Wavelab Pro audio driver on Mac OS at 96k

WaveLab
1

Hello

I’m having an issue with wavelab Pro, on Mojave 10.4.6, on a mac mini i7 2018 and a Dangerous Dbox+ converter.
When playing a 96k file, wavelab is unusable, even with buffers at 2K.
All my other apps don’t show any issue with the same converter and same settings. (wavelab 9.5 elements, DSPQuatro, RX7, Ableton, Logic, Protools)
At this point I’m not using wavelab for mastering (the intended purpose) and I switched back to DSPQuatro.

Anyone experienced such thing?

thanks

2

Hmm. I’m on Mojave at 96k all day and and no issues.

I have a few interfaces including an RME AES card, a MUTEC MC3+ USB, and a Grace m900. I haven’t tried the Dbox+ converter but back when I had a Dangerous Source, it was OK too but that was back in the WaveLab 9.5 days.

I even have a mac mini i7 at my home setup. All good there.

Do the problems start when adding a lot of plugins or is it a problem just to play a simple file in the audio editor and no plugins?

I ended up getting an eGPU for the Mac mini because it was easy to stress it out when using a lot of plugins, especially certain plugins and after getting the eGPU, things got much better.

3

Thanks for the feedback, I was on 10.0.10 and problem was there with no plugin at all.
10.0.20 seems to have almost fixed the issue but I have to set up the buffers at max and I’m still getting a few drop outs.
No issue on other apps at all.

I’m gonna try with 9.5.50 as I can use it with the v1O license.

What kind of eGPU did you get (I mean adaptor and videocard) and what kind of screen are you using? I switched from a Mac Pro 2009 pretty heavy upgraded to the Mac Min in June. I did noticed some apps being not so happy about video performance, but I’m pretty packed with peripherals (Akitio 4 drive bay, hub, old TB Mac display, Apollo X16 and satellite), so a eGPU might be a bit much.

4

Maybe PG can weigh in about the performance concerns still in 10.0.20

I tried this eGPU:

I honestly didn’t expect much but I was in a case where I was pushing the Mac Mini (maxed out 2018) when doing “in the box” projects, and certain plugins with their GUI open would cause audio dropouts. When the plugin GUI was closed, the problem went away.

This eGPU solved that problem. This led me to believe that the Mini was struggling to power my 55" Samsung TV used for a display. I’m not an expert but I think the Mini doesn’t really have a graphics card, so it’s easy to run into a problem here.

I also have an iMac Pro and there is no problem there, it was just the Mini and the eGPU helped stay out of trouble.

5

Because graphics are now very demanding, you need a GPU if you are running an audio demanding application. In the case of Mac Mini without GPU, the RAM memory is much used for graphic activities, causing an important decrease of performances for other application that need fast access to memory.

6

At one work place I have the same Mac Mini as the OP - it generally handles plug ins and even tasks in video editors quite nicely, even without an external GPU. It is always Wavelab, which is sluggish with plug in graphics. On my Mac Pro in the studio with a fast GPU, WL Pro 10.0.20 has problems with several plug in GUIs again, e.g. from Plug In Alliance. It can slow down work considerably. I’m tired of reporting these things, because the same plug ins run absolutely elegant and fast in other hosts like Nuendo 10.2 on the same machine (as reported many times).