I’m a new WaveLab user lured in by the amazing Dolby Atmos mastering workflow gains that this update represents. I’ve been tinkering with the software, watching the videos, and reading the manual and some features either need to be added, or are still unclear to me. Here are my questions / thoughts:
1.) Are plugins added via the Immersive Plugin Hub automatable? For example, what if I want to do a filter sweep on the whole master? Or a slightly more realistic situation, what if my limiter needs a different threshold setting for one particularly loud part of a song? As far as I can tell, this is not possible. Under Output Effects, there is no Automation / Envelope tab like there is on the Clip Inspector.
2.) I see ways to export ADMs and Re-renders. I can’t find how to export MP4, .atmosIR config files, or Loudness Reports. These are all things labels ask for. Without this capability in WaveLab, I have to import the ADM into the external Dolby Renderer and create them there. That seems redundant and sort of defeats the purpose of moving my Atmos mastering into a new ecosystem.
3.) On the ADM Import Options screen, there needs to be a way to group tracks beyond stereo pairs. For example, grouping for Object Bed workflows should be supported. 9.1.6, 7.1.4, and other O-Bed layouts should be available grouping options. This would have positive implications in the Track Processing and SIdechain Composition tabs.
4.) Also on the ADM Import Options screen, there should be an option to preview the audio, or at least the waveforms on the imported tracks. Plus, the ability to exclude tracks from import. Sometimes I get ADMs that I didn’t mix. They tend to be a mess. The mixer may have forgotten to turn off unused objects. Or maybe they failed to label their objects in a sensible way so everything is just labeled ‘Object 11, 12, 13, etc’. In this case, I can’t tell if it’s part of an O-Bed, what instrument it is, or whether it should be part of a stereo pair…Preview of some sort is essential to organize things correctly when the Audio Montage is created. An alternative to the above would be to allow editing of the ADM information beyond the initial creation.
5.) Furthermore, Input Channels that have track names should automatically carry over to the Audio Montage Track List. For example, in the left column all the Bed channels are named. But in the right column they are generic ‘Track 1, Track 2, etc’. Yes, I can manually type those names, but why do that if the information is right there?
These are my first impressions after one day with WaveLab 13. The Immersive Plugin Hub and Offline Loudness Measurement are absolutely gamechangers! However, there seem to be some minor shortcomings in other areas that will keep me in my current mastering ecosystem for the time-being. Thanks for reading.
