Wavelab breaks exchange with Cubase

WaveLab
#1

I set up a Project with Montage for a CD and all the audio files, exported from Cubase with ixml. When I loaded them in Wavelab there was a little yellow marker to indicate that Exchange was available for each. Now after saving the project and being prompted to save various audio files even though I hadn’t done anything to them yet but add cd markers, all but two of them have had their Edit in Project connection disappear.

I am guessing it did something to the metadata. Maybe. But why? Is it that just adding cd markers breaks the Wavelab exchange connection? Or is something else happening? Two of the files still have the yellow markers even though they now have cd markers. I’m new to Wavelab Pro and finding it’s differences from Cubase kind of confusing.

#2

Did you change the file names in any way when you were prompted to save them? and were thay saved in exactly the same format?

P.S. Wavelab is a specialised tool and doesn’t follow the Cubase way of doing things.

#3

There is some metadata to identify the cubase link. When that was lost?

#4

No, I didn’t touch the filenames or locations as I saw the warning in the manual prior to setting the Wavelab project up. In fact, I didn’t do anything to the files after importing except for saving them when prompted upon quitting wavelab.

That’s what I don’t know. Comparing the metadata from the two audio files that are still linked with all the delinked others, it does appear that they may have changed. But I didn’t work on them yet so I don’t know what could have caused it.

Here is what I did:

I created a new project
A new basic cd
Imported the audio files
Arranged them in order
Converted the basic cd to a montage
(everything looked good to this point)
Saved the montage. Saved the basic cd. Saved the file group. Saved the project.
Quit Wavelab and was prompted to save various audio files.
When I reopened the project the montage was still there but with most of the yellow exchange indicators missing. And the basic cd that I had saved as a tab in that file group was also missing all but two songs.

#5

My guess is that what you are seeing has something to do with the audio file format options. Could it be that you had the metadata option set to ‘do not save anything’ instead of ‘inherit from source file’? For example, I think this option is retained if you have activated ‘Keep this format for next time’. It’s all I can think of right now. Clearly, the metadata somehow got stripped from the files at the time of the save.

(By the way, you may have been prompted to save the files after having changed or deleted markers).

#6

Anyway: don’t use the Basic CD feature (old stuff) and use the audio montage (modern stuff) instead.

#7

Thanks. I didn’t change any of the markers that Wavelab assigned but I’ll look into these settings and see if I can understand what happened.

Okay. I just thought that if I started with a cd as setup by Wavelab itself, the converted Montage would have a good starting point. Your answer doesn’t really address the issues I am having since I am trying to work with the montage and only mentioned the basic cd to show how I arrived there, and the fact that my saved file mysteriously eliminated files (not the files themselves, just the list of them).

#8

Yes, but when you add files to the Basic Audio CD, CD track markers get added to the actual file… and this has the same effect, the file has been changed and so Wavelab is going to prompt you to save when you close the program. Adding CD markers in the the montage is different since the CD markers are added to the montage and not to the file itself.

I can understand why you thought this but the opposite is true. A better technique is to simply create a montage directly and use the CD Wizard to insert CD markers / gaps / pauses, and I think this way there would be no complication with Wavelab exchange.

The procedure is the following:

  • New / Audio Montage
  • Right-click / Insert audio files
  • Apply CD Wizard to insert CD markers (from CD tool window)

Done. Takes a couple of minutes.

Hope this helps.

(I never use the Basic CD feature and so can’t help with why the files disappeared from the list).

#9

Ahh, I see. That makes perfect sense. The turorials I watched didn’t really go into the cd wizard. If the basic cd is modifying the files, that could be the root of the problem. I will go with your steps. Thanks a lot for your help, stingray.

#10

I think it would be a real shame if the Basic Audio CD went away because it’s pretty comprehensive just as it is, without any improvements. In a way, playlist type assemblers like the Basic Audio CD are more modern (and at least more user friendly) than daw and montage marker, clip, etc. assemblers imo, although not infinitely configurable and more pro/workflow related like the montage, still extremely useful.