. If you’re on Windows, there you can see my first experiments using PowerShell to automate WaveLab.
I started that thread about scripting some years ago, but it’s now lost in the WaveLab 8 section. Perhaps we could have a forum section for WaveLab scripting? (i.e. not version-specific)
Personally, I think the current scripting part of Wavelab does not efficiently serve the purpose of creating Macros, unless there were a simplified manner in which to manage the commands or a vastly expanded set of examples.
In terms of macros as most people may understand them, I’d love to see macros introduced in terms of recording a number of steps you make within the software, like Photoshop and certain other applications can do. This approach is powerful and fuss free for the end user.
Would it be possible, for example, to have new ‘script record’ and ‘stop script record’ functions to automatically record any number of steps you make in Wavelab directly into a script, so the user could then go back and replay that script? That would be even better.
So this may not be a milestone as such. It may just be a comparatively small extension to the script editor (although of course I have no idea how difficult this might be in coding terms).
I do like the Photoshop “droplet” concept. This is code derived from Photoshop’s software that will perform a set of tasks on a photo without ever opening Photoshop, or even the photo, for that matter. So, let’s say you drag several files to a droplet type macro to perform the same tasks and save them as a copy, in a new folder, or as the same files. How difficult this would be, I don’t know, but I imagine it’s significant.
I do like the Photoshop “droplet” concept. This is code derived from Photoshop’s software that will perform a set of tasks on a photo without ever opening Photoshop, or even the photo, for that matter. So, let’s say you drag several files to a droplet type macro to perform the same tasks and save them as a copy, in a new folder, or as the same files
If what you need is audio processing, WaveLab can already do that with the “watch folder” feature.
Philippe