Since I was involved in some medical issues all winter and have just returned to this forum after upgrading to WL8, it is possible I have missed talk about the bugs I am raising here, but have not seen them by looking back for several pages.
…With a new install of WL8 over the previous WL7, I opened a project from WL7 and did some tests of new mastering plugins and saved the Montage. With some sense I suppose, the Master section and plugin chain returns after exiting then reopening WL.
1)However, I cannot save the Montage in such a way to now stop this test Master section and the associated plugs from being there every time I reopen the program, no matter how I define the layout, including resaving the Montage without the Master module and plugs, and:
2)Most, if not all, of the preferences I change before any save will return the next time I reopen the program, not matter how I have saved. If there is some way to maintain the persistence of the state of these preferences? Many of them matter a great deal to me as they can hide what I am actually listening to…a very dangerous state for the mastering process. One of these new selections available in the Options menu is especially disturbing:
3)I have determined that having a check by “Listen (or maybe it says “playback”) through Master section” will unequivocally alter the sound, even with absolutely no plugins or dither in place. To my ears, despite the fact that the bit meter still registers 24 bits, the effect is like a slight reduction in bit depth. There is a clear narrowing of the soundfield, reduction in complexity and audibility of reverb tails, with a slight brightening…This unwanted check is always there when I reopen the program, which is unacceptable.
…I discovered this by comparing the sound of the files playing back through my older WL7 computer from mixes that I had worked on enough to have a clear understanding of how they sounded…and how they should sound.
I am upgrading 3 different computers at once, so have not put 8.02 in place yet. If these issues are addressed in 8.02, great, but I have seen no other mention of them in this list.
I will read the manual to see if I am missing something. Hopefully the manual is more thorough the WL7 manual was.